I Choose Indy!

Is That Legal? Double-punt at Butler football game

Jason Bean — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:21:05 +0000

I’m not sure if many of you have heard about or even witnessed something that not many people, if any, have ever seen in their life. Watch the video below and tell me what you think.

Doing Business with Horizon Property Group

Admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:50:27 +0000

The Bean Cup is a special place. Despite a terribly maintained strip mall that’s both empty and not visible from the road, Chris Carr was able to build a profitable business that employed 7 and improved the neighborhood. It’s always been noted as one of the best coffee shops in central Indiana.

After 3 years in their location, feuds with Horizon Property Group finally put an end to their business. These guys never played fair… they didn’t fix broken stucco on the outside of the mall for 3 years, there are plants growing in the gutters in the back of the building, and worse of all… they continued to up the maintenance fees to cover other issues with their building and the lack of tenants.

A salon that had been here over 25 years was the last tenant to leave, and it was ugly, too. Just check with the owners. There’s a chiropractor shop that appears open, but closed many months ago… giving a wrong impression to those who might drive by thinking that there are businesses in the mall.

This isn’t how to treat a business that has brought tons of traffic from all over Indiana. Right now there are people in here from Fishers, Carmel, Indianapolis, Southport, Franklin and Greenwood. It’s the last day and we’re saying Thanks! the only way we know how. We’re buying coffee and saying thanks to The Bean Cup for the special time that they brought us.

How did Horizon show its thanks? At the exact moment that Horizon Property Group executives were in trying to keep The Bean Cup, they had their property manager soliciting another coffee shop in town to see if it wanted to expand… knowing that the owners were related to Chris. After that didn’t work, they took out an advertisement in the Sunday Star advertising that The Bean Cup was for lease. They mentioned it by name.

They came in and took photos inside the store, walls filled with art that The Bean Cup brought in, so they could advertise how to do it right for their next tenant. They also solicited the employees to see if they’d like to work at the next coffee shop… while The Bean Cup was still in business.

Now, on the farewell day, Horizon Property Group posted posters in the empty store next door to promote that a new Coffee Shop is opening in a couple weeks. I don’t wish ill will on the new owners, but I won’t have any part in the new shop because I won’t support any business in a Horizon Property Group property. I’m boycotting them. This isn’t how you treat people in Indiana. This isn’t the Smoosier spirit.

This isn’t how commercial real estate properties should do business in this economy.

The Bean Cup was a success despite its location. It was a success because of the love and dedication of its owners. The Bean Cup wasn’t the walls or the floor or the strip mall. Horizon Property Group really threw away a gem with The Bean Cup. It was bad business, it was mean, and it was unnecessary. The Bean Cup will rise again at a location where they own the property or the property owners appreciate their tenants.

Just a note: I was never going to ever post about Horizon. But on this special day, a farewell day to The Bean Cup, putting up posters next door was a slap in the face that I couldn’t stand by and watch. I’m posting this at Smaller Indiana as well.

I-465 Tanker Explosion Slideshow

Jason Bean — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:28:19 +0000

Here’s a slideshow of photos from yesterday’s semi-tanker explosion on I-465 on the northeast side.

I-69 & I-465 explosion from readers and Star staff – More The Indianapolis Star Galleries

These are some amazing images. It’s a miracle there weren’t more domino wrecks and casualties with such a blast and traffic heavy area.

I’m curious as to how much this is going to impact traffic. I think it’s going to be much more than people expect, although I heard tonight that westbound traffic on I-465 has been restored?

I’d love to hear what other people’s experiences have been. Whether you were there or close when it happened, or how your commute has been impacted since the explosion, let us know in the comments.

Bring FIFA World Cup to Indianapolis

Jason Bean — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:56:34 +0000

Let’s continue to keep expanding our sports and athletic footprint for Indianapolis. We know how to host world class events, let’s bring another worldwide event like the FIFA World Cup to our city.

Church Brothers Driving Indianapolis Business with Social Media

Jason Bean — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:10:52 +0000

I had a great experience a couple of weeks ago with Church Brothers Collision Repair. I had seen that they were on twitter and sent them a quick message asking if they repaired broken seatbelt retractors.

They responded that they did so I let them know I would plan on coming into their downtown location to have them give me an estimate.

When I walked in to the location, Danyel greeted me warmly and I let her know that I was interested in getting a quote on repairing my seatbelt in my car. She confirmed that I was the person that asked about it on twitter and I asked if she was the one that managed the account.

