Row Site Visit Info

OVERVIEWReconnecting to Our Waterways: The Science of a Better City is an Indianapolis grass-roots community collaboration that helps neighborhoods strengthen waterways, and in turn, helps waterways strengthen neighborhoods. It uses the collective impact framework so that each partner does what it does best while also aligning its activities and programs toward common objectives and outcomes.

OVERVIEW OF RECONNECTING TO OUR WATERWAYS: THE SCIENCE OF A BETTER CITY

SUMMARY OF HELEN JOHNSON’S SITE VISITJULY 23-24, 2013INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

SUBMITTED BY BRIAN PAYNE, PRESIDENTCENTRAL INDIANA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

AUGUST 2, 2013

RECONNECTING TO OUR WATERWAYS (ROW) INDIANAPOLIS, IN :: SUMMARY SITE VISIT JULY 23-24, 2013

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HISTORY

Reconnecting to Our Waterways (ROW) started in 2011 when Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis’ largest company,

began looking for a better framework for its Global Day of Service. The Lilly Global Day of Service involves 8,000 Indianapolis-based Lilly employees (and several thousand around the world) working together on community service projects all on one day in October. Although 0MPP]�+PSFEP�(E]�SJ�7IVZMGI�LEW�LEH�E�WMKRM½GERX�impact, after the fourth year, Lilly was looking for a way to be more strategic about its resources, investment and overall long-term impact.

At the same time, Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) hosted CEOs for Cities National Livability Challenge in October 2010 that proposed 10 big quality of life concepts every American city should consider. For the purpose of the Livability Challenge, quality SJ�PMJI�[EW�HI½RIH�EW�±GVIEXMRK�EGGIWW�XS�EVX��nature and beauty every day for everybody.” ±6IGSRRIGXMRK�XS�]SYV�[EXIV[E]W²�[EW�SRI�of the 10 big concepts. CICF had been heavily promoting the goal of creating access to art, nature and beauty and the ten big concepts throughout the community when Lilly executive Sherrie Bossung, who oversees Lilly Global Day of Service, was introduced to these concepts. CICF and Lilly connected in late December of 2011 and by March of 2012, a full-blown community collaboration was born. In fact, a March 2012 community meeting attracted more than 90 community partners for a full day of workshops and neighborhood charrettes. Since then, a collective impact framework has been established, backbone organizations have been chosen, committees have been formed and neighborhoods organizations and associations have been brought in as key partners. In fact, ROW, its framework, plans and metrics are a natural extension of the neighborhoods’ fully developed quality of life plans that have been facilitated over the past few years by Indianapolis’ chapter of the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC).

ROW WATERWAYS, NEIGHBORHOODS AND ELEMENTS63;�MW�JSGYWIH�MR�WIZIR�WTIGM½G�neighborhoods within a 10-minute walk (half-mile) or 20-minute bike ride (three miles) surrounding the six major waterways:

��WEST INDIANAPOLIS AND NEAR WESTSIDE: White River/Eagle Creek

��MID-NORTH: Fall Creek

�� LAFAYETTE SQUARE: Eagle Creek

��MIDTOWN: Central Canal

��NEAR EASTSIDE: Pogues Run

�� SOUTHEAST: Pleasant Run

This is just the beginning. Other areas and neighborhoods will connect in the future.

ROW actively seeks participation and input from people who live and work closest to the [EXIV[E]W��-X�MHIRXM½IW�ERH�WYTTSVXW�TVSNIGXW�that have lasting, meaningful impact. Our focus is on improving the surrounding shoreline and neighborhoods along key waterways – turning these areas into assets for residents and the community. ROW gives people opportunities to learn about and experience art, nature, and beauty along our waterways.


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ROW is focused on holistic solutions that integrate six related elements. Each element has a taskforce to identify and support projects connected to each waterway:

��Aesthetics - infuse functional art and natural beauty into the process resulting in experiential sensory engagement

��Connectivity – create artistic, beautiful, and welcoming access points or destination places to and on our waterways within a 10 minute walk or 20 minute bike ride on dedicated, well-maintained paths, sidewalks and bike lanes

��Ecology – create conditions that improve ecological form and function

��Economics - leverage opportunities for economic growth for adjacent neighborhoods

��Education – inspire residents to learn about waterways’ health, history and value to adjacent neighborhoods

��Well-being – create safe and accessible opportunities that promote and support physical and mental well-being

As these elements work together in each neighborhood and along each waterway, the goal is to transform the waterways into powerful

neighborhood assets that lead to beautiful, vibrant, sustainable neighborhoods of choice for people of various economic means.

