Great chance to visit the busy Mirror Indy newsroom in the 16 Tech innovation district, with Chris Sikich, Jennifer Delgadillo, Amanda Kingsbury, Jenna Watson, and Enrique Saenz working on this terrific local news startup.
Take a minute, if you're inclined, to check them out and sign up for the Mirror Indy newsletter: https://mirrorindy.org/
One more reason to subscribe to the Mirror Indy newsletter - these beautiful daily snapshots from doting dad Chris:
"As I was driving Lucy to preschool Thursday, she asked me a question, and I answered and called her 'Sugar Pie Honey Bunch.'
"There was a long pause and then: 'I’m not Sugar Pie Honey Bunch. I’m Lucy.'
"And then another pause: 'And you’re Daddy. You’re not Chris. You’re just Daddy.'”
My Lumina Foundation colleagues offered quite a remarkable sendoff on Dec. 13, 2024, my final day in the office before retirement. That included this video and a standing ovation at our staff meeting. Mike Jensen did a remarkable job shooting the interviews and editing this. It's over the top, but that's what you can expect when a national-class communications team puts something together : )
I worked on the national desk for AP in New York City and helped direct statewide news gathering in Indiana and Tennessee, but some of the most fun I ever had was covering local news as a City Hall reporter for The Indianapolis Star.
On vacation this week, here are some story ideas I would have in Indy:
Winter Streets - The challenges for Indy's unhoused population go up exponentially during the bitter cold of deep winter. Are we any better prepared this year after all the discussions about how to help people? Along with the data from city agencies and advocates for the unhoused, the story would benefit from reporting inside shelters and out on the street with people trying to help.
Compassionate Response - After several high-profile incidents in which emotionally distraught people died during contact with officers, the city sought a way to assist those people in a way that avoids escalated, violent confrontations. The Mobile Crisis Assistance Team (MCAT) is a collaboration between IMPD, Emergency Medical Services and Midtown Community Mental Health to help people in crisis. Spending time with an MCAT team could add vivid color and understanding about how this is all working out.
IndyGo's Future - Public transit agencies across the country suffered major ridership losses during the pandemic. It's worth examining the health of IndyGo, which received a major tax-funding boost in 2016 and has spent more than half a billion dollars on the Red, Blue and Purple Line bus-rapid transit projects. Key to a transit system's health are the "choice riders"--those who could use their cars or other alternatives but choose the bus. What do they think about the service, and what do rider surveys show? This project could use ridership reports and other public records from IndyGo, with reporting from onboard buses and with public transit advocates.
Substitute Teachers - Indiana, like most of the country, is experiencing a major shortage of teachers. That creates a big demand for substitute teachers, but the concern among some in education is that reliance on substitutes puts students at a disadvantage, and a shortage of qualified substitutes impacts some districts and schools especially hard. I have an Indiana teaching license and have spent time as a substitute to learn about this situation. We can work with some of the districts to give us classroom access for a story.
Red-Light Cameras - Indy's police chief recently suggested deploying cameras to catch speeders and stoplight violators. There's a story to be told about how this has worked elsewhere--and why it's being suggested here. Indy has a big problem with pedestrian safety, and if we looked at the data, we would find the top hotspots where the police think these cameras could make a difference--and what the people in those areas want.
Police Story - Indianapolis is critically short of police officers, despite an intensive recruitment campaign that even includes messages on every police car--and an increase in the starting salary to $72,000. The department acknowledges that it suffers from an image problem, but another factor remains the nature of the job itself: increasingly under scrutiny, under appreciated and of course, understaffed. People curious about what the job is like can sign up online to ride along with an officer, which I did recently. This can yield excellent interview material, natural sound--and insights about what attracts people to this work, but also why the job is so hard to fill.
This isn't a criticism of our local newsrooms, which are doing the best they can in an economically challenging environment. Just some thoughts about enterprise stories in my hometown.
The Indianapolis / Marion County Criminal Justice Center, 7:30 a.m.
I came across some notes I took after serving on a jury in Indianapolis a couple of years ago.
The details of the case don't really matter: A "sovereign citizen" picked up doing nearly 90 mph, drunk, through the downtown I-70 north split had an encounter with a state trooper.
The real takeaway for me was how a group of people can get together, hash out the evidence and come to an agreement amicably. In a nation so divided in so many ways, it was a refreshing reminder of how we can get along when we try to work together.
