Corbett’s fifth principle: Improving Noblesville’s infrastructure

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Mike Corbett has five key principles driving his campaign for mayor. For the past four weeks, he’s been taking a deep dive into each of the five principles.

Corbett

In the first four he explained what improved transparency looks like, how historic preservation can be an economic development strategy, how City Hall is letting down the Noblesville taxpayer and why it’s important to build a values-based community.

The fifth and final principle is to work with a sense of urgency on infrastructure development, maintenance and improvement to regain the progress that’s been lost over the past decade.

Infrastructure means lots of things, everything from sewer lines to Wi-Fi, roads to schools; but in general it’s the environment created by our government with our taxes for the benefit of the public. A solid infrastructure is an important economic development tool: Good infrastructure attracts people and people attract businesses.

We’ve made progress over the past few years on repaving our alleys and city streets. We’re in the process of upgrading our sewer system and our utilities are generally reliable. But if we’re going to compete for people and businesses, we can’t just maintain the status quo, we have to be forward-thinking and ambitious.

Here are four areas where we can improve:

Transportation

For the past 75 years, virtually all of our transportation infrastructure has been focused on cars, but people want transportation diversity these days and our transportation infrastructure must reflect those values. Neighborhoods should be walkable as well as drivable. They should be connected by more than just streets, and our streets need to accommodate more than just cars. Trails should be more than just recreational; they should connect neighborhoods to stores, churches and schools.

Government must work harder and smarter to promote transportation diversity, which will lead to a healthier community and less traffic congestion as the city continues to grow.

Parks

We have wonderful parks in Noblesville, but we only have six of them. Now is the time to explore new opportunities, especially in Wayne Township and along Stony Creek, much of which has yet to be developed. Green space and recreation are important amenities but they’re very difficult to develop after the fact.

Many of the world’s finest cities are developed around the backbone of a park system. We should be able to do the same.

Downtown

It’s been called Noblesville’s Crown Jewel. Our downtown is distinctive because of its historic nature, walkability and authenticity, yet we invest surprisingly little in it beyond basic maintenance. The trash fee was passed several years ago with a promise that a portion of it would go toward improving downtown, yet we’ve seen very little progress on that beyond a study.

It’s time to fulfill that promise and start investing in this unique asset that distinguishes Noblesville from surrounding communities.

Gateways

We’ve been talking about improving the entrances to our city for years, yet we never seem to actually do it. Gateways are an important aspect of placemaking. Our entrances are our “front doors,” they should be more attractive and give people the feeling they are entering a special place. Like these other infrastructure projects, it’s a matter of setting priorities. Gateways don’t need to be expensive, they just need some attention.

For more information, please visit mikecorbettformayor.com. Connect with Mike on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.