ROW LEADERSHIP ROW involves a coalition of Indianapolis neighborhoods and residents, private and public organizations, and civic leaders. It is led by a public-private partnership of more than 15 FYWMRIWW�ERH�RSRTVS½X�SVKERM^EXMSRW��)PM�0MPP]�and Company, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and XLI�'MX]�SJ�-RHMERETSPMW�3J½GI�SJ�7YWXEMREFMPMX]�provide senior leadership. ROW actively seeks input from the residents and stakeholders who live and work closest to the waterways.

ROW STEERING COMMITTEE:

��MARK ADLER :: Program Director, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful

�� BRAD BEAUBIEN :: Director of the Indianapolis Center, Ball State University College of Architecture and Planning

��ANTHONY BRIDGEMAN :: Director of Neighborhood and Community Outreach, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

�� SHERRIE BOSSUNG :: Vice President of the Lilly Foundation, Eli Lilly and Company

34TH ST


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��MOIRA CARLSTEDT :: Pres. and CEO, Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership

�� TIM CARTER :: Director, Butler University Center for Urban Ecology

�� JAN DIGGINS :: Director of Community Outreach, Citizens Energy Group

��GABRIEL FILIPELLI :: Director, IUPUI Center for Urban Health

��DAVID FORSELL :: President and CEO, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful

�� SANFORD GARNER :: Managing Partner, A2SO4

�� TEDD GRAIN :: Program Director, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

�� JANICE HICKS-SLAUGHTER :: Director of the EcoLab, Marian University

��MARK KESLING :: President and CEO, Da Vinci Pursuit

�� ERIC LUCAS :: Partner, MKSK

��ADAM MCLANE :: Vice President, The Nature Conservancy

�� BRIAN PAYNE :: President and CEO, Central Indiana Community Foundation

��CORRIE MEYER :: Urban Planner and Landscape Architect, Schmidt Associates

�� BILL TAFT :: Indianapolis Executive Director, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

��ALPHONS VAN ADRICHEM :: Community Coordinator, Central Indiana Community Foundation

�� JIM WALKER :: Founder and Executive Director, Big Car

CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS LIAISONS:��ASHLEE MRAS :: 3J½GI�SJ�7YWXEMREFMPMX]

�� BRIAN ROACH :: Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department

MEASURING OUR SUCCESS;I�IWXEFPMWLIH�WTIGM½G�QIXVMGW�JSV�IEGL�IPIQIRX�XS�KYMHI�SYV�[SVO�ERH�VITSVX�SR�SYV�TVSKVIWW�

# METRICELEMENT

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Artistic elements and areas of natural beauty incorporated around waterway

Brownfield parcels fully assessed and remediated within half-mile of waterways

Visitors’ experience of the artistic installation

Capital investment within half-mile of waterways

Educational programming, events, campaigns, and signs

Incorporate waterways into neighborhood or cultural events

Overall stream health

Natural and physical infrastructure to improve the ecosystem

Neighborhood safety reporting

Conduct health impact assessment

Healthy neighborhood practices

Increase # of residents living within half-mile of waterwayAnnual visitation to defined destination points (occurrences, duration)Public awareness of of environmental importance, economic impact and quality of life contributions of the waterways

Create a connectivity system between ROW-focus neighborhoods and their destination points

OUTCOME

Improved beauty of area

Land remediated and prepared for other uses

Improved quality of life and/or mental state

Increased city tax base

Community knowledge of waterways’ importance, history and condition increased

Leveraged connections between the waterways and adjoining neighborhoods

Supported waterways’ designated use

Improved density of habitat that improves ecological form and function

Increased trail/waterway usage based on improved safety

Established baseline for continued community health awareness

Improved health of community

Increased city tax baseIncreased connectivity for the community areaIncreased community awareness of waterways’ importance

Increased public access to and between destination points within ROW neighborhoods


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MEETING SUMMARIESWED., JULY 23, 2013, 7 PM Dinner, Pure Restaurant, Fountain Square

Helen met with Brian Payne, President and CEO, CICF; Gail Payne, ROW marketing manager; Jim Walker, Executive Director, Big Car; Tedd Grain, Program Director, LISC; and Tim Carter, Director, Butler University Center for Urban Ecology. Pure restaurant is in the heart of Fountain Square, a recently revitalized and now vibrant cultural district one-and-half miles southeast of downtown Indianapolis. The area has been slowly improving over the past 20 years, led by young local artists, neighborhood activists, and RSX�JSV�TVS½XW�WYGL�EW�0-7'��'-'*�ERH�&MK�'EV��Most recently, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick, an urban eight-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail, connects XLI�RIMKLFSVLSSH�XS�XLI�SXLIV�½ZI�HS[RXS[R�cultural districts and other nearby greenway trails. The Cultural Trail has inspired marked momentum in the area with several new multi-million investments in housing, restaurants and new businesses eager to be on the trail.

