Promises Made, Promises Broken
I love to walk in Valpo. On foot, you notice things you don’t otherwise see — a wildflower, the sunlight and shadows on a building, a neighbor’s smile. You also notice things that aren’t so nice — a new pothole, a broken sidewalk. Our city’s infrastructure is essential to our quality of life. It delivers clean water, removes water we don’t want, and provides a safe means of mobility to get to work and freely enjoy our lives.
This infrastructure didn’t get here by magic. It got here because someone, perhaps long ago, took a chance and made an investment. A homesteader, a developer, a mayor, someone looked at this place and said “I believe I can make this better. I believe, if I build this, I will be able to use it productively or to sell it profitably to benefit myself, my family, or my community.”
Our city government facilitates these investments–in some cases explicitly, with tax-increment financing (TIFs) or tax abatements, and in other cases implicitly. But, in all cases, we assume the liability and the responsibility to maintain the infrastructure. We make a promise! We promise to provide for the safety, security, mobility, common enjoyment, and long-term maintenance of these places.
“Our city, like almost other cities across the country, is littered with broken promises from the past.”
Promises are easy for cities to make. But they are hard to keep. Over time, we lose track. The value that new developments bring in gets used up, re-appropriated, or, in some cases, fails to materialize at all. Over the decades, as nature takes its course, our past promises are revealed once again when they are broken.
Our city, like almost other cities across the country, is littered with broken promises from the past. At a recent City Council meeting, where a large new development was being discussed, I asked the following questions: “Has anyone considered whether we can keep the promise we are making? In 10 or 20 or 30 years, when the maintenance comes due, will the additional tax revenues this development brings pay for the liabilities we assume today?” My questions were, unfortunately, not taken seriously, and were dismissed as “a campaign issue.”
Well, I agree with that. It is a campaign issue! I hear it every time I go out and knock doors. People say “The new things are great! We love the downtown. But we also have to better maintain our neighborhoods.” Our neighbors want sidewalks they can roll a stroller or a wheelchair over. They want basements that don’t flood. They want the promises we made long ago to be kept.
As mayor, I will not fix every broken promise of the past. There are simply too many of them for the tax base and resources we have. I can, however, commit to change our prioritization process to give neighborhoods a greater say in what we maintain. Often the highest-returning investments we can make are the smaller ones in the forgotten neighborhoods. By making incremental investments over a wide area and long period of time, we make our a communities more livable and lovable. We restore confidence, increase property values, and invite more private investment without direct subsidy. These are indeed tough decisions. But it is our responsibility. We made a promise.