Currently Browsing: Neighborhoods
Indygo Purple Line Public Meetings Scheduled
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Neighborhoods, New Development, Transit on Jun 22nd, 2017 | 5 comments
Next month, IndyGo is convening public meetings to discuss the future plans for the Purple Line. Here is the schedule and agenda:
Purple Line Public Meetings:
Help determine stop placement, lane configuration, and downtown routing for Indy’s second rapid transit line. IndyGo staff and consultants will be available during open houses, offering a brief presentation 15 minutes after the start of each session.
Monday, July 10
City of Lawrence Government Center
(9001 E. 59th Street, Lawrence, IN 46216)
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Tuesday, July 11
Meadows YMCA
(3908 Meadows Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46205)
6:00...
Friday Fun: Ultra-Modern Carriage House Proposed in Old Northside
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Neighborhoods, New Development on Jun 9th, 2017 | 8 comments
Note: To see previous Friday Fun posts, click here.
One of the more interesting and popular ways to increase density in historic Single-Family-Housing neighborhoods is to allow a carriage house toward the backside of the lot. Often, the new residence will sit on the second floor of a new garage for the property. This has been occurring with relative regularity within the urban core, so it wasn’t surprising to see such a proposal to this Victorian on Park:
However, this carriage house in particular jumped off the latest IHPC agenda (page 113):
The IHPC staff issued these responses:
THE DESIGN...
Guest Post by Ryan Funk: Jane Jacobs in Mapleton-Fall Creek
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Bicycling, Neighborhoods, Pedestrian, Transit on May 19th, 2017 | 2 comments
Original post can be found here.
Jane Jacobs was a journalist and community activist who is now widely considered a patron saint of urban planning. Her most famous work, published in 1961, is The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I recently read the book and am reflecting on what it tells us about Mapleton-Fall Creek.
Jacobs wrote at a time when cities looked at historic neighborhoods as “cancers” that should be bulldozed and replaced with utopian garden cities: high-rises separated by expanses of grass. She fought New York City when it wanted to tear down much of Greenwich Village to build...
Strong Indy Meetup for May
Posted by Jim Hodapp in Announcements, Neighborhoods on May 17th, 2017 | 0 comments
Strong Indy, our local chapter of Strong Towns applied to our beloved city of Indianapolis, is having a very special monthly meeting this week on Thursday, May 18th. It’s being hosted by the Harrison Center for the Arts!
Coming off some very strong (no pun intended) momentum from our last meetup and the success in supporting the Chatham Park development proposal, it’s time for another meetup! Join us at the Harrison Center where we’ll hear from Joanna Taft and what the Harrison Center is doing for creative placemaking and traffic calming along 16th street. Their efforts are...
Why I Support Neighborhood Infill Development
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Neighborhoods, New Development on Apr 28th, 2017 | 3 comments
Urban blogs are used to defending their points of views from a more car-centric culture that prevails in many places in the US, and especially here in Indianapolis. But there is one major place where urban blogs receive a bit of pushback from those on the left side of the spectrum: Neighborhood infill, especially multi-story structures. There is an overriding fear that these larger projects will kill the culture of the neighborhood, or make it too expensive. And those are very legitimate concerns. This post intends to lay out my reasons for supporting most of these developments, or at least making them...
