THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2015
Glum Commerce
IDS
Read the Editorial Board’s take on ‘Bum Commerce,’ page 3
INDIANA DAILY STUDENT | IDSNEWS.COM
City Council holds special forum Locals gathered to share thoughts on crime on Kirkwood By Annie Garau agarau@indiana.edu @agarau6
ECHO LU | IDS
Becky Armbruster, founder and manager of The Good House, stands at the front porch of the building Saturday. The Good House provides short-term housing for patients that come from out of town to receive treatment at the local IU Health Cancer Center. Armbruster estabished The Good House with family, friends and nurses from the hospital’s help in 2012 after her husband passed away to help people who are facing cancer treatments.
The Good House After losing her husband to cancer, Becky Armbruster wanted to give back. Providing cancer patients a home during treatment gave her that chance. By Anicka Slachta aslachta@indiana.edu | @ajslachta
Ever since her husband died, Becky Armbruster hasn’t been good with times or dates. Her life is divided — before and after. “I probably didn’t look at what the weather was going to be for two or three years,” she said. Before, she made hospitals her home. She made friends in the lunchroom and slept on fold-out chairs. She didn’t notice there was a shower in the hospital room for two months. It finally hit her that her husband was dying. She didn’t think about anything but their last moments together. After, she made a list of things that mattered. Family, friends. She recited the list to keep herself sane. She struggled to deal with loss. She built the Good House. The green-paneled historic home sits on a lot in northern Indianapolis, hand-painted bird houses line its deck railing. The inside is clean and bright, but preserving its historic integrity has been hard, Armbruster
said. The house leaks like a sieve in the wintertime. Armbruster doesn’t live there. No one does, really. She created the home five years ago to provide free temporary housing for cancer patients and their loved ones who couldn’t afford a place to stay while seeking treatment at the nearby IU Cancer Center. Families are in and out, usually staying for fewer than two weeks. The house sees all types, from young people battling leukemia to older patients fighting thymoma. Some are optimistic; some are depressed. People are brought together through the house’s community feel, she said. She’s made lifelong friends. She had wanted to do something like it for some time, since her husband died, and when her brother bought a commercial building on College Avenue, she couldn’t ignore the run-down house next door. It was her way of giving back, because she didn’t like sharing her story. It’s not what people fighting for their lives need to hear. “I’m not a good representation of
hope,” she said. “My husband passed away. These people need to hang on to all the hope they’ve got.” The first guests at the Good House arrived on her husband’s birthday, but she stayed quiet. She grabs a red box of tissues off a side table in the living room and dabs at her eyes under her round tortoiseshell glasses. “I try not to cry, too,” she said. * * * Paper cranes — blue, green, yellow polka-dotted — fill the interior of the Good House, floating on strings in the hallway and living room and sitting on dressers in guests’ rooms next to wicker welcome baskets. Like so many things in the house, they were donated, Armbruster said. Adams Elementary School in Indianapolis folded thousands of them in the Japanese peace tradition of origami. One thousand folded paper SEE GOOD HOUSE, PAGE 6
TRACK & FIELD
3 Hoosiers travel west for Championships By Taylor Lehman trlehman@indiana.edu | @trlehman_IU
The Hoosiers will compete in their final meet of the season this week, as they travel to Eugene, Oregon, to participate in the NCAA Division I National Championships. Three IU athletes — senior Rorey Hunter, junior Terry Batemon and sophomore Amanda Behnke — will compete in the competition beginnning Wednesday and ending Saturday, finishing each of their seasons while their teammates stay home to prepare for next season. “I’m just telling them to be who they are,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “They don’t need to do anything special because they’ve already proven that they belong there, competing for a national championship.” After sending four athletes to the indoor national championships earlier in the season, the Hoosiers will send three new faces to the outdoor championships. Hunter is the only returning athlete, as he competed in the national championships last season in the same event, the 1,500 meter run. “I think of all of the athletes Rorey has the best chance of placing close to the top in his event because he has been here before,” Helmer said. “He’s come a long way. He hasn’t had the year that he had last year, but he represents what we do well, and it’s very gratifying to see him compete here this weekend.”
