The Next Great Placemaking Exercise for Indianapolis

Indy needs more powerful, engaging and dynamic public spaces that become quintessential places to see when you visit Indianapolis.

Chicago’s Millennium Park is a fantastic example of a placemaking project that has transformed the visitor experience in Chicago. Millennium Park is a world renowned example of urban development and I think Indianapolis could replicate pieces of the project to transform areas of our own city.

Millennium Park in Downtown Chicago. 

Millennium Park is a destination spot for visitors. Its Instagram index (the average number of people who snap pics from the location) is off the charts. If you are going to Chicago, you stop and take a picture at Cloud Gate. Any type of public space development should involve some type of public art that is engaging and approachable. Cloud Gate rocks because everyone knows how to interact with it. It’s an intuitive piece of art that engages visitors and compliments the initiative of the space perfectly.

Indianapolis was recently ranked 47th nationally in public green spaces. That’s pathetic. Downtown Indianapolis has an abundance of great resources, but could really benefit from more engaging public spaces.

Luckily there are a couple initiatives already in play that could help this problem. The Reconnecting to Our Waterways initiative has already addressed six areas that could be benefitted by urban planning and redevelopment by linking them to underused waterways in Indianapolis. The plan is pretty cool and presents a series of solutions that would create engaging spaces all over the city. One area that Reconnecting to Our Waterways does not address is the old GM stamping plant on the west side of Indianapolis. The site is huge – 101 acres – and is located right on the White River. It’s only a 15-to-20 minute walk from the Eiteljorg Museum and White River State Park. In my eyes that could be the perfect location for a great park in Indy’s urban core.

The GM Stamping Plant in Indianapolis.

What if we used the blueprint established by Chicago’s Millenium Park for the old GM site. Putting aside minor issues such as funding, public/private partnerships and viability *sarcasm*, let’s consider some of the elements that could be used.

• Engaging public art – The anchor for this space would be a large-scale public art piece that registers a mega-high score on the Instagram index. If someone was visiting Indy this would become the quintessential place for taking a great skyline picture of the city and seeing a great city landmark.

• Water park feature that doubles as an ice skating rink in winter – This would tie into the Reconnecting to Our Waterways initiative and make it a destination spot for families year around. 

• Bike path and trail that connects to the White River Wapahani Trail – The trail is already a highly used feature of White River State Park and would be a vital piece to link the southwest side of Indy to the central core. Indy has a great track record of maximizing development around trails. 

• Mixed use development – The southwest side of Indy is the least livable quadrant of the urban core. This initiative would encourage the development of housing and amenities to spark growth in the area. If the Wapahani Trail was extended, I think we could expect development to surge. I envision a scenario very similar to what happened along Virginia Avenue when the Cultural Trail was designed. 

• Fishing pier – This would be a great recreational spot for fishing and continue to reinforce the Reconnecting to Our Waterways mission.

• New soccer stadium – This is easily the most ambitious of my ideas (although it seems to have traction). Let’s say the Indy Eleven Soccer team is a success and goes on to become a full fledged Major League Soccer Franchise. They will need a new stadium and the old GM site would make perfect sense with its available land, proximity to other sporting venues (Lucas Oil Stadium, Victory Field) and opportunity for development in the area. I could easily envision the public spaces and stadium coexisting harmoniously in the same “park” setting.

A rendering of a proposed new soccer stadium in Indianapolis.

Why Indianapolis’ Brand Needs to Catch Up with Its Product

Indianapolis struggles with a number of perception issues. When I talk to people who aren’t from the Midwest or aren’t familiar with Indianapolis, they seem to have a very limited outlook on what the city has to offer. They assume that, since Indianapolis is in Indiana, there is nothing to do (but shuck corn). There are no restaurants, entertainment options or fun to be had of any kind. In fact they seem to act like Indianapolis has absolutely zero cultural offerings. They’re wrong. Anyone that is from the city or has visited the city knows this. So what is the issue? Why do people assume that Indianapolis is the Mecca of monotonous, the borough of boring and the land of lackluster?

It’s because Indianapolis’ brand hasn’t caught up with its product.

Indianapolis has an awesome product: a vibrant downtown, connected cultural districts, abundant resources to host major events, a livable urban core and an emerging technology driven business sector that is attractive to young talent. The issue is that these products aren’t registering in the minds of outsiders when they think of Indy.

Here are some of my ideas on how to fix that problem by molding Indianapolis’ brand.

