Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse

Episode 23 - Inside Richmond: The City’s Pulse | Richmond’s 2025 Momentum Explained with Mayor Ron Oler

• City of Richmond • Episode 23

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This week on Inside Richmond: The City’s Pulse, host Lindsay Darnell sits down with Mayor Ron Oler to close out 2025 by taking a clear look at the momentum building across Richmond.

Big change feels different when you can see it from your car window and from a kayak on the river. Together, they pull back the curtain on a downtown comeback rooted in historic preservation, a housing strategy moving at full speed, and a parks system being rebuilt with focus, accountability, and long term vision. From the evolving skyline at Six Main to retailers eyeing new storefronts, the conversation walks through what is built, what is funded, and what comes next.

Lindsay and Mayor Oler break down the numbers and the neighborhoods driving progress. More than $100 million in investment is transforming five historic buildings into housing and retail. The Vale neighborhood is adding 22 new affordable homes on long empty lots. State leaders have taken notice of Richmond’s housing readiness, and Mayor Oler explains how first time buyers can use local support to turn keys in the year ahead. They also explain why the city rebalanced its park system, shifting resources from underused micro parks to high demand destinations like Middle Fork Reservoir to better serve families across the community.

The missing piece finally clicks into place with the approval of a dedicated 1 percent food and beverage tax for parks, trails, and Whitewater Gorge activation. They walk through the safeguards, the council vote, and the projects this funding unlocks, from replacing Glen Miller Park’s worn playground to building a connected river corridor designed for paddling, biking, and walking.

With listeners tuning in from places like Hong Kong to Dayton, the episode closes with a call for community voices. Where are you listening from, why does Richmond matter to you, and which park or project should rise to the top in 2026.

If this episode helps you better understand how Richmond grows, tap follow, share it with a neighbor, and leave a quick review. Your feedback helps shape what gets built next, both on the mic and on the ground.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to another episode of Inside Richmond the City's Pulse. I'm Lindsay Darnell, your host, and today is going to be our last podcast for the 2025 year. I have Mayor Ron Oler joining me so we can go over the highlights of 2025. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, Lindsay, and hello everyone out there. Glad to be here again. Our 23rd this year. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00:

It is.

SPEAKER_01:

We had a couple in 2024 when we kicked this off, and now it's just keep on rolling. So at the end of this, we're going to have some questions for you. So watch the whole thing and come around to the end again, too.

SPEAKER_00:

So first up, what we want to talk about is our podcast reach and transparency. So this year, inside Richmond, the city's pulse expanded its reach far beyond Wayne County with listeners tuning in from far as away as Hong Kong.

SPEAKER_01:

It's been incredible. So it kind of makes sense. I'm looking at the report here that most views come from Richmond, Indiana. But then we have a large following in Dallas, Texas, Indianapolis, Bloomington, Dayton, Ohio, and several smaller cities in Indiana. But our the largest country outside the United States has been Hong Kong. And I wonder if, you know, Richmond is home to four direct foreign investment companies, all manufacturing automotive parts for the American market, but they're all Japanese and Southeast Asian companies. So I wonder if people who have gone back to their home country are tuning in. I just wonder that. So if you're listening from Hong Kong or watching from Hong Kong, give us some feedback. Tell us how you connected to us. And then Belgium is in there also and Singapore and even the United Kingdom. So our reach has been far and wide. So, you know, not surprising, Richmond is our is our home and Richmond is our biggest, but how are we connecting to others? And how'd you hear us? And why are you listening to us and following us? We certainly appreciate it. And maybe you're considering relocating to Richmond. You know, the Make My Move program has been revitalized, had great success with that. So we're going through the Wayne County Economic Development Corporation. If you're interested in relocating to Richmond, we have a process in place to help you.

SPEAKER_00:

And we actually did have the Wayne County Economic Development Corporation on the podcast a few months ago.

SPEAKER_01:

So go back and look for that one for more specific information.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and the make my move. So originally it was only for remote workers. They have revamped that to now it is all workers, um, not just specifically to remote. Um so get on their website and look at that if you are planning to move to Richmond. Richmond is a great place to live. There's a lot of things happening.