Looking out at the city from the Jutice Center, awaiting for the wheels of justice to turn
This closeup look at the legal system also reminded me of a conversation I had recently on an app where people gather to practice speaking English. I'm a moderator in the group, which is something like a 24 hour talk show with people from around the world, including Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Australia and so many other places, who gather to learn what they regard as the world's universal language.
I was in one of those conversations when a person from the Middle East told me how much he admires the United States. That's not uncommon: For all of our faults, we're still a beacon to people elsewhere. I asked this person what in particular he liked about the U.S.
"I like that in your country you have something that doesn't exist in many places," he said.
"In the United States you have the rule of law."
Yes sir, I thought. It doesn't always seem that way, but we are trying.
(I wrote this piece in May 2023 for the North Shadeland Alliance newsletter)
You can drive by a place every day and
never really see it.
That’s how I felt about Indianapolis
Fire Department Station 17, our local firehouse just a couple blocks east of 75th
Street and Shadeland Avenue. We’re lucky to have people like this so close and
ready to help, and I wondered what their lives were like on a typical day.
A Night in the Life of IFD Station 17 C Shift
6:30 p.m. – “It’ll probably be a quiet night—but you never know,”
I got to Indianapolis Fire Department
Station 17 on a Wednesday evening in May as C Shift was eating dinner, and the
firefighters insisted I have a plate with them. They were having barbecue,
fixed in the station’s kitchen by Avery Lewis and Kyle Petroff, both
“backsteppers” on the engine that night. They’re called that because in the
days before enclosed cabs, firefighters would ride on the truck’s back steps,
out in the open.
“It always happens when somebody comes
out – things are slow,” said Dave Yeoman, the truck’s engineer. His job is to
drive the Pierce fire truck to the scene, connect to a hydrant to supply water
to the vehicle’s pump, and then operate the controls that send pressurized
water to the hose lines.
7:14 p.m. – Things are slow…until they’re not.
Suddenly, alert tones sound over the
station’s PA system, and the four-member crew of IFD Engine 17 jumps in their
truck. Yeoman is driving. Capt. Jeff Muszar, in the front passenger seat, is
the officer in charge.
The backsteppers and I are in the back
of the cab in jump seats. A Tesla has slammed into a utility pole on Shadeland
Avenue south of 75th Street. The driver isn’t hurt, but the wooden
pole is snapped in two, and police block the curb lane so the power company can
clean things up.
The fire department is called out to
treat the driver if they are injured and to deal with the car in case it
catches fire, which doesn’t happen this time. Electric vehicle battery fires
are relatively rare, but are still a concern for fire departments because they
present special technical and safety challenges.
8:58 p.m. – A Fire Near Eagles Nest
There’s a fire in the residential area
along 75th Street near the south entrance to Eagle Nest, which turns
out to be someone burning wood from an old fence in a large fire pit.
Indianapolis has an open
burning ordinance, and this homeowner, whose blaze is crackling
about 15 feet in the air, is out of compliance. Someone has called to complain,
and Muszar, as the officer in charge of Engine 17, is cordial to the homeowner
as he explains that the fire must be put out. “I’m not the fire police,” he
says. “But there’s an ordinance, and someone around here is complaining about
you.” The homeowner is friendly in return: “Well, it did get a little out of
hand there for a bit.”
9:26 p.m. – A House Fire Reported
We’re on a run to an actual reported
house fire, assisting the Lawrence Fire Department on Stark Drive next to Fort
Harrison.
This is something of an event for the
station because, by far, they handle many more medical runs than fires.
Yeoman connects a hose and adds his
water supply to help the Lawrence firefighters, who are attacking the blaze in
a detached garage, preventing it from engulfing the nearby house.
Flames are shooting high into the air
when we arrive, and a building makes terrible sounds in a fire, the crackling,
snapping blaze itself, and the weird pops and noises that sound almost like a
thing in pain.
Muszar checks with his Lawrence
colleagues to see what they need while Yeoman runs the pumps. Lewis and Petroff
are standing by in full gear in case other firefighters get trapped and have to
be rescued.
They are serious about safety.Seventy U.S. firefighters died in the line of
duty in 2021, according to the National Fire Protection Association, and nearly
61,000 others were injured. An Indianapolis Star list includes more than 70
Marion County firefighters killed in the line of duty since Daniel Glazier,
then the Indianapolis department’s chief, died in 1873 when a wall collapsed on
him during a major blaze.
