Bustling foot traffic at lunchtime and at night helps sustain many of the restaurants, shops and galleries in the vibrant
Mass Ave downtown neighborhood. But few of the Massachusetts Avenue shoppers and diners on foot venture east of the psychological
barrier that is College Avenue.
Hubert Humphrey once noted that “the moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” Our population continues to age. The number of seniors in Indianapolis is on the threshold of doubling-from 95,500 in 2000 to 187,500 in 2040. Therefore, it is incumbent on us…
This week: A trio of Indiana poets, a virtual artist at Big Car and the first edition of “Lou Empties the Notebook.” From June 24-27, the nation’s Poets Laureate (now there’s an awkward plural) will descend on Indy. And while this convention may not be as attention-getting as GenCon, it did inspire me to take a look at recent books by a trio of less-celebrated Indiana poets. Purdue’s Donald Platt calls one of his poems “Snapshot,” but that title could…
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful is planning to renovate a vacant industrial building in Fountain Square to serve as its new headquarters. The not-for-profit will seek LEED certification for the 25,000-square-foot building…
Pauline Moffat, executive director of the Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, expects a big turnout for this year’s two-week salute to alternative stage productions. The event takes over the Massachusetts Avenue Arts District Aug. 24 to Sept. 2, offering 228 individual performances staged by 40 theatrical troupes and presented at five different venues, including Theatre on the Square, The Phoenix Theatre and American Cabaret Theatre. Moffat hopes this season will bring a third year of attendance growth and take the event…
Tucked away behind hundreds of shiny new cars on the west side of U.S. 31 just south of Greenwood Park Mall is a showroom that includes some of the rarest-and highest-priced-cars in the country. The double doors to a building that looks like every other at Ray Skillman’s car dealership complex open to rows of pristine pieces of history. As eclectic as the man who opened the dealership 18 months ago, the collection of cars includes Packards alongside Pontiacs and…
Area homeowners weren’t the only ones to get a shock when they opened their 2007 tax bills. Some small-business owners also saw their bills skyrocket-putting a strain on entrepreneurs who often operate on razor-thin margins. “It’s catastrophic for some businesses,” said Kevin Hughes, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business’s Indiana chapter. Mike Hutson, owner of Westfield Lighting Co., certainly feels the pain. The bill on his commercial property-several acres and a 22,500-square-foot building-increased from $42,000 in 2006…
A not-for-profit neighborhood revitalization group has slashed the prices on three remodeled live/work buildings at English and State avenues. The brick buildings near Fountain Square have undergone various levels of renovation by…
Earlier this year, real estate agent and Fountain Square resident Phil Barcio began the Fountain Square Mural Project, an effort to transform the neighborhood’s alleys to help prevent crime and…
After a 19-year run as a pilot program, a national initiative aimed at helping women start businesses finally has earned a seal of approval from the federal government. As an official U.S. Small Business Administration program, the Women’s Business Center concept gains the stability that supporters had been seeking for nearly two decades. And that’s good news for women like Krista Bermeo, an Indianapolis artist who makes melted glass jewelry in her namesake Fountain Square studio. Bermeo sought help from…
Perhaps the most performed American opera, “Susannah” tells of a good woman brought down by the hypocrisy of her Appalachian town. Spotted bathing nude in a creek by townspeople looking for a spot for revival meeting baptisms, the parentless 19-year-old’s reputation and spirit are soon destroyed by gossip-and the visiting preacher. It’s an opera with sex (implied), death (thanks to an angry brother), religion (including a revival service) and-something you don’t see in many operas-square dancing. What it also has…
For Mike Wyman, a devastating fire that gutted the family home during his teen-age years laid the foundation for a rewarding career in construction. The 41-year-old Wyman climbed from carpenter to become a leader of projects at two of the city’s largest commercial developers before launching his own company in 2005. WDG Construction & Development Services Inc. on East Washington Street downtown has since grown into a firm that expects to top $30 million in revenue next year-double this year’s…
A prime block of Fountain Square real estate is on the market. Businessman Don Swayze is asking $1.2 million for two buildings and a used-car lot he owns along Virginia…
Amanda Briggs weaves in and out of the bustling lunch crowd in downtown Indianapolis, keeping a close eye on her canine clients
Griffen and Isabella. Briggs, 25, continues her walk through the busy streets, heading to the American Legion Mall and some
much-needed grass. Such is the life of a professional dog walker and pet sitter.
The Nature Conservancy has agreed to buy a blighted industrial property on the eastern edge of downtown to develop a new Indiana
headquarters. The $4.5 million project–which will revitalize or replace the former home of Nemec Heating & Supply Co. at
614 E. Ohio St.–should provide another boost to an area that has been bulking up on development, mainly residential.
ACS Sign System’s unusual approach to sign-making–some are not strictly signs at all–has helped the company grow its revenue
and expand its footprint beyond Indiana. In recent years, sales outside its home state have grown from 20 percent of total
revenue to almost half.
The Fountain Square property that Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Inc. has purchased to house its headquarters is undergoing a massive renovation that will transform it from abandoned derelict to an environmental showpiece. In the process, the not-for-profit environmental group is hoping to set a green example for other developments and draw attention to its mission. KIB bought the building at the corner of Fletcher and Shelby streets for $410,000 in October from the Southeast Development Neighborhood Corp. A $1.3 million redevelopment…
Visitors in Indianapolis for the Urban Forum in April might patronize Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza in Irvington not only to sample the food but also the success of a neighborhood business district revitalization program. The pizzeria benefited from an effort called Fostering Commercial Urban Strategies, or FOCUS, through a $16,000 facade grant from the Indianapolis chapter of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. Indianapolis is one of 30 cities boasting LISC chapters. Nationally, they invested more than $1 billion in low-income…
It’s not easy to make a living in high fashion, especially in a city where the “garment district” extends only to the nearest
Hancock or Jo Ann Fabrics. Still, Indianapolis has a little something up its sleeve–more than a dozen designers who are prepping
their collections for “Project IMA,” a fashion show modeled after Bravo’s reality hit “Project Runway.”
For me, the weekend included stops at the new gallery at the Stutz Building, a visit to the art spaces at the Murphy Art Center in Fountain Square, and finally exposing my two youngest kids to the movie “Hoosiers” —…
