Indy on a Downward Spiral?

"Once, Indianapolis was a place where visionary and determined leadership across the community and across parties transformed an overgrown small town and backwater state capital known as 'India-No-Place' into arguably the best performing large Midwest city and one of the few holding its own or even leading the rest of America. Today, as this contract [selling off the parking meters for 50 years] helps illustrate, Indianapolis is more and more just another city. That’s disappointing. I certainly hope for the best, but it will be interesting to watch Indy’s performance going forward in this new civic era for the city."

This from The Urbanophile, a blog by Aaron M. Renn, an urban analyst.

Sigh! This Indianapolis Observer reluctantly concurs.

UPDATE:
Sheila Suess Kennedy has penned an opinion piece for The Indianapolis Star (printed 6 December) saying much the same thing: "[T]he fact that Indianapolis gave an insider a sweetheart deal is less distressing than the fact that this transaction was yet another piece of a longer-term trend." You can read "Let's not lose our soul" here, at least until it disappears.