Update on the 22nd and Monon area

Smart Growth Indy recently held a community workshop regarding the area near 22nd and the Monon Trail. They have posted this neighborhood restoration guide. This project has the potential to be a model for other similar areas around the city, similar to the way that we can now point to Fall Creek Place as a reasonable success.

East Market Street: Reopened

On Thursday, I revisited East Market Street, as the project had been completed. I started at East Street and walked towards the Holy Cross Neighborhood. Heidelberger Papers beat me to the punch in posting this, but the more the merrier, I say.

I like the benches and even the trash cans. The lamps don't excite me much.

I love that the ivy on this building is completely red:

Intersection with Park:

Intersection with College, featuring new planters:
Planter close-up:

Newly painted railroad bridge:

Break on through, to the other side. The other side in this case meaning the other side of the Interstate. Intersection with Pine:

This neat house on East Market is now connected with downtown in a much more direct fashion:

I walked a block north and wondered if Ohio Street would be next to be connected:

I had no idea this stunner existed just outside of downtown. It's the headquarters for Circle City Fencing:

Condo Project that looks stalled. Another surprise building for me:

Finally, I love the curved front of this structure at Ohio and Pine:

Neighborhood Infill Development Updates

A few new remodel and infill projects have hit the newswire recently, many of them featuring "green", energy saving construction.

• Nuvo updates us on a remodel of the landmark Gramse building.

• Eastern Fountain Square is getting a major boost with the Millard Fuller Legacy Build 2010 program. (The comments in the article are frighteningly similar to the unhelpful ones found in the IndyStar).
  

• Crown Hill neighborhood is planning a similar transformation with help from the Children's Museum.

It seems that we are seeing more of this type of development lately. I hope it can continue.

Packed Event Calendar in November

Unfortunately, I no longer have an events calendar on this blog. I didn't like the way it was displayed through Google/Blogger, and I also had a tough time keeping up with events. November seems to have a good deal of intriguing events dealing with urban sustainability issues. The Spirit and Place Festival in particular is jam-packed. Here's a brief rundown:

• November 2: Doug Tallamy presents a lecture on how gardening can sustain wildlife at Clowes Hall.

• November 3: Open House at the downtown location of Ball State's College of Architecture and Planning.

• November 8: Self-guided Indy Parks Bicycle and Walk Tour. Marian University hosts a tour of their Eco Lab presented by Green Broad Ripple. Booth Tarkington's home is the setting for a discussion on how historic urban design facilitated community.

• November 9: Author Bill McKibben presents a lecture on local sustainability.

• November 10: Neighborhood place-making workshop.

• November 12: Ethan Kent from Project for Public Spaces at the State Museum. I'll be there for sure. And that's not all for this night, as an amazing-sounding Pecha Kucha takes place as well.

• November 15: The main event of Spirit and Place, a conversation featuring former Mayor Bill Hudnut and innovative mayor of Braddock, PA, John Fetterman. In addition, the evening features a potluck dinner and a discussion about how food influences places featuring chef Neil Brown.
  

Broad Ripple Brewpub goes Solar

Broad Ripple Gazette has an article about the conservation ethic behind the BRBP. Combining beer with a forward-thinking business plan is something I can get behind.

There are actually quite a few interesting items mentioned in the article. Spent grain feeds cattle for local farmers. They already utilize major energy saving measures. Front and center, there is a humongous bike rack. Finally, they reused a defunct building and made it feel like it's always been there. Kudos to the BRBP.

16th and Central: a case study, but only if we learn from it.

The IBJ has posted an article regarding the Kroger and Caravelle Commons. The article mentions the non-urban form and dead-end streets of the apartments. These are good points. However, I'm not sure if we have yet learned this lesson, as non-urban apartments and housing complexes are still under development in Marion County.

This is a brand new apartment complex in Washington Township. This was formerly a forest.

