The latest edition of the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) is out this morning and there are two articles of interest to Fishers.

A front page piece from reporter JK Wall dissects a study conducted by BioCrossroads, an Indianapolis firm heavily into the life-sciences.  The upshot of the study says the suburban counties surrounding Indianapolis are picking up the most number of high-tech jobs.  The consulting  firm Battelle, based in Ohio, was contracted to do this study.  Wall points to the business startup incubator Launch Fishers and its most successful alum, BlueBridge Digital, which specializes in app development for nonprofits, as an example.  BlueBridge founder Santiago Jaramillo lives in Marion County, but gives Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness high marks in finding office space for his firm when the company was looking at space on Indy’s north side.  BlueBridge is now headquartered in Fishers and has grown from 8 employees to 34.

Here’s an interesting quote from Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard in Wall’s story. “When I was making presentations in San Diego, I talked as much about Indianapolis as I did Carmel. I’ve got to sell the entire region,” Brainard said. “Our competition isn’t Indianapolis or Fishers; our competition is really across the globe.”

The second story comes from Lindsey Erdody which quotes a number of economic development people on how Carmel’s progress toward a human rights ordinance specifying LGBT people as a protected class may give Carmel a leg up in the economic development race.  Erdody mentions how Fishers quickly passed a resolution April 1st of this year when the Religious Freedom & Restoration Act (RFRA) debate was raging in the Indiana General Assembly making clear that Fishers is open for everyone.  But she also adds that Zionsville has created a human rights commission to handle discrimination complaints.  Mayor Scott Fadness recently told LarryInFishers that he and Fishers City Attorney Chris Greisl have been working on a human rights ordinance but he wants to be careful to set up a process that works.  Bottom line, Erdody’s reporting indicates just having a human rights ordinance at the drafting stage is giving Carmel an advantage over other suburban Indy communities, including Fishers, in the race to attract economic development prospects.

If you subscribe to the IBJ, I would encourage you to read these two articles.  I cannot link to them because they are protected by a paywall online.