Letters: The circle needs vehicular traffic, not a park

This is a response to Lesley Weidenbener’s commentary in the IBJ this past week [“Spark feels like a Circle success,” Oct. 6]. I feel Spark on the Circle and closing off a quadrant to traffic is a benefit for a few. But think of how many cars use the Circle to get around to work, to meetings, to attend the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra or the Columbia Club, which I think brings lots more money to the city than those who are playing games on the AstroTurf.

Why not use the War Memorial Plaza that is already a park and doesn’t disrupt traffic? The people in charge seem to want this city to be a “walking/bicycle” city, which it never will be. There are thousands of people that need to use their cars to get to work, to meetings, to concerts, to get through the city without using the overcrowded interstate.

We are not a European city where “squares” are full of walkers and bicycles. We don’t have subways or that kind of mass transportation that will take people where they need to go.

We live on the south side of the city, and there is no way I could go to the Columbia Club to a meeting, then to the Hilbert Circle Theatre for a concert, then to Needlers for a few groceries and make many more stops riding the bus or riding a bicycle.

I know the pandemic caused great disaster in the city, but I also know that the people begging on the street and harassing people who work downtown caused businesses to move out of the city. In my mind, this all boils down to the complete lack of law and order.

—Dorothy Rynard