Each person explained his/her work as it relates to ROW. The group discussed ROW’s history and purpose to create a new framework on which to tie new investment and momentum within the city’s urban core. This idea allows ROW to connect to other important community discussions such as transit, education and the role of the arts. The group also discussed how ROW is re-inspiring an old idea to train low-income residents and ex-offenders in landscape maintenance and green jobs to help care for new plantings and to remove invasives along the waterways as well as other public spaces. It’s about engaging lower-income residents where they live to be part of the solution by equipping them with new skills to compete in a 21st century workforce.

Tedd Grain explained LISC’s involvement with helping all of the ROW neighborhoods create

quality of life plans, most of which include plans for nearby waterways. Tim Carter reported on the grant application pending with the National 7GMIRGI�*SYRHEXMSR�IRXMXPIH�±-RHMERETSPMW��'MX]�EW�Living Laboratory (I/CaLL).” It will be a citywide civic collaboration engaging in cross-sector research that uses the city itself as an informal science learning (ISL) environment. It will create a place-based science learning experience of the city, the next generation of an urban science museum, linking the lived experience of a neighborhood’s urban ecosystem with curated, artistic interpretations of science at six ROW destination locations. Four art forms (visual, music, poetry, ERH�HERGI �[MPP�VIWTSRH�XS�WGMIRXM½G�GSRGITXW�in the city’s six urban waterways, using inductive reasoning to promote learning.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2013, 9:30 AMUnleavened Bread Café, Breakfast with Sherrie Bossung, Vice President of the Lilly Foundation, Eli Lilly and Company and Chair, ROW Steering Committee, and Brian Payne, President and CEO, CICF

Sherrie explained Lilly’s involvement and leadership in ROW and how it sprang from the Lilly Global Day of Service. She expressed Lilly’s ambition to help truly transform the urban core of Indianapolis. Brian talked about how if it wasn’t for Unigov, the city-county consolidation in the 1970’s, Indianapolis would be facing many of problems that are plaguing Detroit. Although downtown Indianapolis is a major success story of transformation and vibrancy, QYGL�SJ�XLI�VIWX�SJ�XLI�YVFER�GSVI�MW�HI½RIH�by disinvestment and outmigration. Since the 1950s, Center Township which is the urban core of Indianapolis, has lost more than half of its population dropping from a high of 350,000 to the 150,000 living there today.

&VMER�ERH�7LIVVMI�XEPOIH�EFSYX�XLI�WMKRM½GERGI�SJ�having breakfast at the neighborhood cafe which doubles as a Christian-based mission to help ex-offenders in the neighborhood get back on their feet. The cafe and Fall Creek (when it is revitalized through ROW) are two major assets on which


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the neighborhood can build. The fact that the RIMKLFSVLSSH�MW�SRP]�E�½ZI�QMRYXI�GEV�VMHI�SV�E�10-minute bike ride (along the Monon Trail and the Cultural Trail) to downtown is another major plus. If the community added more great schools and a major transit line, it is conceivable that this near north neighborhood called Mapleton Fall Creek could be a vibrant neighborhood of choice for the middle and upper-middle class and still be a welcoming and enduring home for the current lower income residents.

WED., JULY 24, 10:45 AMPogue’s Run at Flat 12 brewery with Tracy Heaton de Martinez, community engagement coordinator at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful; Kelly Harris, VISTA Fellow at The Center of Urban Ecology, Butler University; and Brent Aldrich, artist.

In this stop, we talked about projects planned in the Holy Cross neighborhood for the Lilly Day of Service in October. Projects include invasive removal, improvement of a small parcel of private property and possible murals under the interstate, on the Vermont Street bridges and alongside Pogue’s Run. The mural for the Brinks Building alongside Pogue’s Run is being developed by local resident and artist Brent Aldrich.

8LI�MHIE�SJ�E�±HIQSRWXVEXMSR²�WMXI�JSV�4SKYI W�Run between Vermont and Michigan Streets started with the Holy Cross neighborhood president Patrick DuBach. Kelly Harris organized a stream clean-up day on Martin Luther King Day 2013. Nearly 20 neighbors participated on a cold, blustery January day.

As a bit of background: Through ROW resources, the Pogue’s Run committee hired Joshua Anderson from Anderson Bohlander to conduct a charrette with neighbors and develop a plan for the space. This plan is now a guiding document in the planning and implementation of the neighborhood vision.

