Indy Pride chair talks festival changes, political backdrop and financial challenges

Indy Parks finishing citywide upgrades with $150M infusion. But what’s next, and what about new parks?

This is prime parks season for folks in Indianapolis who want to hit splash pads, climb jungle gyms or just grab some grass in the shade. What they’re finding is dozens of parks with new or improved trails, sports fields, shelters, bathrooms, water features and playgrounds. The Indy Parks Department is nearing the finish of $150 million in upgrades to about a third of its 218 parks, using a huge infusion of funds outside of its typical $6 million annual budget for capital improvements. Some of the projects are wholesale transformations, such as turning Riverside Golf Course into Riverside Adventure Park. Some are more modest but perform the essential service of providing safe and modern playgrounds for neighborhood kids. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Indy Parks leaders Brittany Crone and Andre Denman discuss the funding and execution of this extraordinary wave of upgrades and how several of the biggest projects came about. They also tackle the question of what comes next, given the size of the annual capital improvements budget. And they discuss the likelihood of creating new parks in a city with some recreation gaps.

Pete the Planner on Trump’s idea for rescuing Social Security and who picks up the tab

According to a report last month from the Social Security Administration, the trust fund that the government uses to help pay out benefits to retirees is expected to run out in late 2032. At that point, Social Security will only be able to pay 78% of your scheduled retirement benefits. This isn’t a surprise: We’ve known for many years it eventually would happen, but there hasn’t been enough political will in Washington, D.C., to rescue the system.   Late last year, President Trump began making references to the public retirement system used by Australia. On July 6, Trump made his most definitive declaration yet, saying his administration is looking at adopting the Australian system — or at least elements of the Australian system — and would try to get Congress onboard.    There is no magic wand in this scenario. Merging one system into another – or adding a giant appendage to the current system – wouldn’t be easy. As IBJ financial columnist Peter Dunn says in this week’s podcast, there could be significant tradeoffs. But who should take the biggest hit? In this week's discussion, Pete takes the point of view of employers and host Mason King has the perspective of someone who plans to retire soon. They also also hash out the viability of tweaking the current Social Security system to get the fund back on track.

He left the Fortune 500 fast track for local nonprofits and to help men be better fathers

Larry Smith grew up on the east side of Indianapolis. After graduating from Southport High School and then Williams College, he landed at Fortune 500 engine maker Cummins Inc. and quickly found himself on the fast track to upper management. By his early 30s he already was director of corporate strategy, but he felt a strong calling to a different path.   Smith switched gears and started a distinguished career in the Indy area’s nonprofit sector, holding leadership positions with such organizations as Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, Indiana University’s Randall L. Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence and the Hamilton County Community Foundation. Then, in 2022, he received another calling – this one through actual phone calls and text messages – to take over as president and CEO of Fathers and Families Center, a modest Indianapolis nonprofit that provides counseling and other resources to help men become better fathers and stabilize their families. The mission harmonized with Smith’s lived experience, since he grew up without a father and himself became a father when he was 16.   On this week’s podcast, Smith lays out his plans to continue growing the capacity of the center with hopes of doubling the number of men served by its programs. To that end, it is in final stages of a $5.5 million fundraising campaign and preparing to move into a new headquarters near the Children’s Museum. Smith also explains his strategy for doubling revenue within five years or so, including a new focus on individual contributions.

Indy cybersecurity expert on preparing for impending AI threat to businesses

Last week, an international alliance of intelligence agencies released a warning about the evolution of AI and how it soon will be able to overwhelm cyber protections used by governments and businesses. This will happen within a matter of months, according to the group, and companies should take an all-hands on deck approach to the threat. That means significant involvement from owners, top executives and other leaders. To get a sense of the gravity of the warning, IBJ Podcast host Mason King invited cybersecurity expert Chetrice Romero to be the guest this week. Romero started her career in public relations but developed expertise in cybersecurity as a state and federal employee. Her positions have included cybersecurity program director for the Indiana Office of Technology and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, and cybersecurity adviser and state coordinator for the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. She currently works for the law firm Ice Miller, helping clients prepare for cyber attacks and their aftermath. In this week’s podcast, Romero explains the risks involved in the looming AI-related threat and why the time to prepare is now. She also shares what she learned from her somber experience on the search and rescue task force responding to the Surfside condo building collapse in 2021.

Immigration law firm swells from one-man band to 137 employees, thousands of cases

In 2009, a freshly graduated Jason Flora opened a law firm in a tiny office on the west side of Indianapolis near Hispanic-run car lots, Honduran restaurants and Guatemalan grocery stores. In its early days, the firm was a one-man shop, with Flora, who speaks Spanish fluently, working 60 hours or more a week and often driving back and forth between Chicago’s immigration court and his office. Last month, Flora Legal Group ranked No. 3 on IBJ’s list of the region’s fastest-growing companies based on its two-year growth, which ballooned 250%. It now has 23 attorneys among its nearly 140 full-time employees, who handle thousands of cases per year. And yet the firm’s mission is essentially the same as it was in 2009: to protect the rights of immigrants and provide the legal services they need — particularly in immigration cases — to make their lives better and more prosperous. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Flora expounds on the evolution of his firm. As he explains it, one of the reasons he started his career as a street lawyer was due to the lack of interest from recruiters in established law firms. And he delves into how he learned he could be more valuable by pursuing more growth for the firm than he could by spending all of his time practicing law.