There is currently only one entrance, a surprisingly long access road from the north shown here:

Presumably they will connect extend this access road either south or west, through more forest. Regardless, this complex will be an island, nowhere near any place the residents can walk. Obviously a forest is different from the King Park neighborhood, but there is no guarantee that this model of development will be any more successful than Urban Renewal schemes were in the 1970s. Let's look at a less-recent development in Center Township:

The development dates to 1999. Garage-fronted houses, a retention pond, and a cul-de-sac. Ouch.

Fortunately, there is a newer development in Center Township that takes a page from the New Urbanist handbook, Red Maple Grove:

The streets are integrated with the surrounding neighborhoods, and there are alleys. It may not be a perfect representation of urbanism, but it is at least noticeable that they have attempted to be good neighbors. Interestingly, previously located on this site were suburban-style apartments similar to the ones that are under fire at the beginning of this post. It seems that the mistakes of the 1960's and 1970's are plainly in view. It's time to stop making those mistakes in Marion County.

Indy Winter Farmers Market needs support tonight

I have been forwarded an e-mail from the person in charge of the Winter Farmers Market. I will be attending and I will post it here for anyone who is interested:

Dear friends (this is a long email, but please read all the way through - it's important),
Thanks to those who have sent letters of support. However, the ante has been raised and
the Indy Winter Farmers Market needs your support at the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission meeting tonight.

Despite the overwhelming support of the Chatham Arch Neighborhood Association in a vote of membership last Tuesday, one individual resident continues to fight everything that happens with the development of the Chatham Center. This matter is of too great importance to the market and community for one individual to keep the market from happening in this specific location.

We have been working tirelessly for the several weeks to ensure the market can locate to Chatham Arch from Nov. 14th through April 24th, on Saturdays for a period of only 5 hours. We have gone door to door talking to Chatham Arch neighbors and business owners to explain the goals and mission of the market. OVERWHELMING we have been received with graciousness, excitement, and gratitude for bringing the services of this valuable community event into the heart of Indianapolis' historic neighborhoods.

Why have we been working so hard on this location? Quite simply because we want to create the most welcoming winter market possible, a market that attracts the very best farmers and vendors, and a place that folks look forward to visiting and shopping each week. To that extent, we believe that the physical space of the market is a critically important factor. According to you - our patrons and our vendors - the market should be in a residential area, without being in the center of residential streets. It needs to be on a frequently traveled road that is easy to find without being on road that feels like an inner-city highway. The space needs to be well-lit with lots of windows and natural light, to make the market experience as good as possible for farmers and shoppers and to be highly visible to attract new shoppers into the market. The entry should be direct from the street so that it is accessible to all people, and so that there is no confusion as to the location of the market. And the market should have easy and plentiful parking.

Although we were generously offered and did consider roughly a dozen possible locations, Chatham Center was the only location that met all these criteria. Thus, we determined that this space was the optimal location for the 2009-2010 market season. In addition, IWFM has strong support in the building's owner Larry Jones (who also owns the building used last year), a weekly shopper at IWFM.

IWFM is not set up as a non-profit entity (frankly there has not been the time or money to do so), but I assure you, profit is the last thing driving this project for the IWFM organizers. We set up the market because we saw a need for better local food access downtown, and we heard people wondering where they would go for local food in town when the summer markets ended. The IWFM quickly became an effort about building community around local food and the producers of this food. Last year the IWFM helped support nearly forty families through the winter who were our farmers and vendors. This year the IWFM will support nearly fifty.

Additionally, we have been working closely with Indianapolis Downtown Inc. and the Mass Ave. Merchants Association so that IWFM becomes not only a tool for building our local food community but also a tool for promoting downtown Indianapolis and the locally-owned businesses that operate there.

In closing, the market is truly a community event, thus we need your help tonight. PLEASE attend the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission (IHPC) hearing and ask them first to hear our case and second to vote to approve the temporary variance modification for the IWFM to operate at 901 N. East St

The hearing details are as follows:
Wednesday (TONIGHT), October 7th, 5:30 pm
Location: City-County Building
Public Assembly Room, 2nd floor, 200 E. Washington Street

Please know, the market will happen but having to move location will only take time and energy away from building the best market possible

We sincerely hope to see you tonight.
Laura Henderson
IWFM Founder