That Sinking Feeling

This July Fourth, in the middle of downtown Indianapolis, a century-old brick sewer line collapsed, opening a sinkhole in the middle of the intersection of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The busy intersection was closed for a week while repairs were made, further snarling traffic downtown, which was already bad from having I-65 through the heart of downtown closed for a month for bridge repairs.

With that sinkhole repair only a week or so in the rearview, a crater opened last night beneath the intersection of Illinois and Maryland, right in front of Circle Center Mall, and just in time for thousands of people to arrive downtown for Summer Celebration.

The intersection of Illinois & Maryland. The impending sinkhole would be in the lower left corner of the photo.

Marion County's Republican party is seizing the issue and making waves:

"This is not what we want them to see," said Senator Jim Merritt, the head of the Marion County Republican Party. 

 Merritt believes it's time to take stock of the city's infrastructure and is calling for a public audit.

While the Unigov combination of Indianapolis city and Marion county makes the local government not quite the Democrat shoo-in of most big cities, the Republicans are still definite political underdogs. However, they got a mayor in office for two terms back in 2007 on the platform of plowing side streets clear of snow in the winter.

Current Democrat mayor Joe Hogwarts is having a rocky first term, with collapsing streets, thousands of massive, un-filled potholes, and what looks to be a third consecutive year of record homicides. If the GOP can scare up a candidate with more charisma than a dead tuna, next year's elections are likely theirs to lose.
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