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Mr. Dwight Taylor
Gary, Indiana
Office of the Governor
Statehouse
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2797
August 17, 2005
Dear Governor Daniels,
The blatant disrespect African Americans are subjected to in America is compounded by your attempt to close the Gary Bureau of Motor Vehicle Facility located in a strip mall off Broadway near 11th Avenue in Gary, Indiana. Your consideration of closing a vital institution that serves a city of 104,000 that is 85%-88% African American reveals to me your blatant intentions of spearheading a gradual and methodical redevelopment operation for the city of Gary.
The high frequency of visitors to this facility has tremendously increased the number of consumers to other merchants in the strip mall. What do you think the devastating effect will be on the merchants if the license bureau closes? Or do you even care? The closure of the facility would also effect the voting process in Gary.
Mayor King’s ridiculously high, and useless baseball stadium, and your anticipated closure of the license bureau are all ingredients of a much bigger picture. A picture that doesn’t include individuals who presently reside in Gary.
We, as citizens are quietly and systematically being disenfranchised to eventually be indirectly forced out of this potentially prosperous city. Our exodus will be reciprocated with an influx of middle and high class Whites. The attraction, the Lakefront Development Program. I will voice my opposition to your potential decision tonight at Indiana University at 7:00 P.M.
Yours Sincerely,
Dwight Taylor
Response:
Dear Mr. Taylor,
Many thanks for your comments about potential license branch closures. This is obviously a difficult topic on which people who agree on other things can differ sharply.
Governor Daniels has directed the BMV to listen carefully to all public input, and to act on any closures sensitively and based on the need to improve the overall system. Every county in the state will continue to have at least one license branch. (Today, in fact, a majority of counties have only one license branch.) We cannot have a modern, improved BMV while leaving, unchanged, a structure designed and built decades in the past.
We are far behind the rest of America in modernizing our BMV. Only California and Texas, each many times our size and population, have more branches than Indiana. Virginia, considered one of the best BMVs from a customer standpoint, has fewer than half as many branches despite being much larger and more populous than Indiana.
The reforms we have initiated in this area, such as a 6 year drivers license and easier use of mail-in and internet transactions, are aimed at reducing the number of trips and the amount of time Hoosiers spend in the branches in the first place.
The Governor knows that any change can be disruptive and regrets that any of the Bureau's moves may have disappointed you. Please know their only motive is to improve a system that virtually every Hoosier agrees was in serious need of repair.
Thank you for your interest in a better BMV and for taking the time to communicate your views to Governor Daniels.
Sincerely,
Macey Staninger
Correspondence Director
Office of the Governor
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