SPEAKER_01:

A lot of good schools too. And and your next topic is our reinvestment in downtown, historic downtown investment. I'll let you start with that and I'll add some thoughts.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, our historic downtown revitalization initiative is ongoing. So as a major 30 million redevelopment initiative was announced for five historic downtown buildings. So we do have the Oddfellows buildings, we have the Cheese Grater or BMO Harris, we have the Hiddle Building, uh, which there's two more.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think there is Bullenberg's and yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And then there's talks about getting another building as well as six buildings. I don't think that's been finalized yet, but we will have roughly a hundred new apartments, new retail spaces right here in downtown Richmond. Um, so it's a great time to be living here in Richmond and to see all of the progress that we are going through.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, the total investment downtown is over$100 million over the next three more years with the the Lily Endowment uh gift to the city in partnership with Rome College. That kind of kicked things off. But really, the state helped out a lot. We had ready funds early on, and ready funds are what spurred the demolition of the former Elder Beerman building and bringing in six main luxury apartments from the developer out of Indianapolis, Ferdinand, Flair, and Collins, but they've been on here too, so you know about that. So that kind of kicked things off, and now it's just a snowball effect. So we're here in the wintertime. I'm looking out the window of a building that's going to be revitalized. I'm seeing snow on the ground. So I had that thought of the snowball effect. Once you get things revitalized, it just keeps going. So we have retailers looking at downtown Richmond. We have grocers looking at downtown Richmond. We have restaurants looking at downtown Richmond. So once they start leasing apartments next year, you'll really see a snowball effect of activity. So the first thing we did in 2024 is we straightened out Main Street, finished some paving, and made it all possible. So everything comes in phases. Started with the infrastructure below ground and on the ground. Now we're working above the ground. And things are just going great. It's a great time to be in Richmond.

SPEAKER_00:

And I know a lot of people usually bypass Main Street, East Main Street, either on South A or North A. If you get a chance, just drive down Main Street. Uh 6 Main has really come up off the ground. I mean, I am amazed every time I drive past of how much they have accomplished and how close they are to getting, I don't want to say getting done, but getting the exterior completely done so they can start working on the interior of the building. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

This this time next year, when you drive across the Highway 40 bridge, come around the courthouse, the skyline of the city will change. And it'll look historic, but it'll be brand new. So it's a aesthetics are very important. So we work the developer to create aesthetically matching property. So even all the properties of buildings were in the facades and even the interior will be restored to uh historic standards.

SPEAKER_00:

And earlier uh back in, I want to say it was mid-last year 2024, there was a help grant to pre uh already local business owners to help with facade work. Uh it was a matching grant grant up to a million dollars, I believe. Um I do know downtown Delhi has completed theirs. I believe the ply is working on their building right now.

SPEAKER_01:

There's more to come, yes. And there's more to come. Those were state, state and federal dollars that we distributed.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's really interesting in ourselves. It really is. And it's really starting to come together. I would say in the next 18 months, you're gonna see major changes, but you know, within five years, it's gonna be completely transformed down here. It's gonna be hopping, you're gonna have people frequenting all of the local businesses, restaurants, retails, and then you're gonna have a lot of people living here.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And as we talked in the past, and you've had parks department on here, there's three parks within walking distance of downtown. So it's not like you're gonna be living in a concrete junkle. If you take one of these apartments, you can walk to all kinds of amenities in public spaces. If you like grass and trees, they're just just down the block, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00:

So next I want to kind of talk about our comprehensive planning and the city branding. We're gonna kind of group those together. Uh, so in September of this year, we completed our branding initiative. And November we finalized our comprehensive plan update for the city of Richmond. It did pass through Plan Commission, then we presented it to council. Um, so a lot of great things are happening within the city. Our comprehensive plan is outlining long-term goals for land use development and community growth. Uh, one thing that we were able to mark off of the previous comprehensive plan that was done in 2019 was a city, like an identity for the city. And we were able to do that with our branding.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a great point. So when I transitioned from a council member to the mayor's office last year, the some of the first things we looked at were refreshing the 2019 comprehensive plan. We've had presentations on it, so you can go back and watch those. But super excited, super pleased that both of those were accomplished in the second year. They're they're finished. So the brand is out there. We're slowly rolling it out. You'll see the new logo, a new image. But it's more than just a logo image, it's a complete branding of all departments and everything the city stands for. So it ties in the historic past to the present and to the future. And then refreshing that comprehensive plan was important as we've spoken before because buying habits have changed since COVID. People's behavior have changed. And so we were able to not check off quite a few things, but one of the things we continue to work on is housing. Housing is super important to our future. And when Governor Braun was here earlier in the year, he commented how Richmond was so far ahead of almost every other community in our state in advancing its housing, how we're jumping ahead, because we were ready for it. We've been working on it since 2019. We had the plan. Now we refreshed the plan. So we know where we want housing to go, not just downtown, but also in in housing development and subdivisions. So all that stuff's moving forward.

