Build a top-down Chinatown on Indy's Near Southside? Mayor Ballard says, "Why not?"

We all want leaders who aren't afraid to speak their minds, even when it opens them up to criticism.

So why are we laughing so hard at Mayor Greg Ballard's recent admission that he thinks building a Chinatown on Indianapolis' Near Southside is a good idea?

Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully wrote about Ballard's peculiar idea in his Feb. 22 column with bemused amusement. But readers have responded less graciously.

The prevailing sentiment was summed up best by an Indystar.com reader in the comments section of the site: "My lord, Homer Simpson is now mayor."

There is a bit of Homer's wide-eyed artlessness in the mayor's desire to turn the Southside into a Sichuan garden. But hey, at least Ballard didn't segue into a faux-Chinese voice, swapping his Rs for Ls.

I generally count myself among Mayor Ballard's critics. But in this case, maybe we skeptics are getting a little too hung up on matters like authenticity and feasibility. We hear Ballard's plan for a top-down Chinatown in Indianapolis and we recoil in incredulous indignation.

"How can you 'build' a Chinatown?" we ask. "Doesn't this dunderhead understand that ethnic enclaves happen organically? Furthermore, doesn't he realize that most American Chinatowns are the products of xenophobic policies that shaped major cities in the early 20th century?"

Look at us, with our "facts" and "logic."

You know, I bet whoever invented the buffet dealt with similar opposition.

"A food trough for people?" critics must have laughed. "How unnatural!"

Yet today, you may well be reading this column as you feast on food slopped onto a plate as you stood in line.

"A gem is not polished without rubbing," goes an old Chinese proverb, "Nor a man perfected without trials." So don't write off Ballard's idea of an Indy Chinatown just yet. What may seem like a public relations faux pas today may actually be the beginning of a great leap forward for the city of Indianapolis. Don't hate. Let a hundred flowers bloom.