McCana Monthly Meeting - May 19, 2025: City Updates, Federal Issues, and Hate Crimes
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McCana Monthly Meeting - May 19, 2025
Note: The transcript indicates this meeting occurred on a Saturday (the third Saturday of the month) and started at 9:00 a.m., while the provided date is Monday, May 19, 2025 at 18:00 UTC. This discrepancy is noted; the summary follows the given date.
The Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (McCana) held its monthly meeting, featuring presentations from the Mayor's Neighborhood Advocate, a representative from Congressman Andre Carson's office, and the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. Discussions covered city programs, federal funding concerns, hate crime reporting, and a local data center zoning case.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Street Cleaning Concerns: A resident reported that side streets in certain neighborhoods are not cleaned, citing East 39th Street as an example. They noted heavy accumulations of sand and asphalt debris and expressed frustration with limited street sweeper resources (only two machines for the county). The Mayor's Neighborhood Advocate advised using the RequestIndy website or contacting the Department of Public Works to report specific areas.
- Comprehensive Plan Engagement: Multiple attendees raised concerns about the Department of Metropolitan Development's land use plan update. They noted only one in-person meeting per township, lack of mailed notifications, and heavy reliance on digital formats, which may exclude residents without internet access. They emphasized the need for more interactive and accessible engagement opportunities.
- Data Center Zoning: In closing remarks, the president mentioned a proposed hyperscale data center in Franklin Township, scheduled for a zoning hearing on June 12. Attendees discussed potential impacts on municipal utilities, infrastructure costs, and corporate responsibility.
Discussion Items
Mayor's Neighborhood Advocate Updates (Delia Novak)
- City Initiatives: Announced Project Indy summer jobs, Indy Parks summer day camps and jobs, Lily Endowment-funded park improvements (construction starting spring/summer 2025), Office of Public Health and Safety's summer youth program (applications closing May 20), and clinician-led community response team town halls (May 21 and 28).
- Business and Sustainability: Office of Minority and Women Business Development certification workshop on May 20; Office of Sustainability's Thriving Nonprofits grant (up to $10,000 matching grants, deadline June 9).
- Land Use Plan: Department of Metropolitan Development is updating the county land use plan with open-house meetings in each township from June 2 to June 30. A county-wide meeting will be held June 30 at Martin University. The public can also provide comments via an interactive map.
- Public Works: DPW released the 2025 major capital improvement list and a new road closure viewer (roadclosures.indy.gov).
Congressman Andre Carson's Office (Andrew Nika)
- Federal Services: Highlighted upcoming town halls (including one with Dr. Virginia Kane), immigration services webinars, Know Your Rights flyers in multiple languages, and pending immigration casework.
- Funding Concerns: Expressed worry about potential cuts to federal grants for the Blue Line (Washington Street corridor), the Minton-Capehart Federal Building sale, and the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center reconstruction. Noted loss of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful grant and potential impacts on Medicaid, SNAP, and SHIP programs.
- Aviation Safety: Congressman Carson has advocated for filling air traffic controller vacancies (mandated by his amendment), creating a national academy for training, and improving cockpit security.
- Community Events: Announced an art competition for high schoolers (winner flown to D.C.) and a job fair on August 8 at the Aguitech Culinary Center.
Marion County Prosecutor's Office (Ellie Campbell)
- General Updates: Office now fully staffed; launched a blue envelope program to improve police interactions with individuals with disabilities or elderly (over 300 requests in first week); released 2024 annual report; highlighted recent case outcomes (Orlando Mitchell sentenced to 66 years, viral razor blade case, triple shooting, etc.).
- Hate Crimes Presentation: Defined Indiana's hate crime law (vague, no explicit protected classes, penalty enhancement only). Explained the difference between hate crimes (actionable) and bias incidents (First Amendment protected). Noted only 215 bias incident reports in 2022 from 64 agencies—likely underreported due to lack of mandatory reporting.
- Hotline: Launched a hate crimes hotline (317-327-5314) where callers leave a voicemail; a trained advocate returns calls within three business days. Hotline is for non-emergencies; 911 is for active threats. The advocate can help connect victims to resources, assist with police reports (if desired), and link to identity-specific services. Immigration status is not asked.
