The Sunday Post - August 30, 2026: Washington Square on WIBC, Hospitality and Global Summits, and a Great Catch
- Michael-Paul Hart
- 19 minutes ago
- 3 min read
A weekly report from Councilor Michael-Paul Hart — Building the Smartest City in America.
Volume 2, Issue 35
Washington Square on WIBC
Last Sunday I spent about twenty minutes on WIBC with Terri Stacy talking about the future of Washington Square Mall.
It was a great conversation and a chance to walk a wider audience through the Vision Plan. Where the site has been, what residents told us they want it to become, and the realistic path to bringing it back to life.
If you missed it, you can watch the full segment below. The more people who understand this plan, the stronger it gets. This is one of the most important redevelopment opportunities on the east side, and it belongs to the whole community.
Visit Indy's Hotel Symposium
On Wednesday I attended Visit Indy’s 2026 Hotel Symposium, and it was a great experience.
A lot of the conversation focused on what is happening downtown, and there are some genuinely exciting developments coming to Indianapolis. I enjoy being downtown, I want downtown to succeed, and I recognize how important conventions, hotels, tourism, and major events are to the entire city.
At the same time, I kept thinking about our townships.
I still believe we have to get better at extending that same energy and investment beyond Center Township. Too often, major economic development strategies are centered downtown while communities across the rest of Indianapolis are left asking when that momentum will reach them.
That does not mean choosing downtown or the townships. We need both.
On the east side, places like the newly renovated Marriott East show what that can look like. When we bring meetings, events, visitors, and investment into different parts of Indianapolis, the benefits can reach nearby restaurants, small businesses, workers, and neighborhoods.
I left encouraged by what is coming downtown, but also reminded that our long-term strategy has to be bigger. A strong downtown matters, and so does making sure opportunity and investment are reaching every part of Indianapolis.
The Heartland Summit with Senator Young
This week I was invited to join the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s Heartland Summit with Senator Todd Young. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to learn or who else would be there, but it was downtown, I had the availability, and I decided it was worth taking an hour to listen.
The discussion focused on where the United States stands globally and some of the strengths that continue to make us a world power. Two of them really stuck with me: economics and food.
At the local level, we usually think about government in terms of roads, trash, wastewater, police, and fire. But economic development is also a major part of the work, and the decisions we make about investment, jobs, and industries connect Indianapolis to a much larger economy.
The conversation around food also made me think differently. Food production and exports have long been an important part of America’s strength, but locally we still have communities where healthy food is difficult to access or too expensive.
For me, the takeaway was that these big global conversations still come back to the local level. We should be looking for ways to expand access to healthy food, improve health outcomes, and work across government, business, and the community to make food less of a burden on the average household.
A Few Days Away: Fishing With My Son
I had a short week, as I spent the remainder of it driving up to northern Wisconsin to visit my sister for a couple of days. What a beautiful state, and we could not have asked for better weather.
It was just my son and me making the quick trip, and on the way back I had promised him we would go fishing on Lake Michigan.
We had a phenomenal experience. He ended up catching the largest fish of the day, a 12.4-pound salmon, and we had a great time with the captain and first mate who took us out on the charter.
A lot of driving for a short trip, but absolutely worth it.
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