Author archives

Learning to Ride a Bike: Basics like Balance & Braking

From what I can tell there are two major processes to learning how to ride a bike as an adult – figuring out the mechanics and then figuring out how those mechanics work in the real world. The simplest and, in many ways, most challenging part of learning involves some basics mechanical processes. Those include …

Learning to Ride a Bike – at 32

I have a confession: I am 32 years old and love the idea of urban bike-riding and other alternative modes of transportation. And, I cannot – or at least could not until very recently – ride a bike. A few years ago, I was lucky to participate in an renewal fellowship for Indiana’s youth development …

Step 1 to Create a Pedestrian Friendly City

A lot Urban Indy’s content focuses on decisions made by “the man”. You know, the guy/gal/power structure that messes up a lot, doesn’t always get the value of making Indianapolis a live-able city, and can’t seem to listen to our urbanophilic reason? Well, there are also a lot of things, simple things, that you can …

The New Wave of Green Roofs?

An NYU grad student, Marco Castro Cosio, came up with an interesting idea to make green roofs a bit more mobile – outfit MTA buses in New York with green roofs. He’s calling the project Bus Roots. In addition to adding more green space, he also suggests that adding green roofs to these modes of …

ACS: Parking, FSSA & Concerns

NUVO’s Austin Considine* wrote an interesting article regarding the Mayor’s pick for the proposed parking system – Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS).  In addition to concerns related to ACS’s ties to Republican leadership in the state and a few privacy blunders, one sticky past project of ACS is causing concern among critics. Given the long-term nature …

Parking Proposals & Multi-Space Meter Dreams

As you may have read, the hourly rate for parking in downtown Indianapolis and Broad Ripple might change after the city finalizes new management contracts. The current rate – a whopping 75-cent hourly rate – may be raised to $1.00 or $1.50 per hour. Some ballyhoo has ensued in talk-back comments or maybe even in …