Krauss Nonpartisan scholarship is a great gift to Indiana’s present and future growth and well-being. But sometimes, the university’s best work is also its best-kept secret. John Krauss, director of the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment

IU Home Pages checked in with John Krauss, director of the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment, to discuss the center’s work and the opportunities faculty and staff have in playing a role in strengthening state and local government by funneling ideas and research through established university channels.

Q: As director of a center that is closely involved with Indiana’s future, what do you see as the greatest challenges for Indiana?

A. Indiana faces a fiscal crisis, partly because one of the characteristics that helped us succeed in the past now works against us. We were a thriving area for manufacturing, and we all know that manufacturing has virtually moved en masse to countries with cheaper labor. As a result, Indiana severely trails the national averages in jobs and income. Between 1998 and 2001, jobs in Indiana grew at a rate of 0.8 percent compared with a 4.5 percent national rate. In that same period, income in Indiana grew by 11 percent, compared with a 17.8 percent national rate.

Another major problem is an educational and workforce issue. Compared with other states, Indiana has a low percentage of adult citizens with college degrees, at both bachelor and graduate levels. There is an on-going brain drain. Companies that are considering locating in Indiana look at our workforce and sometimes decide that they might have trouble recruiting well-educated employees here, so they locate elsewhere.

A third is a growing concern that Indiana is not attractive to artists, innovators and other highly creative people. Critics say the culture in the state undervalues education and emphasizes conformity rather than creativity.

Q. What do you see in the future for Indiana?

A. The solution to Indiana’s problems may lie in its strengths. First, our central location is a major advantage for businesses and distribution centers. Add the fact that we have quality public infrastructure—roads, three major ports, rail and air—these help maximize our location advantage.

Next, the state has at least five important industries that are highly competitive and growing—life sciences; information technology; transportation logistics, a market estimated at $700 billion in the nation; advanced manufacturing, companies such as pharmaceutical firms that require a highly skilled workforce; and motor sports.

The motor sports industry is much larger than most people realize. Races are some of the largest attended spectator events in the world, and Indiana is the motor sports capital of the world. Besides the Indianapolis 500, there are many tracks and races in the state—the Brickyard 400, the U.S. Grand Prix, the Busch Grand National and the National Hot Rod Association’s Grand Nationals. But the motor sports industry also includes shops that produce race car components such as brakes and motors; hot rod teams; scores of sprint car, midget and outlaw teams; and organizations that market racing and run merchandise operations. All told, it’s a huge industry.

Q: Tell us about the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment. What is it? What does it do?

A. The center is an applied research center established by the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 1992. We are strategically and symbolically located halfway between the Statehouse and the IUPUI campus.

We research issues that affect quality of life for all citizens. Our goal is to gather information that will help policymakers understand the consequences of their choices. We do not advocate particular choices. We simply say to decision makers, “Here are the facts. Here are the options and their risks, benefits and long-term effects. You decide.”

We have some on-going research issues, such as economic development, gaming, housing, the arts, land use, social services and nonprofits, to name a few.

Other research is project-oriented. We have done hundreds of projects with more than 150 partners from government, businesses and nonprofits, including many of Indiana’s most important economic development organizations. Some of our projects have been broad in scope; others, very specific.

The center has other skills, too—including program evaluation, consensus building and spearheading action. We develop strategic plans and help leaders put their plans into action. We get knowledgeable people together in groups so they can collaborate and get results.

Q: What is unique about the center?

A. Compared with some urban “think tanks,” our neutral position is invaluable—we have no ax to grind, no hidden agenda. We are practitioners—our scholars and staff have considerable actual work experience in government in addition to their academic careers. We also have a faculty and staff that are highly diverse; this ensures that we cover all viewpoints. We do some national work, but much of our work is focused on Indiana.

We have unique access to a number of major databases and use them in many ways. For example, we have access to the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service database. We used it to study the effect of different property tax rates on home values. We also used it to show that the Monon Trail and greenways positively affect nearby property values. If leaders question the value of an urban trails project, we can show the benefits to the community.

We also have a database of information that we gathered by conducting two major household surveys in Indiana. We asked citizens about quality-of-life issues in their communities, such as education, health care, public services and safety, civic engagement, growth and community image. The surveys gave us insights into the priorities of Indiana residents.