- Barriers to Reporting: Acknowledged fears among undocumented individuals and marginalized communities about police involvement. Encouraged victims to explicitly state
Meeting Transcript
For those of you that are watching on Channel 16 or who are here with us for the first time, my name is Kathy Burton, and I'm the current president for the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations. I want to tell you a little bit about our organization. The Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations or McCana was founded in 1990 as a 501 C3 not for profit neighborhood based community organization, which is a huge mouthful, and I've always tried to figure out how to shorten it, but that's as good as I get. We were founded in order for neighborhoods from all across Marion County to connect with each other, share experiences, lend support to each other, but also to help residents keep up to date on what's going on with government, with other kinds of non-governmental issues that are impacting our neighborhoods, and figure out how we can engage and be the most effective in trying to handle those issues that do address our neighborhoods. We meet on the third Saturday of every month, except for December, from 9 to 11 a.m. We meet at North United Methodist Church, which is at 38th and Meridian. Our meetings are open to anyone in the in the community. You do not have to be a member of a neighborhood association in order to attend. So if you are interested in the community or the neighborhood where you live, you are welcome to attend our meetings. At our meetings, we do have a speaker, or as we have this morning, um several speakers, to talk about issues that are of interest to neighborhoods. We do enjoy suggestions from people about about speakers that they would like to have in or issues that they would like to have addressed. So if you've got a suggestion, the best way to reach or a question or an issue that you would like to have help with in your neighborhood, the best way to reach us is either through our Facebook page, or you can contact me by text or phone. I do not carry smartphone. Don't send me a link. I can't do that. But you can email me at CB7801 at AOL.com, or you can contact me by phone at 317 84759. We do um have we do have dues for organizations that would like to join. Our dues are $20 a year that are that are payable in January, although we do have organizations that join us through the year. So even if you don't have your dues in in January, you can still join McCana. We do have a PO box, which is PO Box 1082, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46239. We are not the Cancer Center, even though we keep getting all of their mail. So if you want to contact us by mail, you can also do that. However, I only get to the PO box about once a month. So if it's something that you need to have information on in a hurry, please contact us by phone, by email, or through our Facebook page. We want to say thank you to North United Methodist Church for lending this uh for letting us use their facility every month at centrally located and on the Indigo bus line. So it is easy to get to. They have plenty of parking, and we well we appreciate all of the community outreach services that the church church provides to the neighborhoods. We also, of course, want to thank Channel 16 who records our meetings and then they air or stream, whichever the proper terminology is throughout the month on channels 16 and 28, and you can also access them through the indie.gov website. So if you are not able to attend our meetings, you are always welcome to watch those online. And then if you've got questions about anything that we've talked about, you can always reach out to us. And like again, we appreciate appreciate Channel 16. It provides a unique platforms for neighborhood advocates who often have multiple meetings and multiple commitments to still be able to connect with the neighborhoods and find out what's going on. Um, with that, I do want to announce, sorry, gonna put the glasses on. Our next meeting will be on Saturday, June the 21st, here at North United Methodist Church again at 9 a.m. Our speaker will be Dr. Virginia Kane, who is the director-in-chief medical officer for the Marion County Health and Hospital Department. Um McCana has had a very good relationship with Health and Hospital for many years, and they do a lot of work to help neighborhoods and families deal with health issues, environmental issues. We will also have with us City County Councillor Michael Hart Michael Paul Hart who is going to give us an update on the efforts to rehabilitate Washington Square. Um that the condition of that property has been a topic of conversation for many, many months. Um, and the the safety, environmental, zoning issues that have befallen that property, and councillor Hart is trying to spearhead an effort to rehabilitate that property, and then he may also have updates for some other city county county county issues. So again, you're welcome to join us on the 21st of June. If you have never heard Dr. Kane speak, she is a very dynamic speaker that has a lot of facts and figures at her fingertips about the help the help of Marion County and its residents. With that, I'm going to ask if there are any announcements from anybody about upcoming issues or events in their neighborhood. Okay. I will say that in Franklin Township, which is where I hail from, we do have upcoming the old Settlers Day Street Fair, which is the last Sunday in June from 9 to 4 a.m. And if you drive southeast, Eastern Avenue out of town, you'll hit it because the streets closed. It is a great day. There's a lot of vendors, booths, community organizations, there's entertainment there. And we encourage an old car show.
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