SPEAKER_00:

And I would say too, if you watch the news closely, the housing shortage just isn't specific to Richmond, Indiana. It is nationwide. There is a housing shortage nationwide.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's a quality housing shortage to be certain. You know, over 200 years old. There are some properties here that aren't marketable, but we're working on that too. And I think that's going to be our next topic. So some of the things we're doing to fix up some of those old houses.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh I was able to attend with you. I'll kind of kick us off on the neighborhood revitalization and housing. So ground was broken on the Vail neighborhood revitalization project, which will bring 22 new affordable homes in Richmond Southside through the Ready funding and strong community partnerships. Um, these houses will be going on the vacant lots that are in that neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so it's important to the to the my administration and the city as a whole, I do believe, to not just focus on downtown, but to next spread out. You know, I thought we would wait a little while to spread out into those two neighborhoods, but no, we're not, we have not taken the foot off the gas pedal. So we're everything downtown is rolling, and now we're starting on the Vale neighborhood and star neighborhood. So the Vale neighborhood, if you'll remember, about a dozen years ago through the Federal Blight Elimination Project, we were demolished over the course of several years over 200 blighted homes that were vacant. And we reworked 10th Street Park and we were able to put in some affordable housing units back in there. And over that time frame, some of the empty lots were transferred to other entities who they developed some but weren't able to develop all of them. So now with this new push and this new investment, um Wayne County Foundation and others, we're able to take 22 lots that have been empty for a dozen years or so and rebuild housing on there for low to moderate income families, so for working families. So we know the broken window theory that you know, if you have one broken window in a house in a block that soon other people will start to neglect theirs. So the opposite is true. As we build one new home on this block, one new home on that block, people living next door will say, Well, that house looks better than mine. I guess it's time to paint my house, it's time to clean up my yard. And it's just been back to the snowball effect. So a positive snowball effect. We've seen it in the Vale neighborhood. It it looks better than it has in a long time because of that. And now it's going to look even better again. But reestablishing that neighborhood, that's an important school. A lot of our community leaders went to school there, and we have a lot of history and a lot of fond memories of Vale and InStar too. So re revitalizing those is hugely important. And housing is one way to do it. That stabilizes neighborhood. When you build a new home for people to live in that are working, and instead of other options, it restarts that neighborhood and gives them pride back into their block and their neighborhood and restores confidence in their neighborhood. And even our police department's been involved. We're re-establishing the neighborhood association, neighborhood watch, and we expanded um patrols in those areas too. But I believe you had peace police on here and talk about that.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, and I would say there's also a lot of things in place too to help uh first-time homeowners purchase one of these homes. You can contact the EDC to get more information. Um, but they do have things in place that if you know, if you're not a homeowner and you're ready to own a home, one of these new homes that are gonna get built, they have things to help you out get that going for you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so next I want to talk about beautifying our city parks, taking care of the 1100 acres that we currently have. Um, so I'll let you kind of kick off talking about this and what's next.

SPEAKER_01:

Over the last 15, 20 years, um, as I mentioned in Vale neighborhood, we were able to at that time kind of rebuild the 10th Street Park. That's our oldest park. And near there was a civil war camp. There's a monument to that, and we'll be able to redialize that. And then using stellar funds, we did the Elstro Plaza Park downtown. And then some other funds. We started waiting in Vector's Park and Stargenet Park, but our our flagship park, Glen Miller Park, needs a lot of help. And the problem is it's such a large area that a lot of help is a lot of money. It needs a lot of money. So we'll be able to do some smaller things. We've also, during my administration, divested of a couple of smaller parks that were underutilized and were a cost to the parks department to send a crew out and mow. You spend half a day mowing this little park that very few people use. And we one good example was at Berry Field. We had a developer, an investor interested in putting apartments on that lot. So we're working with them, we we sold it for the full assessed value and rolled those dollars into the next park, which is Middle Fork Reservoir. So those dollars immediately went to the next park. And now that land, um, which was kind of isolated, will soon be back on the tax rolls with apartments paying property taxes. So that's a good thing. But yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna say, and I would say that it was isolated. I never realized it was there until I took my tour of parks with Denise Retz when I first started working for the city.

