Sacred Heart Neighborhood on the near South Side has seen a renewed interest, due in large part to the promotions of a concert venue at the Vollrath Tavern. Can a bar revitalize a neighborhood? I’m not sure, but attracting people from around the city to a little-known street with a boatload of potential is a …
As part its annual A Monumental Affair program, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful hosted a charette on Nov. 5 with the goal of cooking up innovative ideas for improving the Lafayette Square area. In advance of the charette and the awards event, I wrote a column for Metromix about the area, KIB and its president, David Forsell. The full interview is here as a way to keep the conversation about this important area of the city going.
The people who run our cities … think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit, which makes their opinion worthless. The people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. -Banksy, Wall …
Last week, I was asked to speak at an Envision Broad Ripple (EBR)Â meeting. EBR, is a community effort being put forth to change the future of Broad Ripple’s built environment. They are looking at an entirely new zoning structure, and it will be based upon a vision now being developed by community leaders, as well …
In light of my recent posts about Indyconnect gutting the light rail portion of the plan for Marion County, I thought it would be a good time to put some of this financial talk in context by displaying what some recent, and ongoing, roads projects in the Indianapolis area are costing us. This is a partial …
It’s no secret that Ray LaHood and the current Department of Transportation believe that cities ought to be for people instead of cars. In late October, the Department’s $600 million Tiger II grants drove home this point, as 55% of the funds are going towards mass transit or pedestrian oriented transportation improvements across the country …
Last night I had the opportunity to finally attend one of the Indyconnect Round 2 meetings. It was a little different from the Round 1 meetings, in that it was more of a community meeting where one could sign up to stand and comment or ask questions. I was near the end of the roughly …
The scaffolding is off the McOuat Building on Washington Street, and the transformation is fantastic. This place has been vacant for as long as I’ve been working downtown, and it’s great to see the care taken to show off the building’s details. You can read more about this project on the IBJ.
Natural places have a role to play in our neighborhoods. The best urban sites share space with nature so well that you can not tell when the bricks stop and the trees begin. Whether it is a chestnut tree in a courtyard or an old street lined with elms, nature has to be present or …
On Saturday, I attended the Made For Each Other event at Saraga Market. Made For Each Other is an organization devoted to providing an outlet for art and exhibitions in Indy’s under-served neighborhoods. This particular event featured cooking demonstrations and a chance to discuss food culture with the burgeoning international community in Lafayette Square. Saraga …