Monthly archives: June, 2008

Randomly Miscellaneous

Haven’t had a link thread for a while. Fresh Market opens a few blocks from my house. I’m a lucky man. Despite the name, Fresh Market is not big on local produce, but I’d recommend getting that a few blocks down 54th Street. High(er) gas prices are getting people to rethink the exurban experiment. I …

A tour of the Monon trail

The Monon Trail has been, by most accounts, a success. There have been a few bouts of crime on the trail south of 38th Street; however, where it succeeds is in shining a light on an area that had been largely neglected. I wish to focus on some of the potential (some of which is …

Snapshot: Why we are so car dependent

Here’s a small example that I have cut from the 2006 Aerial photos of Indianapolis. It’s pretty self-explanatory, and it’s something that was mentioned in the landmark book Suburban Nation. Even houses that are geographically right next door to a commercial building are usually separated by a fence or wall.

HOME Project

I’ve recently had the privilege of a conversation with a person involved with a new program in the city to promote green building guidelines. The project is called HOME and it is designed to provide quality green housing(pdf) at affordable prices. The buildings are designed by Tyson Domer of Hundredyear consulting. As of now, there …

Great Indy Neighborhoods

There are some newer neighborhood plans up on the Great Indy Neighborhoods site. I encourage readers to check them out. I hope to post more information about this project (as well as some other relevant topics) in the near future. For now, see these plans (they take a few minutes to download).

History

I stumbled upon some old maps of Indianapolis’ past transit glory from this site. It’s a bit difficult to navigate, but there is a wealth of information here. Here’s my favorite: The streetcar system in 1923, the last year before bus service:

Holy Cross Neighborhood

Last night I got detoured on my route home (I drove to work yesterday because I had to go to the dentist and then run some errands). There was quite a bit of construction on the new interchange at Washington St, so I kept going east down English Avenue. The corner of English and State, …