#16tech

The 16 Tech Community Corporation is the culmination of over a decade of planning by the City of Indianapolis, Eli Lilly, IUPUI, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and private individuals with an interest in seeing Indianapolis become an ever greater city.  It’s purpose is to build an Innovation District in Indianapolis that will retain and attract top tech and entrepreneurial talent, provide support to entrepreneurs and Indianapolis communities, and build Indianapolis into a respected city for technological development through collaboration, partnerships, and a Live-Work-Play-Learn concept that is popular among millennials.  Ground has already been broken on the non-profit organization’s first building and excellent tenants have been recruited.

This sounds excellent.  However, no urban development is easy, and the chosen location for the 16 Tech Innovation District has a history of abusive development.  The development of IUPUI’s campus and the resulting infrastructure and change nearly destroyed a vibrant African American community that had been thriving on the land.  Ransom Place neighborhood is one of the few small fragments of this legacy, and it is surrounded by busy streets and student-focused businesses.  Ransom Place leader Paula Brooks speaks out strongly to advocate for her neighborhood, and while most community leaders are supportive of 16 Tech’s development and community partnership plans, she has mixed feelings about the organization.  At a 16 Tech hosted community meeting which I attended in February, Paula challenged the 16 Tech leadership on a question of representativeness: she praised them for hiring one African American staff member (Starla Hart), but chastised them strongly for putting their only staff member of color in the community outreach role.  To paraphrase Paula: “Black people always get put in roles like community outreach.  Why don’t you hire people from the community for other leadership positions too?” she challenged.  Her question is deeply valid.

16 Tech has been vocal and intentional about its efforts to support the surrounding communities as it builds Indianapolis’ greatest tech hub.  It has reached out and partnered with the community, taken concrete steps to assure that the community will benefit from every dollar brought in by the tech hub, and created an advisory board of community leaders.  But if the organization’s staff leadership itself is not representative, can it gain the full trust of a community that has been so hurt in the past by big development?  Can it deliver on its goals on improving the lives of the people who are currently there in addition to those of the people who it will attract?