Sears at Castleton Closes: How to Rethink the Space Amidst the Retail Apocalypse
Posted by Eric McAfee in Announcements, New Development on Jun 13th, 2018 | 25 comments
We knew it was going to happen eventually.
Sears Holdings Company recently announced the latest wave of closures for its two flagship department stores—Sears and Kmart—and they did not spare metro Indy from the chopping block. This time around, the Sears is closing at Castleton Square Mall, the largest and, in most regards, the best-known mall in the region. Once Sears is gone, the chain will only have one location left in the entire metro of two million: down on the south side, at Greenwood Park Mall.
We could assert that Sears’ departure is a huge blow to Castleton,...
FTA Awards $2 Million to Indy for BRT Planning
Posted by Curt Ailes in Transit on Oct 20th, 2011 | 5 comments
On October 17th, 2011, the FTA awarded Indianapolis $2 million to conduct an alternatives analysis on what is termed, “Central Corridors”. (click here for the official FTA press release in .PDF format) This is direct from last year’s adopted Indyconnect plan that laid out future BRT lines along Washington Street east & west as well as BRT from Carmel to the southside of Indy along Keystone, College & Madison Avenues. Although the text is not particularly constricting, nor is it confining to the technology being BRT, what it DOES do is open the door to starting the...
Regional Transit and the Trip Not Taken
Posted by Curt Ailes in Pedestrian, Transit on Oct 12th, 2011 | 29 comments
The past year and some change has been an exciting time for transit in Indianapolis. I feel like we may be moving from the decades of study, study, study to something actually taking place. Proof of that is the current undertaking of the NE Corridor AA/EIS which is also accompanied by a land use study which will not only strengthen Indianapolis’ bid to get federal funding for the project but also lay out a plan for what we would like the areas around the stations to look and feel like.
As of late, both the Republican and Democratic mayoral candidates have been supportive of improved mass...
Join the Central Indiana Transit Movement
Posted by Curt Ailes in Transit on Jun 24th, 2011 | 2 comments
Last week, CIRTA went public with it’s message focused on building a coalition of transit supporters. The effort includes a spot on their website to sign your name to a petition as well as a means of organizations crafting a resolution of support for dedicated transit funding in the upcoming 2012 Legislative Session. As I posted about a couple weeks back, Urban Indy passed the resolution on April 12th, far ahead of the public roll-out of the current effort.
What does this all mean? It means that we are all banding together with a common message to our state legislators: Give us the means to pass...
The Future of Transit in Central Indiana
Posted by Curt Ailes in Transit on Jun 6th, 2011 | 16 comments
When Indyconnect unveiled its first proposal for a long range transit plan for the Indianapolis region (February 2010), many people were happy about what had been included in the plan.Transit backers were thrilled that light rail transit was planned along Washington Street from the airport to the east side. Finally, vocal advocates (myself included) had something to look forward in terms of getting real urban rail here in Indianapolis. This plan was rolled out to the public and while many in Indy wanted to see more light rail in the form of Broad Ripple to Downtown, or some sort of route that mixed...
