The Cultural Trail is moving full speed ahead in the Fountain Sqaure area. I had a rare opportunity to witness some daytime infrastructure work in the city yesterday and snapped some pictures. If the pace of progress in this area is any indication of how quickly it will be finished, shop owners should not have anywhere near the level of headache that businesses on the East End of Mass Ave had when the trail was being constructed there over the past two years. I will dispense with the words, and leave you with some photos. One final thought, it was sad to see the old streetcar tracks being exposed by this demolition work. It is a shame that there isn’t a project actively moving forward that would restore these to Indianapolis’ streets.
Speaking of streetcars, you can still see a lot of the old brick streets downtown when they get potholes. There’s a couple sections, such as the eastern part of 10th street by Delaware, that are STILL all brick and probably haven’t had any attention from the city in decades.
It’s quite ironic that we had a pretty good form of mass transit approximately 100 years ago operated by private companies, but the public transit nowadays is laughable.
It’s funny you mention the old streetcar tracks as I’ve always thought the cultural trail could have potentially incorporated a downtown streetcar circulator as a part of its design.
That is really splitting the modes into two things honestly. I believe that a streetcar system operating on a different route could fully compliment the corridors that the Cultural Trail do NOT serve well enough. Fountain Square could be the activity center that makes the most sense to have both though since it is a measurable distance away from downtown compared to the other nodes that the trail connects.
Totally agree Curt – this historic/artsy/ gastronomic mecca is cut off from downtown proper so to speak. The Cultural Trail will definitely introduce more folks to all the wonderful happenings and uniqueness of Fountain Square, but a streetcar system would be an amazing addition.