Hunter finished ninth in the nation in his junior season with a time of 3:40.75, his personal best, while his season-best this year is just a 3:43.70, the 63rd best time in the nation. According to Hunter, the lack of fast races this season was a contributor to his slower time, including his 3:57.48 second place finish at the Big Ten Championships. The field this season is tailored to his advantage, Hunter said. “This season, there isn’t really a runner who gets out fast and stays fast, so I can stay close to the front of the pack and maybe kick at the end,” Hunter said. “That’s closer to my style of running, and it suits me better than staying fast the whole race. I like my chances.” Batemon is also calm and confident heading into the biggest meet of the season. Representing the only Hoosier victory in the Big Ten Championships with his personal best jump of 5.36 meters, Batemon headed into the preliminary round with added confidence. “I need to focus on my own jumps,” Batemon said. “Yeah, there are going to be some great jumpers there, some fantastic jumpers, but I just need to remind myself that I can only affect myself. Mastering every jump is the most important thing.” After his season ended with an injury in 2014, Batemon was forced to redshirt his outdoor season, leaving him with little collegiate outdoor
COURTESY PHOTO
Junior Terry Batemon qualified for the NCAA Championships in the pole vault event.
experience, let alone championship experience. “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t nervous,” Batemon said, “It’s my first time going out there. But it’s a good nervous, a nervousness that can help me in the competition. It’s been a long road, so either way I am very proud of myself and how far I have come.” On the women’s side, though, Behnke ran her first 10K at the Stanford Invitational in April, where she set her personal best time of 33:59.60, the sixth best time in IU history. Now she is competing in the national championships in the same event. “I don’t really know what to expect,” Behnke said. “I’m just so excited to be in the atmosphere and run a fast race.”
Behnke took the final qualifying spot in the preliminary round. Like Hunter, she also finished second in her event at the Big Ten Championships with a time of 34:14.17. “I’m expecting another good effort from Amanda,” Helmer said. “She continuously gives good effort in tough competition, and she really thrives in difficult environments.” As the three Hoosiers make their way to Eugene, Helmer continues to remind them they belong in the championship hunt. “They are the best them,” Helmer said. “No one can do it for them. They just have to continue what they have been doing, and I know that they all have the ability to place pretty high in their events.”
Sitting in front of the crowd gathered at Wednesday night’s impromptu District 6 city council forum, Erin Marshall, posed two questions to the Bloomington community: “What are we afraid of and why are we afraid of it?” The forum was planned in response to the recent controversy regarding homelessness, crime and panhandling on Kirkwood Avenue. The debate escalated to the point that what was scheduled to be a a normal meeting was refocused to provide a platform for those who wanted to pose share their questions insights. “To me, one of the simplest solutions is not to try to enact some new law or regulation, but to simply change how we think,” Marshall, a member of the Decarcerate Monroe County coalition, said in her opening remarks. The meeting was crowded with people who had very different ways of thinking and responding to Marshall’s questions. Many said they had never felt endangered when walking down Bloomington’s main street. That the time they’ve spent interacting with Bloomington’s homeless has been cordial and pleasant. That they’re more afraid of the drunken IU students wandering the streets at night than anyone holding a cardboard sign. “In many situations I have been confronted with people who were experiencing poverty, people who were experiencing homelessness, people who were on drugs or drunk,” Marshall, who formerly worked full-time at the Interfaith Homeless Shelter, said. “There was never a single time during those experiences when I felt as though I was in danger. When treated with respect, people respond with respect.” Other attendees admitted to feeling scared when they see people doing drugs or becoming aggressive. They complained that their homes had been broken into. They complained that they have repeatedly cleaned up fecal matter and used needles left on their properties by the panhandlers spending time in People’s Park. They emphasized that they don’t lack compassion or sympathy for the problems being faced by the community’s homeless, but they feel that their own rights are being violated. “When I see some of the law being broken and not enforced, it breaks my heart,” said Susan Bright, a co-owner of Nick’s English Hut whose letter titled “Bum Commerce” triggered the debates on the topic. “I want to curtail the criminal activity and provide a safe environment for our employees visitors and friends.” Bright suggested this might be done by creating a law making panhandling illegal within 20 feet of any parking meter. Bright noted that people are often approached by panhandlers at parking meters because they already have their wallets in their hands. Byron Bangert, another panelist and member of the Bloomington Human Rights Commission, pointed out that this law might be excessive since it would, in effect, prevent anyone from panhandling on Kirkwood. “The answer’s not just more programs costing more money, it’s also how we relate to the people we’re talking about,” Bangert SEE CITY COUNCIL, PAGE6