Danyel said no but that their corporate office was looking to use twitter more to interact with customers and potential customers and they contacted her because I said I’d probably stop by their location today.

Danyel got a specialist, Wes, to come out and look at my car and see what I needed with my seatbelt. While he was looking at the car I also asked him about replacing some of the interior door handles that were starting to crack and break. Wes worked up a quote for me on the price for replacing the items and the labor involved. I couldn’t have asked for any better customer service and interaction from Danyel and Wes. They both did a tremendous job.

What a great extension of using twitter to work with customers, then build on that interaction by letting locations know to expect that customer and to reinforce the positive experience of using twitter.

Bravo and kudos to the Church Brothers Collision Repair team for making my experience with their company and absolutely positive one.

Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to pay the money to get the new seatbelt mechanism replaced and installed. Seat belts aren’t important are they? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

A Night of Protective Thinking: Free Public Safety Training

Jason Bean — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:10:44 +0000

There’s an event coming up this week at Conseco Fieldhouse that’s something you’re probably going to want to attend. It’s called "A Night of Protective Thinking" and it’s completely free.

The event has been organized and developed by An Escape Plan. Jeff Patterson, IMPD officer and self-defense trainer will be sharing with participants a variety of skills and resources they can use to protect themselves when they’re confronted with a situation we’d all prefer to avoid.

Understanding how to establish the idea of "Protective Thinking" for yourself and learning how to use self-defense to keep you and your family and friends safe is the purpose of the event.

The event is completely free, but you must register to attend. and parking is free as well in the Conseco Fieldhouse garage. The event takes place this tomorrow night at 6:00pm at Conseco Fieldhouse. The doors will open at 5:30pm.

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

Be Aware. Be Prepared. Be Safe.

Why Can’t Indianapolis Support the Indiana Fever?

Erik Deckers — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:55:01 +0000

Originally posted at Erik Deckers’ Laughing Stalk blog

What do you want, Indiana? What’s it going to take for our state, or at least our city, to support a professional women’s basketball team? I’ve taken my family to four different games this year, thanks to some free ticket love from my new BFF Julie Graue, the VP of Business Operations of the Fever.

My family are Fever fans through and through. As the father of two little girls, I want them to have athletes they can look up to as role models. Hell, as the father of three kids, I want my kids to have positive role models regardless of gender and sports.

We love the Fever because they play clean, they don’t get arrested, and they don’t start brawls with fans in the stands, unlike some local Men-B-A teams I could name.

And unlike our Pacers, they’re actually in the finals this year. I haven’t seen the Pacers in the finals since Shaq and Kobe were still on speaking terms.

Tonight, the stands are full, so I brought my family to the local Buffalo Wild Wings just a mile from our house to watch the game. We’re in Indianapolis (well, Fishers), it’s game three of the WNBA finals, and with just a few minutes to go in the game, you’d think we’d be listening to the audio of the game, right?

Wrong.

We’re listening to the Dallas-Denver game, a game between two teams that, if I got in my car now, would take me two days to reach.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a football freak and I would watch this game mostly because I don’t like Dallas, and would love to see anyone stomp them. But we’re missing a local professional team in their championship only because they’re women?

I won’t go into why I think Buffalo Wild Wing should support their local teams, but I do think it’s pretty poor community relations on the part of the Buffalo Wild Wings, especially if they expect to be supported by their local community.

And I’m actually not surprised by this either. This is the same kind of attitude I’ve seen in the city. We expect the Simons to pay for a sports team and yet we don’t come out and support them. We’re proud of the Fever as a city, and yet it took Larry Bird buying the entire upper balcony of seats and giving them away for free to get people to come out for Game 3 of the Division Championships.

Are we that apathetic as a city about anyone who doesn’t play football or men’s basketball that we can’t support them? Even the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians (another personal favorite) gets more publicity and community respect than the Fever.

There has been talk that the Fever may not even be here next season. And if that happens, I hope the Fever can go out on top, with a WNBA Championship and rub it in the faces of the city that turned their backs on them.

I’ve been to games where the entire upper level was nearly empty, where there were more empty seats in the lower section than there were people. We need people to get excited about the team, and to actually sink just a few bucks into a game. Hell, you can get $4 tickets on some nights, $8 on other nights. Twelve bucks will get you on the lower section if you go on the right nights.