Momentum for Holy Cross has spread throughout the neighborhood with plans to improve the Sturm Avenue esplanade through a Keep Indianapolis Beautiful / Indianapolis Power and Light Project Greenspace grant and a proposal for another local funding competition.

This momentum has inspired new business through a new doggie daycare opening soon in a formerly derelict parcel and Spotts Landscaping VIGPEMQMRK�E�FVS[R½IPH��*PEX��&MIV[IVOW��'SFPI�Properties and the Redevelopment Group have been instrumental in the planning process.

WED., JULY 24, NOON TO 1 PM at the Michigan Bridge at White River with Eric Lucas, Partner, MKSK Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, Jim Walker and Brian Payne

We discussed the possibilities that the Michigan Street Bridge and the surrounding area represents for ROW along the White River. The priority project for ROW in this area is to work with artists, neighbors, business owners and an important charter high school operated by Indianapolis’ very successful Goodwill Industries all on the Westside of the river to beautiful the Michigan Street bridge and make it a true connector to downtown and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).


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The White River has always acted as a real and symbolic boundary to the Westside neighborhoods of Haughville and West Indianapolis. The bridge is foreboding and sparse in its architecture and acts as a one-way high speed thoroughfare through the neighborhoods and not to the neighborhoods. ROW is the catalyst to a partnership that wants to FIEYXMJ]�XLI�FVMHKI�[MXL�TPERXMRKW�ERH�¾S[IVW�EPSRK�each railing, thereby creating a beautiful, inspiring and real connector.

We have a committed partner in a successful LMKL�XIGL�½VQ�XLEX�NYWX�QSZIH�XS�XLI�;IWXWMHI�XS�take advantage of the talent at IUPUI and to take advantage of some federal subsidies by relocating XS�E�RI[�±ZIRXYVI�^SRI�²��8LI]�[MPP�LMVI�XLI�LMKL�school students, all of whom are economically disadvantaged, to grow some of the plant materials and provide the ongoing maintenance. There is also a commitment from the partners and ROW XS�I\XIRH�XLI�FIEYXM½GEXMSR�IJJSVXW�MRXS�XLI�RIEVF]�commercial district.

This district has a number of positive assets in which to connect and build upon including Goodwill’s headquarters, a library branch, a popular barbeque restaurant, a Kroger grocery store and a well-established community center. Unfortunately each is surrounded by an ugly streetscape and rundown or vacant buildings.

ROW and its neighborhood partners also believe XLEX�XLI�FVMHKI�FIEYXM½GEXMSR�TVSNIGX�GER�FI�E�catalyst to get the city to change Michigan Street from a one-way thoroughfare into a two-way connector complete with bike lanes. We believe this change is key to create the momentum that will lead to sustained economic opportunity and vibrancy for the neighborhood.

WED., JULY 24, 1-2:45 PMBig Car’s Service Center and Little Eagle Creek site with Jim Walker and lunch at Spice Nation in the Lafayette Square neighborhood with Dave Forsell, President, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Jim Walker and Brian Payne

On our way from Haughville to Lafayette Square, we talked a about how momentum for Big Car’s work in this area started with a CEOs for Cities Livability Challenge that took place in Indianapolis in 2010. We talked about how this mini-conference and some other coalition efforts at the time prompted Big Car to look for a space here and for funders, including CICF and LISC, to support both our work at 7IVZMGI�'IRXIV�ERH�E�RSRTVS½X�GSEPMXMSR�SJ�neighborhood leaders. We also talked about the neighborhood’s demographics as being very diverse (with many recent immigrants both as business owners and residents) and its nearby residential makeup being primarily lower income.

On our tour of the Service Center facility, we talked about Big Car’s approach of using art-based engagement (social practice art) and creative placemaking as tools for community and economic development. We talked about the ideas behind creating the garden as an open and interactive public oasis in a desert of asphalt. We visited the front-room program area with the meeting space, library and computer bar (saying hello to Esteban from the Big Car staff). And then we explored the garage performance area and workshop — talking about the facility’s current and future use as a resource for the community and for artists.


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Lastly, we took a short car ride back to nearby Little Eagle Creek behind the mall and talked about possibilities for this as a ROW project. With its unique location, we are still working on ideas via the ROW committee for this waterway and the neighborhood. But the best direction seems to be connecting and highlighting this peaceful, natural setting by linking it back to Service Center as a sort of gateway. This project GSYPH�FI�XLI�WXEVX�SJ�ER�SYXHSSV�½XRIWW�XVEMP�around the mall that includes a portion along Little Eagle Creek.