Speak to young professionals. This should be Indianapolis’ target audience. People who are 22 to 40 years old are the ones who have the power, and energy, to change how the city is perceived. The city needs to attract more talented young people who can help the city grow and bring change. Bringing in more young professionals imports fresh ideas, new business opportunities and creates a foundation for economic growth. There is a swell of optimism surrounding this demographic and many of them have realized that if you want to change Indianapolis, there is an opportunity to do so.

Continue to promote the back bone of Indianapolis’ hallmark events, but tell the world about other things that make Indianapolis awesome. The Indianapolis 500, the Final Four and other sports related events have helped get Indianapolis to where they are today, but promoting other cultural initiatives are what will get us to where we want to be in the future. It’s crucial to promote cultural institutions and entertainment options that speak to a broader audience beyond sports. WARM fest is a great example of an event that could become a staple for Indianapolis. Exact Target’s Connections Conference is a model that can be emulated to showcase the wealth of tech-savvy companies and ideas that reside in Indianapolis. 

Pursue live music opportunities. I think music is one of the least recognized opportunities for strengthening a city’s brand and spurring economic development. Other cities that are, or were, similar in size and stature have harnessed this asset and used it to their advantage. Austin and Nashville, like Indianapolis, have no oceans, mountains or eighth wonders of the world, but they are considered by all young people as hip places to live and visit. Both cities also used music as a catalyst for growth and economic development. Why can’t Indianapolis be the same way? People want entertainment options that combine their senses. Indianapolis has a connected downtown and a live music void that would make it easy to set up a music-focused cultural district. 

The canal could be an ideal location for
 a live music cultural district.

I think the central canal could be the perfect spot for a new cultural district that caters to live music. The canal, for the most part, lacks street level business. What if a stretch of the canal became Indianapolis’ live music headquarters? I can envision multiple restaurants and bars with outdoor seating and music sprawled across the canal. 

Keep attracting new and large scale events. Indianapolis’ convention space potential is second to none. Every big conference or event the city lands is a huge “W” for the brand. Events are the best way to showcase what Indianapolis is truly capable of. All of the marketing in the world cannot compete with the impact of new visitors giving the city rave reviews. Let’s hope that Indianapolis continues to pursue large scale events like the Super Bowl. 

Doing these four things will strengthen Indianapolis’ brand and position them as a vibrant and versatile city that has plenty of growth potential. The city is riding a wave of optimism, now we need to share that optimism with the masses. 

Four Reasons Indianapolis Needs Mass Transit

Mass transit in Indianapolis has cleared a number of hurdles in recent weeks and it seems that Hoosiers are finally on the brink of having the option to decide whether to fund an expansion of Indianapolis’ mass-transit system. 

Proponents of mass transit have been trying for year’s to identify a benefit that invigorates the “typical” Hoosier to care about – and now vote – for mass transit. Here are a couple of ideas I have for selling mass transit to the masses. 

Dodge Daily Traffic – Traffic is getting worse everywhere. I-69 is a parking lot twice a day and daily congestion issues on 465 add time and headaches to many commuters. Transit options under the Indy Connect initiative would bypass these issues and likely shorten the commute for people entering the downtown area from the suburbs. 

Instagram and Twitter Your Commute Away - If part of the appeal for expanding mass transit is to attract the young professional, then play up the benefits that come with being a passive passenger. Commuters could connect to their device, read a magazine or prepare for that big meeting while traveling. Throw some free Wi-Fi on that bad boy and get your social media fix to go. 

Develop a George Costanza Wallet – The affable Seinfeld character had a notoriously fat wallet, which is something that mass transit can also bring to Hoosiers. Check out these green-inspired stats, via Metro Transit: 

• Communities with public transportation save $18 billion annually in congestion costs
• Transit options alleviate the dependency on using cars, which the average American spends $6,251 per year on to run and maintain. 
• Every $10 million in capital investment to public transportation yields $30 million in increased business sales.

Create a Sense of Place – The 20-somethings in Indianapolis want to feel connected to their city. In general Indianapolis neighborhoods need more identity. They need features that create a sense of pride and make residents want to invest in its well-being, safety and resources. In other communities (check out Charlotte) mass transit has enabled infrastructure and development that has revitalized depleted parts of town and opened the door for redevelopment. 

Indy needs mass transit to position itself as a world-class city. But more importantly it will benefit Hoosiers and create opportunities that connect people to their communities and establish a sense of pride in where you live and work.