If the Simons are able to keep the team in the city next year, take one night — just one night — and go to a game. Don’t ignore them, thinking they’ll never shut them down or sell them. Don’t stay home, thinking someone else will fill your seat. We can’t even get our local restaurants to support them during the finals, so it’s going to be up to the rest of us to do it.

And I’ll continue to support local restaurants who support their local teams. All their local teams.

UPDATE: The Fever just won their game, 86-85, and the entire crowd cheered for the results. So I asked the manager about it, to see if he realized that he might have made a small error in judgment. He said that while he “supports the local team,” he felt he had to bow to the wishes of the Cowboys and Broncos fan who were sitting in the bar and wanted to watch that game. He was worried that the Cowboys and Broncos fans would be upset that they switched the game over to the basketball game, yet there were more people sitting in the restaurant area, and we were all cheering for the Fever.

Whatever, dude. You might have the game on on Wednesday night, since there are no football games on, but that seems a bit fair-weather-fannish.

A Call For Poets!

Douglas Karr — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:40:18 +0000

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick announces another public art installation. “Moving Forward,” by Indianapolis-based architect Donna Sink, is a series of three custom-designed eco-friendly bus shelters that will showcase original poetry by published writers. The shelters will be located along the Cultural Trail on the south side of Virginia Avenue near Lexington Street, McCarty Street and Woodlawn Avenue.

Each shelter will be comprised of ecoresin panels, which are made using 40% post-industrial re-grind content, mounted in a stainless steel frame. The shelters will be installed on TX Active photocatalytic cement pads. These pads will be self-cleaning and will help reduce many pollutants deemed harmful to human health and the environment.

Download the call for poets here or call 317.713.3333 for more information about the Cultural Trail public art program.

A call for poetry begins this week and submissions are due November 22, 2009. Published poets living in or with ties to Indiana are invited to submit work based on subjects such as community, neighborhoods, landmarks, shared spaces, transportation, history and the future. Poets must have published at least one poem in a print magazine or anthology prior to submitting work for “Moving Forward.” Selected poems may have been published previously.

The Indianapolis Zoo Loses A Star – Tahtsa the Polar Bear

Jason Bean — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:53:00 +0000

I’ve been to a lot of city zoos over my lifetime and few of them compare with the Indianapolis Zoo. My family always enjoys a trip downtown to the zoo. It’s one of the many great things I love about Indy. (a family membership is always a great Christmas present – hint hint)

Unfortunately, the Indy Zoo lost one of its stars, Tahtsa the polar bear. She died on Wednesday.

If you’re like me, I’m guessing you’ve snapped a few pictures of this local favorite. Everyone loves polar bears. Killing machine status aside, they are so cute. Maybe the Coke commercials helped that image.

Turns out that Tahtsa was, at age 34, the world’s oldest polar bear. She died a mere 4 months younger than I am now. Goes to show you the health benefits of a diet heavy in fish and free of fried pizza. She was on loan to the Indianapolis Zoo from the Louisville Zoo, where she had lived from 1976 – 2006. Though the bear was only in Indy for a few years she will be missed.

I took this photo of Tahtsa less than two weeks ago and could tell she wasn’t her normal self. Usually she was always swimming laps in her ice-cold swimming pool. We’ll miss you Tahtsa.

World’s oldest polar bear dies in Indy – IndyStar

Healthcare: Right or Privilege? – A Smaller Indiana Debate

Jason Bean — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:00:36 +0000

Smaller Indiana will be hosting their first, of hopefully more to come, debates across a variety of topics. The first debate will take place this Friday night at the Indy Fringe downtown facility.

The debate will feature two teams debating the question of whether healthcare is a right or a privilege.

Here are the teams:

Arguing for Healthcare is a Privilege

Mr. Randy Suttles, former CEO of Medical Savings Insurance
Dr. Ben Park, CEO, American Health Network
Michael Hicks, PhD., Economist, Ball State

Arguing for Healthcare is a Right

Eric Meslin, Director of Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Eric Wright, – Associate Dean of the Indiana University School of Public & Environmental Affairs
Others – TBD

This would be a very interesting event to take part in and observe the two sides. I’d encourage anyone that’s available to go to the event and then use the information you’ve gained FROM BOTH SIDES of the argument to have intelligent discussion with your network of friends and colleagues.

The event is free, but there are limited seats so registration is required. Feel free to start the discussion here, but I’d be very interested in hearing anyone’s thoughts about the event after it’s over as well.

Image: stock.xchng