At lunch at the locally owned Spice Nation Indiana restaurant, we talked more about ROW ideas and learned more about Kresge and then connected with David Forsell who talked about Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and some of its ongoing work with pocket parks and green spaces and how these projects involve both the community and local artists.

WED., JULY 24, 3 - 5:15 PM Segway and bike ride on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail to Pleasant Run Waterway with Brian Payne, Jim Walker, Tedd Grain, David Forsell, Tim Carter, Corrie Meyer; Schmidt and Associates, Mark Kesling; daVinci Pursuit, Mark Owens; Partner, Barnes & Thornburg Law Firm and member of Indy’s CEOs for Cities Cluster.

;I�½VWX�QIX�EX�'-'* W�FSEVHVSSQ�XS�PSSO�EX�renderings to build an elevated trail section of the Pleasant Run Greenway Trail. This Trail which runs six miles and serves the generally underserved and disconnected Southeast and Southside neighborhoods currently connects to XLI�EWWIXW�SJ�XLI�'YPXYVEP�8VEMP��LMWXSVMG�+EV½IPH�Park, and the commercial district of Irvington has a three block chasm right in the middle of its route. We are working with Citizens Energy Group in an attempt of build a connector piece through their now closed coal/coke plant. We are proposing an elevated solution to keep people off the ground and away from contaminated areas.

This Trail connector is seen as a key feature to

the second access point/destination place that ROW is working on with neighbors and artists along the Pleasant Run waterway. However, we spent our tour time with Helen focusing on the economic development and vibrancy that the Cultural Trail has created and its connection to the Barth Bridge destination place along Pleasant Run, one-mile south of the southern terminus of the Cultural Tail at the Fountain Square Cultural District.

We talked about how this access point was chosen by the neighbors and how they see the plaza-like pedestrian bridge over Pleasant Run as a major asset. There is also a tremendous amount of green space that could be used for picnic shelters, playground equipment, interactive arts installations and interactive science-education installations. This area is right on the banks of the waterway but overgrown invasive plants have completely obliterated the view in most areas. Lilly Day of Service will help with that challenge and ROW is working on creating a green-jobs program that would employ neighbors-- both teenagers and adults-- to maintain green spaces and the progress along the watershed.

We discussed the challenge of getting neighbors to think bigger and more expansive about the possibilities. We at ROW have learned that the neighbors no longer allow themselves


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to think big after years of broken promises and neglect by the city and the marketplace. We have learned we need to give them the bench and water fountain they desire to meet their immediate needs and build the trust necessary to partner with them on bigger, more transformative ideas. We have learned that it will take time and success to enable them to hope again.

CENTRAL CANAL SUMMARYThere was not enough time to tour ROW’s projects along the Central Canal. The Canal, originally intended to connect to the Wabash and Erie Canal, bankrupted the State of Indiana and constructed ended in 1839. It is approximately eight miles long extending from downtown Indianapolis, running parallel

along the White River up to the Broad Ripple area. Today, the Canal is operated by Citizens Energy as one of the city’s main water sources. The Central Canal Towpath runs along the Canal from Broad Ripple Village at the Monon Greenway Trail south 5.23 miles to 30th St.

The Towpath is a popular trail, connecting users from Broad Ripple’s eclectic arts and cultural scene, including the Indianapolis Art Center, to historic Meridian Kessler, Butler Tarkington neighborhoods, Butler University, Christian Theological Seminary and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Before ROW existed, there has been a plan to leverage the Towpath between Broad Ripple and the Indianapolis Museum of %VX�EW�ER�±%VX�XS�%VX²�XVEMP��[MXL�ZEVMSYW�EVX�interventions. ROW continues to play a role in this discussion and planning.

ADDITIONAL ROW RESOURCES:WEB SITE AND OVERVIEW VIDEO: ourwaterways.org/

MAP OF SIX WATERWAYS & LINKS TO NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS: reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/where/

LIST OF PROJECTS PLANNED: reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/what/accomplishments/

VIDEOS/ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE POSSIBILITIES ALONG EACH WATERWAY: reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/what/possibilities/

SUMMARY OF LILLY GLOBAL DAY OF SERVICE ROW PROJECTS FOR 2012: reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/row-related-projects-for-lilly-global-day-of-service/

http://www.ourwaterways.org/

http://reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/where/

http://reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/what/accomplishments/

http://reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/what/possibilities/

http://reconnectingtoourwaterways.org/row-related-projects-for-lilly-global-day-of-service/

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Row Site Visit Info