For this first time in this year’s Indianapolis mayoral race, Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett and his Republican challenger Jefferson Shreve met face-to-face. At a forum hosted by historic preservation nonprofit Indiana Landmarks and Historic Urban Neighborhoods of Indianapolis Thursday night, more than 200 people gathered to hear the candidates discuss how they’d improve quality of life in Indianapolis neighborhoods.

Here are the takeaways:

Shreve on the offensive against Hogsett

In a campaign dominated by expensive television and digital ads that have flooded Indianapolis airwaves, Shreve said that Hogsett has tried to make the race about issues other than Indianapolis. During this race, Hogsett has highlighted his fight against Indiana’s permissive gun laws and restrictive abortion laws, while Shreve has said abortion policy is not the job of the mayor.

“Hogsett has reduced me to some edited sound bites in some of ads, which has become a little sharp elbowed, in what is candidly a competitive mayoral race,” Shreve said.

For Thursday night, at least, Hogsett largely defended his record and highlighted his administration’s accomplishments without focusing on criticism of his opponent.

On investment in neighborhood roads

Hogsett said his administration has engaged closely with neighborhoods on infrastructure improvements. Over the past three to four years, he said, the city has invested $100 million for residential road repairs. Although the bulk of the infrastructure budget goes to major thoroughfares, Hogsett said he was proud of how his administration made neighborhood roads a priority.

Shreve indicated more work needs to be done.

“I’m not so proud of the condition of many of the roads in our city,” Shreve said, and highlighted a Lift Indy grant he secured for his district during his time representing City-County Council District 16 in 2018 to 2020. “We’ve got a lot of ground to make up.

On Vrbos, Airbnbs, corporate buyers

When asked about short-term rentals used as Vrbos and Airbnbs that often become nuisances and cause the loss of affordable housing, both candidates said that low homeownership rates are a problem and singled out corporate investors who buy up large swathes of homes in neighborhoods.

IndyStar investigated the issue this month in a 2-part series.

Indianapolis corporate investors: How Wall Street cashed in on the American Dream: Homebuyers outbid in droves by investors

“Neighborhoods with a high concentration of owner occupancy are just better neighborhoods because people invest in their own neighborhoods and they look after their neighbors,” Shreve said. He pointed to a landlord registry and better code enforcement as solutions, saying that the Hogsett administration has not had enough staff to enforce housing codes.

Hogsett meanwhile said the city is working to implement a registration and permitting program for property owners who rent houses to hold accountable those who are not being good neighbors.

“Roughly half of the properties are not owner-occupied,” Hogsett. “They are oftentimes not even locally-owned, scooped by out-of-state interests.”

However, he said that state law prevents local governments from imposing regulations that prohibit or discourage homeowners from renting their properties.

Increasing housing options

Candidates were asked how they would provide housing options at different price points, particularly in historic neighborhoods.

Hogsett said his administration has worked to help people stay in their homes amid rising costs of homeownership by limiting property taxes. He cited the anti-displacement pilot program in Riverside, funded in the proposed 2024 budget, and the property tax relief program, as well as the plan to improve operations for the Indianapolis Housing Agency.

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Shreve said that supply has to catch up with demand to stop the high rates of rent hikes. He said he supports redevelopment to create more market-rate affordable housing and that there is potential to do so on parts of the south side.

He pointed to gentrification and increases in property taxes due to increases in housing prices as the causes of people being forced to move out of their neighborhoods.

“How can we cap those increases incrementally?” he asked. “I don’t think we can at the municipal level.”

Infrastructure funding challenges

Hogsett slammed the Indiana road funding formula that disproportionately shorts Marion County of road money and said that Indianapolis receives the least road money per capita from the state of all 92 counties. He said that it needs to change.

Meanwhile, Shreve said he would work to ensure distribution of infrastructure money is equitable, calling out the repaving of Meridian Street as an example of what he said were higher income areas getting better roads.

“It’s in the lowest-income areas where potted roads can inflict the most damage to people that don’t have the resources to replace a bent rim or tire or if they can’t get to work, they lose their job,” Shreve said.

Candidates clash on crime

Even though the forum was not focused on public safety, Shreve made clear it is the central priority of his candidacy.