Q. What are some of the important things the center has done for Indiana?

A. Our cumulative body of research on issues that affect quality of life is important. We know that a high quality of life is key to a successful community, and positive changes have a snowball effect. In terms of specific projects, the center has connected the university to the community and the “real world” through hundreds of projects in the last 12 years. It’s difficult to pick out the most important, but one might be our work with the Central Indiana Life Sciences Initiative (CILSI), an organization created to strengthen the life sciences industry in Central Indiana. The center worked with CILSI to set goals and benchmarks to track progress. These benchmarks are measurable goals, such as the number of applications for pharmaceutical patents, increases in venture capital, investments in labs and the number of new life science firms and employees in the industry.

We also helped set up the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, and our work with the BioCrossroads initiative is very notable. We tracked life sciences employment, investment and intellectual property growth for them.

The center’s efforts to protect clean water are important to the state, too. It affects us all if sewage overflows into lakes and rivers as a result of inadequate infrastructure. Many communities have antique water and wastewater systems combined with insufficient funding for upgrades. We surveyed the entire state to assess this problem. The estimates for Indiana to modernize these systems are over $12 billion, so policymakers needed the information.

Another important effort is our work with the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. We provide staff for IACIR. We conducted focus groups on property tax reassessment, a hot issue across the state, and we survey local officials annually to identify the most pressing local problems.

Q: Can you elaborate on an example that shows how data-driven research can be used to benefit the state?

A. Our associate director, John Ottensmann, developed a project somewhat affectionately named LUCI. LUCI stands for the Land Use in Central Indiana model. It is a computer simulation tool that projects population growth. The original LUCI program was focused on Central Indiana, but John has expanded it to include the entire state.

LUCI allows users to see how population density and land use will change in Indiana over time. You can plug in hypothetical changes to see how development will change if, for example, a major new employer locates in Bloomington or a state highway is constructed—virtually anything that affects growth.

LUCI is being used to plan transportation and utility services, to help protect our supply of clean water, to avoid future floods, to estimate changes in farmland, grassland and forest, to see the effects of possible development restrictions and for numerous other purposes.

The model is available to the public via the center’s Web site. (See address at end of column)

Q: IUPUI Chancellor Bantz asked the center to facilitate a public-academic partnership. Can you explain that project?

A: This partnership will allow the City of Indianapolis and the university to work together closely and share information. The city will give our faculty better access to their data, and the university will supply useful research and expertise to the city. A number of university organizations are involved, such as the Indiana Business Research Center, the Polis Center, the IUPUI Office of External Affairs and others, as we progress. The steering committee is considering specific projects, but they are still in the planning stage. The partnership will also enable us to set up more service learning opportunities for students.

Q: What about faculty and staff in schools other than SPEA? If we have research interests that might help the state or local community, how can we help?

A. Nonpartisan scholarship is a great gift that we can contribute, and when we collaborate, we have more impact. Many groups and scholars are involved in work that could give valuable insights to leaders and policymakers, but often that work doesn’t get communicated to the right people. Some of the university’s best work is also our best-kept secret. Almost no one knows about it.

The center is poised to help any scholar or group that is doing policy research or work that would be useful to Indiana leaders. The topics can be in any area that affects Indiana—education, social services, the environment, business development, public management, economics.

We often work with people from other schools. Just recently, we developed an issue brief jointly with the Center for Law and Health. This is the first of a series of issue briefs that we will produce jointly with scholars from other departments and centers. This particular issue brief discusses problems with the state foster care system and solutions that have been tried in other states. It was timely because the state has been reviewing the foster care system, and we produced it quickly. The issue brief went out to more than 2,000 leaders and policymakers in Indiana, including members of the General Assembly and the new gubernatorial administration.

Our center has a team of people who can help package research into a format for policymakers. Our team includes analysts, editors, a graphics artist and a photographer.

I encourage all scholars who are involved in research that affects policy to contact us with their ideas. The center can act as a conduit from the university to leaders and government officials. This is an opportunity to focus our talents on the practical problems facing Indiana. It’s a way we can all contribute to the dialogue that determines our future quality of life.

The Center for Urban Policy and the Environment is located at 342 N. Senate Avenue, Indianapolis IN 46204. Phone: 317- 261-3000. Web site:

http://www.urbancenter.iupui.edu