One of my favorite local blogs, The Urbanophile, has a thoughtful and comprehensive look at a featured story in last Sunday's Indianapolis Star by Brendan O'Shaughnessy comparing the municipal spending priorities of Indianapolis with that of Seattle, Portland, Charlotte and Denver.

If you care about the future of our region, both the story and Urbanophile's take on it are worthwhile reading.

I do a number of presentations (contact me if you're interested) each month to service clubs and community organizations. Basically, what I try to do is provide an overall picture of where Indianapolis was in the late 1960s-early 1970s, talk about the strategies (especially the sports initiative) that led us out of the wilderness, what we currently have in place and what the future portends.

In my view, Indy has a great story to tell. We have accomplished much. And with Lucas Oil Stadium, the expanded Indiana Convention Center, the new Colonel H. Weir Cook Terminal at Indianapolis International Airport, the new expansion to the Central Library, the JW Marriott Hotel complex and the Cultural Trail, we are putting into place the infrastructure and investments that will carry our city forward for the next 20 to 30 years at least.

Yet, when I conclude my presentation, I am almost guranteed to be asked this question: What about mass transit?

And my reply is always, if Indianapolis is to take the next leap forward beyond that which has opened or is currently being constructed, mass transit is absolutely essential.

But by mass transit, I mean both the kind (light rail!) that can move people from the suburbs downtown and vice versa, but also the kind that can serve our neighborhoods closer to downtown. Critics argue that our bus system,IndyGo, is a drain on precious city resources. I see it as an essential part of city services.

Yet at the end of the day, the money has to come from somewhere. And it's big money.

As was pointed out in O'Shaughnessy's story, Central Indiana took a huge step forward in coming up with regional funding for Lucas Oil Stadium and the Convention Center expansion. In my view, the success of the region with Indianapolis as its core will depend on future regional strategies.

After all, as former Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut put it, "you can't be a suburb of nothing."

Your thoughts?