Indy Mayors Celebrate Legacy Of Richard Lugar

From right to left – former U.S. senator and Indianapolis mayor Richard Lugar, current mayor Joe Hogsett, and former mayors Greg Ballard, Bart Peterson and Steve Goldsmith. (Photo by Drew Daudelin) 

All living mayors of Indianapolis gathered Monday to celebrate the legacy of former mayor and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, on the 50th anniversary of his election as mayor.

Lugar served two terms as mayor, starting in 1968. He served as U.S. Senator for Indiana from 1977 to 2013.

Speakers at the ceremony included former mayors Steve Goldsmith, Bart Peterson and Greg Ballard, and current mayor Joe Hogsett.

The mayors lauded Lugar for his lifelong passion for Indianapolis.

Hogsett credits Lugar for ushering the city into the modern era, by helping to create the unique government consolidation known as Unigov, and fighting to keep cultural landmarks like the Indianapolis City Market from being pushed out by chain restaurants.

Hogsett says a new, expanded version of the plaza near the City-County Building will be named the Richard G. Lugar Plaza.

Lugar thanked the mayors, and says he’s praying for the future of the city.

“My imagination maybe carries me away, that there will be hundreds of people every day on the plaza, who will get to know each other better, who will get to know our city better and want to do something to lead our city, and to help our city," Lugar says.

The plaza is scheduled to open in the summer of 2018.