The candidates disagreed over whether the Hogsett administration has done enough to reduce homicides.

“Real or perceived, we’ve got a public safety challenge that I will be front and center in pursuing…” Shreve said. He pointed out that there are fewer police officers on the force today than there were when Hogsett took office and slammed the 35% homicide solve rate.

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Hogsett said his administration has heavily invested in anti-violence initiatives, through the $150 million anti-violence initiative funded by American Rescue Plan act dollars.

Crime is down in Indianapolis, Hogsett said, pointing to the 16% reduction in the number of homicides in 2022 compared to 2021, and said the city is on the way to another double-digit reduction in homicides this year. He also said that other crime, including burglaries and assaults, is down.

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“I take one issue with Jefferson’s characterization, while there have been people who’ve said to me they are afraid to come downtown, they don’t live downtown,” Hogsett said, which was met with loud applause.

“Downtown should be all of our neighborhoods,” Shreve fired back, which was also met with applause.

On diversity

Both candidates were asked what their philosophy was about hiring a diverse leadership team. Racial justice and equity issues have been taken center-stage, particularly in the lead up to the May primary election.

To significant applause, Hogsett touted his cabinet as the most diverse in Indianapolis history with three women deputy mayors, two of whom are people of color: Deputy Mayor Lauren Rodriguez and Deputy Judith Thomas. He also said his cabinet is 44% people of color.

“That’s the kind of leadership that this administration has brought,” he said. “That’s the kind of commitment to diversity and welcome to all residents of the city.”

Shreve, though, said that IMPD does not reflect the racial diversity of the city. He also said he would be colorblind in hiring for his administration.

“The city is hungry for talent and I will be colorblind in standing up talent in this administration,” he said. “I will be colorblind with respect to talent.”

Shreve, who is white, has previously been pressured to defend whether he had a diverse hiring track record in his company, Storage Express, which he sold for $590 million last year, and on his relationship with the Black community. 

Working with the Indiana General Assembly

Hogsett said that his administration has worked with Republicans and Democrats on the City-County Council to pass budgets with bipartisan support, and two budgets that passed unanimously. He pointed out how in his first term, the Council had 13-12 majority for Democrats.

“In Washington DC, they call that a deadlock, nothing gets done,” he said. “In Indianapolis, Republicans and Democrats consistently come together, hopefully because of my leadership, to do the right thing.

He also said the 2022 legislative session has been the most successful for Indianapolis of any while he has served as mayor, highlighting the low-barrier shelter that Indianapolis announced this week that will benefit from $20 million in state funding due to a bill passed by the Indiana General Assembly this year.

Shreve said he would lean heavily into his relationships with the Republican-dominated Indiana General Assembly as well as work with regional leaders in the donut counties.

He highlighted that he supported the mayor’s budgets when he served on City-County Council in 2018 to 2020.

“There is no path to solving some of our challenges in Indianapolis without working with the Statehouse,” he said. He added later that issues that matter to the city that aren’t red or blue.

On Monument Circle

Candidates were asked whether they support continuing Spark on the Circle, which pedestrianized the southwest quadrant of Monument Circle and converted it to a mini park through Nov. 2 this year.

Hogsett said he believes in Spark as an open public space that is critical to downtown resiliency and vibrancy. He said that the city will make an assessment at the end of November to decide whether it will expand Spark or even close Monument Circle to vehicular traffic altogether.

Shreve said he is not open to closing Monument Circle altogether and has said that he would end Spark on the Circle permanently. He added that businesses on the Circle, including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the private members-club, Columbia Club, were not in favor of closing the Circle to vehicles.

“I think we need to make downtown connected and navigable and safe for vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, but closing the crossroads of Indianapolis, our original roundabout, to vehicular traffic, is not something that I am in favor of,” he said.

On IUPUI

Both candidates said they think the uncoupling of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis into two separate Research 1 Universities — a rating given to institutions with the highest research levels — could be transformative for Indianapolis.

Hogsett highlighted the potential for talent retention and Shreve said it could be the “next big thing” for the city.

The election is Nov. 7. Early voting starts Oct. 11.

Contact IndyStar reporter Ko Lyn Cheang at kcheang@indystar.com or 317-903-7071. Follow her on Twitter: @kolyn_cheang.