This station lost a firefighter 35
years ago when it was part of the Lawrence Township department. David Edwards,
age 28 and Lawrence Township’s EMS division chief at the time, was in a burning home when he fell through a
collapsed kitchen floor into the basement.
Muszar was with him on that run. “My
best friend was Dave Edwards, who convinced me that I needed to be a
firefighter,” he said.
We were talking in his office, and the
station – the house, as it’s called – was quiet between runs. It got quieter
still as the captain talked about that February night.
“I rolled out with them on that fire,”
he said. “We should have died as well, but we didn’t. It just changed my life
in ways that you can’t explain.”
10:21 p.m. – Report of a Fallen Elderly Nursing Home Resident
Engine 17 is called out with the
station’s ambulance to assist a fallen elderly resident of a nursing home. She
is OK, but the medics take her in their ambulance to the ER. After about half
an hour, Engine 17 is back at the station, where things are quiet for a while.
Firefighters work 24 hours on, then 48 off. Though they can grab some sleep in
the station’s dorm, a call can come at any time until their shift ends in the
morning.
Engine 17 Engineer Dave Yeoman
As Society Changes, Being a Firefighter Has Become More Dangerous
Muszar is the “house captain” for IFD
Station 17, responsible for the facility. He grew up around here when 82nd
Street was a two-lane road, and his 92-year-old father still lives nearby.
“I’m from here, so I’m glad to be able
to come back to protect this area,” he says.
But changes in society affect
everybody, including the rescuers.
“We’re not just going out on fires or
hazmat or car wrecks or medical emergencies,” he says. “We have a massive
number of mental health runs, and we’re going out on overdoses now. These can
be volatile situations, and that puts our lives in danger.”
Muszar and Yeoman, best friends, both
plan to retire in three years.
Yeoman, on the job for 28 years,
started with Lawrence Township before it merged with the Indianapolis
department in 2011. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and
got his teaching license, but eventually decided to follow in the steps of his
father, who had been a West Lafayette firefighter.
As the older veterans talk about their
careers, they like what they see in the younger firefighters coming up. Petroff
has two years on the job, and Lewis has one. They’re quiet, confident, very
good at their jobs, and respectful toward the veterans.
This Job is About Helping People
On the way back to the station from a
run, everyone’s relaxed—no red lights, blaring horn and sirens now.
Muszar and Yeoman are teasing each
other over their headsets, with the backsteppers listening in over the
background of radio calls. Muszar has a love of corny dad jokes, and the two
younger guys in the back roll their eyes.
Later on, as the clock nears midnight
and members of the crew try to grab some sleep before the next call, Yeoman
relaxes in a chair on the patio next to the station’s giant bay doors and says
he’ll miss some of this.
“I look forward to coming to the
firehouse,” he says. “This job is about helping people, and there’s a fun,
family bond here.”
I do things in
streaks, like running or walking every single day–through rain, sleet or gloom
of night–the past 13 years.
Last year, averaging just over four miles per day, that meant walking
1,495 miles–at least one per day, no matter what. Since
starting this obsession on Sept. 6, 2012, that's 4,135 days and 12,812
miles.
A related obsession has been to keep a daily journal since 2018.
This was inspired by the work of Calvin Fletcher, an early
Indianapolis lawyer and farmer who faithfully kept a diary. How faithfully?
They've been preserved and published by the Indiana Historical Society in nine
volumes.
Last year, my own trivia of daily life, story ideas,
character sketches and other junk totaled about 92,000 words. Since starting six
years ago, the project has reached nearly 872,000 words.
It seems like a lot, but I remember telling my friend
Gerry Lanosga about an early draft of a fiction project that was 17,000 words.
"Great,” he said. “But are they the right
words?"
It’s hard to say if these six years of journals includes many
shiny nuggets, but it's fun to combine the two obsessions: Walking that much
every day, you're bound to get an idea or two, and the phone can be a handy
scratchpad. This mini-essay is my entry to start 2024.
Consistency is key, even when there’s no specific goal. For
some of us, writing resembles as much an act of faith as of art.
Journalist now serving as senior editor for an Indianapolis foundation. Specialist in digital content, public media, teaching, citizen journalism. I'm at johncstrauss@gmail.com (Thanks: Professor Dom Caristi)