SPEAKER_01:

So it was one of those that when the developer developed that, I think in the 1940s or 50s, there was a green space behind a couple of houses that they couldn't develop. And they put in a little gravel driveway and put in a basketball court and some other stuff, and it was active probably in the 40s and 50s, but since this maybe even up to the 70s, but since people's behaviors have changed, they don't go out to those small neighborhood parks like they used to. I wish they did, but um anyways, but having devel invested in Middle Fork Reservoir, there's so many more amenities in Middle Fork, so I believe that they were just because Middle Fork was within bicycling distance, they would go there instead. But so the back to the problem of parks. So with all the changes in property tax cap since 2010, the city has foregone over$120 million in property taxes that we would have had coming in. Now that's money in people's pockets, so we did not collect$120 million over 15 years that stayed in people's pockets. But the problem is that's money we would have had to fix quality, fix the parks, improve the parks. Some of our buildings are very distressed. So the way you deal with that is over the course of 15 years, you defer maintenance on a lot of buildings, a lot of properties, and hoping someday you'll get a grant or get money to do that. And we finally figured out a way to do that. The state legislators last year made it possible for the city to enact a food and beverage tax just for the parks and trails and the gorge project. So the gorge project is hugely important because with all the housing coming downtown, the Whitewater Gorge is going to be their home park. You know, other people who drive or live close to Glenmiller Park walk to that park, the Star Park, the parks on the west side, and everything else. But so with we'll say 250 apartments coming downtown, reinvesting in that park is important. So it started several years ago. The Indiana DRs put money into it, Lily's put money into it, but we're still millions of dollars short. So being able to enact a 1% food and beverage tax, which is a choice tax, it's only on prepared food and beverages, uh, not groceries. And the amount of money that comes in can only be used for parks and trails and a gorge activation. So that's finally found a way. Thanks to our state legislators who took a lot of pressure but passed the law that we couldn't enact that. And our city council Monday night, just this week, on an eight to one vote passed it, and they realized that there's no other revenue coming in to rebuild and restore and maintain our flagship parks, which are hugely important. Important, you know, they're important for the residents here now who want to enjoy them, and they're important for economic development. As we have new housing coming in, you know, the couple things they always ask about, you know, what do you have in retail? What do you have in restaurants? And we've been expanding that last couple of years. And then they ask about the schools and they ask about the parks. And we boast having 1,100 acres of parks, but it's a lot of trees. It's a lot of grass, honestly. It's a lot of maintenance, a lot of maintenance, and a lot of buildings that have had deferred maintenance for 15 years. And if we don't act quickly, we're in danger of losing some buildings that are important.

SPEAKER_00:

And I want to really highlight too the playground at Glenn Miller Park is 20 years old. It looks yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it's 20 years old, and I can't remember how much it cost back then, maybe 200,000, but the quote to replace it is over a million dollars to rebuild that park, which gets used every day, even in the wintertime, and then that splash pad, which gets used in the summertime, it's uh what's it, 1.2 million? It was a lot. It was more than we could just save up. So this food and beverage tax is a way to fix that. And Richmond is blessed with four exits off the interstate. No city our size in Indiana has that many exits off the interstate. An opportunity for people to come in and buy a lunch or buy a dinner when they're traveling. You know, the hundreds of thousands of cars that pass through every day. They see all the restaurants on the east side and the north side and and more to come, and that's one way. So a lot of this tax will come from just outside travelers. And if they stopped in any other town or county on Interstate 70 in Indiana, they would pay it. We were the only county who for 20 years said no, but we finally said yes, we see the value in that. We've seen what it's done and helped other cities and counties and how they've invested it in themselves. And why not us? Why not put it toward this worthy project?

SPEAKER_00:

And every time that I would eat in Newcastle or Muncie, I never realized I was paying.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm gonna say almost 20 years ago, I was at an event at the Rising Commission Center in Muncie, and I stopped by the it was a afternoon, it went through the mid-afternoon. I really want to diet Coke from McDonald's. So went over there, it's not Washington Street, Jackson, whatever it is. And you know, I knew that Cokes were 99 cents, so I have my dollar six out, and they said it's a dollar seven. I said, No, it's a dollar six, I can do math. No, it's a dollar seven. We have a penny food and beverage tax. And I said, What's that doing? They pointed, said you just came from there. It paid for the Ryzen Convention Center, and I kind of opened my eyes as to what's possible. And now Muncie invests that in and believe it in their parks and housing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So, you know, it is something that is going to be beneficial for our city and something that we do need. I know there was some mixed feelings, but to be honest, the decision followed extensive public input with residents voicing strong opinions, both in favor and of against measure during the public hearings, but we had more in favor because they realize how great of an asset our parks are to our community.

