WTHR has reported a nice update of the East 16th Street Smart Growth District, which is currently under progress. The revitalization of this corridor is taking place in conjunction with the area centered around the intersection of 22nd Street and the Monon Trail.
One of the more interesting finished products in the area is Project School (pictured above), which transformed a long-abandoned factory building into a free charter school. In addition to the school, it’s great see some new apartments in the neighborhood, such as 16 Park.
It’s interesting to note that this corridor was targeted with a future passenger rail in mind. Even though many of us on Urban Indy are skeptical about the current iteration of Indy Connect, we can not forget that dedicated individuals have been laying a foundation based on the potential light rail line to Fishers. To be fair, though, a College Avenue Streetcar would be only a few blocks away, and the area would still have much greater public transit access than it does currently, so not all would be lost under our preferred scenario. In the end, it might not matter. I will support projects such as this, regardless of the underlying reasons for them to exist.
This is an exciting project. I was fortunate enough to be able to work on some of the early workshops for this area. I believe even if rail doesn’t pass through here, the influx of investment shows confidence in the area and that is the most important to turn around an image.
After living in the Old Northside for over 35 years it is exciting to see development along 16th Street from Methodist Hospital at MLK all the way to Andrew Brown. 16th Street runs along the northern border of the Old Northside and the southern border of Herron Morton. We have the Monon running along the eastern border of the Old Northside next to the Frank & Judy O’Bannon Soccer Park. The new Herron High School adds excitment to the area at the school and seeing their track and soccer teams jogging along 16th Street toward the soccer park on the Monon. The Penn Arts apartment is now open and there is street level retail opening. Just south of this intersection there are plans for a new large residential developemnt. New retail is opening along Meridian just south of 16th near the new Walgreen’s and CVS. Stop and check out all of the activity at the Harrison Center at 16th & Deleware along with the new Indianapolis Urban Center. The 16th & Park development by the Indianapolis Housing Authority is now coming out of the ground along Park Street. New street improvement have recently been made from Illinois to Central that will include additional flower and tree planings this fall. Additional development could make this one of the premier east/west corridors.