SPEAKER_01:

And this is the only way to save them and improve them going forward. And other cities have done it. So, you know, if we don't do it, we're going to miss out and lose a lot more than just a couple of buildings.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Um, so I don't know if anyone's been down to Test Road here lately. It's looking really good.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Canoe kayak launch and landing site. So in the spring, you can canoe or kayak, you can you can you can launch on the north side of Richmond. Eventually there'll be the one up there too, because the Whitewater River is cuts three and a half miles through the city, and two and a half of that is Parks Department Trails from Thistleweight Falls all the way down to Test Road. So being able to canoe and kayak between two points or start at that point and go all the way down to Whitewater. You know, you have I know families that go to Brookville and do that. Now they'll be able to do it right here.

SPEAKER_00:

And and the community can take a look. At the Gorge Activation Plan on the city's website as well to get more And that Parks Master Plan has been out there for a long time.

SPEAKER_01:

So the Parks Department has done a great job updating their master plan just like we did our comprehensive plan. And it's it's always been where can we find funding? So a Stellar grant here, an Okra grant there, a DNR grant there has helped, but it's never really gotten us across the finish line. And this will definitely do that.

SPEAKER_00:

It it will. And I think it is time for us to come together and say, you know what? When I buy my, let's say I know they're not a dollar anymore, a dollar Coke from McDonald's, instead of paying a dollar seven, I'm paying a dollar eight. But I can think, hey, I'm helping the parks out with that one penny on the dollar. Um, a hundred dollar bill at a restaurant is gonna be a dollar and you're already an extra dollar.

SPEAKER_01:

You're already paying seven dollars in sales tax. So it's one more dollar. Anytime you pay seven percent sales tax on per food, prepared food and beverage, there'll be one more percent added to it. And that's actually pretty simple math.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we have a lot of great things going on in the city of Richmond. And, you know, I really just wanted to highlight all the good things that has happened this year. You know, they're they're pushing into next year. There's gonna be more things to come next year. Um, you know, you know, it's just it's a great time to live here. I I just want to keep stressing that our parks are gonna start improving once we start collecting. When do we start collecting on the food and beverage tax?

SPEAKER_01:

In February. Um, the Department of Commerce needs time to put it in the system, and restaurants need time to add it to their Toast or Square program, which I understand takes all like five minutes. It really doesn't take long at all. Because if you're a national chain or anywhere else in Indiana, you already have it in your system. So adding it here locally, there may be a couple of local restaurants that aren't anywhere else in it. You know, it'll take them 15 minutes to add it to it.

SPEAKER_00:

And I know with the funding that we get from this food and beverage tax, it's not just gonna be okay, willy-nilly, we're gonna pay for this, pay for that. It will have to go before council, and council will have to vote if they 100%.

SPEAKER_01:

The state legislators limited the use, and then council as a fiscal body, the administration and the parks board will say, This is a project I want to fund with it, and then council as a fiscal body will have their vote.

SPEAKER_00:

So it will be voted on.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, you cannot, we cannot just officials are are responsible for how it's spent from the state, I mean, from the state level all the way down.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And I just want to also stress about our podcast. You know, our podcast has become a powerful tool for transparency, helping residents and audiences, even worldwide, better understand how Richmond city government works and the decisions shaping our community. And so, with that, I want to ask a few questions. I would like to get your feedback. Where are you listening from? How many people in your house listen to podcasts? And has this been a great way for transparency for the city of Richmond to get information about projects and initiatives out to the community?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, we would definitely like to know that. So we we have all the reports, but we really don't have the we'll call it the the the soft information. You know, what is your connection to Richmond? Why are you paying attention to Richmond? Why do you care about Richmond? We know we've had a lot of people, you know, we've been here 200 years, so maybe you're a family member or someone that's here, you've moved away, or you're considering moving here. We'd like to know all that information. So we and we'd love to know what what you want out of Richmond too. So when you're making that comment, say, Yes, I'm considering moving to Richmond, parks are important to me, or tell me that pickleball is important to me, or tell me that golf is important to me, or tell me that bowling is important to me. You know, what if we're missing anything, let us know that too. If there's some sport or activity or outside activity you like to see us add, we'd like to know that too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So Richmond City government had a busy and impactful year in 2025. And like I said, there's more to come in 2026. Mayor, is there any last message that you want to get out to the community before we end the last podcast of the year?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, great things are happening. So since we're end at the end of the year, of course, I want to wish everyone a joyful holiday season, all the holidays coming up. Um, whatever you celebrate, that is awesome. Please get out there and celebrate it. Celebrate it peacefully. Um, celebrate with family and friends and people you love. And just have a good time. Enjoy the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00:

Mayor, thank you for joining me. That's Inside Richmond, the city's pulse. Happy holidays and have a happy new year, Richmond.