MonumentCircle

An Indianapolis neighborhood facing substantial challenges has gotten a big boost from something that might be overlooked elsewhere - the opening of a grocery store. Flanner House opened Cleo’s Bodega on June 20 to provide a “food access hub” in the North West Area, a part of the city described as Indianapolis’ largest food desert. “This is one of the most historic black neighborhoods in the city,” said Torian Jones, a manager at the store. Before Interstate 65 cut through the neighborhood, “There was a whole community, a whole black infrastructure here.” Video: A Cleo's manager talks about the pride of the neighborhood. The city supplied $400,000 in funding to open the store, which will hire people from the neighborhood through the Flanner House Community Center for Working Families Program. Census data shows nearly a third of residents in the area live below the poverty level, and almost half the people within a mile of Flanner House receive food stamp...

An NPR host who discovered his true love for radio while waiting at a traffic signal told an Indianapolis audience that he got his big break through persistence. Sam Sanders covered Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and other candidates for NPR in the 2016 election. He is host of the network’s show and podcast, “It’s Been a Minute,” which airs Sundays at 2 p.m. on WFYI 90.1, and spoke at Butler University’s Schrott Center for the Arts on April 22 as part of the station’s Listen Up series. Sanders began listening to NPR as a teenager but became a bigger fan in the summer of 2008 as an intern in New Orleans while in graduate school. The job required a large amount of driving, and he listened to NPR frequently. Once at a red light he was listening to a show and the host and a panel were laughing hysterically. “I thought, ‘Oh my god, they get paid to have fun and talk about cool stuff. I’m doing that,’” Sanders told the Butler audience. “So I went b...

 Ride a city bus in Indianapolis and you might be surprised, says a woman who’s backing the Red Line and IndyGo’s plan for a 70 percent increase in service. What Karissa Hulse and others have seen are riders who are polite, help each other and greet their drivers. Hulse is a mom with two young kids, so she notices courtesy. “I’ve had countless times when people offered me a seat when I’ve been riding with my kids or help me out when I’m juggling things,” she says. “It’s the community of kindness that I’ve experienced. And that’s not unusual for IndyGo – it’s the norm, and that’s what is so comforting.” Karissa Hulse New transit technology The Red Line, running 13 miles from Broad Ripple to the University of Indianapolis, is the first stage of a bus rapid transit system that will also include east-west lines and a grid system to provide more direct service. Bus rapid transit uses dedicated lanes, faster boarding and ticketing, and more frequent service to...

(AARP) She looked tired, but no more than you would expect for somebody who had just pulled the overnight shift at FedEx. Now she was at her second job, running a retail cash register at one of the shops in the Indianapolis airport. The work doesn’t pay much, she told me. It’s the old joke about “There are plenty of jobs - I’ve got three of ‘em,” but she’s not joking about needing the money. And if times weren’t tight enough, she got scammed on the phone the other day and nearly lost $7,000. (Know someone else who needs a reminder about scams? Show them the Federal Trade Commission’s site for spotting frauds.) 13 hours a day She told me all about it, but the story really starts with working two jobs at an age when many people have retired. I asked her, so you work at FedEx all night and come in here? “I do,” she said. “I’ve got five and a half hours there, and then seven and a half here.” So, 13 hours a day. My guess was, she’s in her mid-60s. I’ve al...

 IndyGo Photo A key feature of the Red Line bus rapid transit system is that the buses will be electric, not diesel powered. But even if there’s trouble getting that part of the system to work, one of the architects of the plan says the Red Line can still accomplish what he hoped it would. “Pretty much every decision I made as mayor of Indianapolis was to attract talent to the city, creating the sort of environment that talent wants to move to,” said Greg Ballard. Cities increasingly compete for talent – a key driver of economic development – on the basis of amenities such as good transportation and quality of life. “Our mass transit was bad, rated very low. We said let’s make a plan. I think we had over 200 outreach meetings, really trying to listen to the community about what they wanted, what they were looking for, how we could make it better.” Ballard, mayor from 2008-16, secured $75 million in federal money for the Red Line. The year he left offic...

DPW crews bring out the big guns in pothole battle (artist's representation) City pothole crews this week beat back "The Monster of 75th Street," a yawning crater of automotive Armageddon, but were still fighting to contain a contagion of even worse street destruction. Shovels may not be enough, officials said, and they contemplated deploying heavy armor (see illustration) against the threat.  Meanwhile, Monument Circle correspondents across the city reported battles of their own: "Really? Have you seen Guion Road," Karen said. "It looks like a meteor shower hit it." “Apparently you’ve never been on the Eastside,” said Nick. “Try South Belmont,” reported Allen. “You can’t drive a foot without hitting one”   Any signs of progress? Sunshine and warmer weather brought hope, but the fight was far from over.  Previously: : Meet “The Monster,” Indy’s worst pothole On the far northeast side amid the suburban...

On the far northeast side amid the suburban streets near a busy high school, lurks the Monster of 75th Street . Pothole stories fill the news each spring. A candidate for mayor decries the futile efforts to stem the tide of tire damage and wrecked suspensions. Yes, there are many potholes, but The Monster of 75th Street is the worst - easily swallowing a DPW cone the way a hungry bear grabs a hapless squirrel. Like real estate, it’s about location: On a street so pockmarked that cars weave perilously across the centerline to dodge the craters, The Monster is ready. Dodge the others, this beast of the shattered pavement says, but I swallow the unwary in my angry maw. Drivers now have their worst potholes memorized, knowing when to edge to the side, slow down or even stop until it’s safe to creep through the yawning cliffs of shattered pavement. But The Monster waits, patiently and without pity. You may have a monster of your own. If so, let us know at the Mon...

Journalist Adam Wren, left, talks with Deborah and James Fallows  at the Indianapolis Central Library A husband-and-wife journalist team spent five years flying their single-engine prop airplane to cities across America to take the measure of the country.   Now they are turning their focus to Indiana. James and Deborah Fallows, authors of “OurTowns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America,” are visiting the I-69 corridor communities of Indianapolis, Muncie, Fort Wayne and Angola this week. The tour is the opening event for Indiana Humanities’ new initiative, INseparable, and the pair spoke March 19 at Central Library at an event co-sponsored by New America Indianapolis. The couple visited dozens of towns, mostly smaller communities not on the national media radar, and provide a vivid portrait of civic reinvention across the country. “We started this project in 2013 - which seems in some ways like about 200 years ago compared to now,” Deborah t...

Megan Fernandez is confident that the Red Line will be an asset for the city similar to the Monon Trail, so she decided to buy a house a block from the route. Fernandez says the new, 13-mile bus rapid transit route from Broad Ripple through downtown to the University of Indianapolis is a big step forward. She joined Indianapolis Monthly in 1995 while a student at Indiana University and is an editor there now. After living downtown for 20 years, she recently bought a home in the Garfield Park neighborhood with her husband, Enrique. She’s seen a new pride in the city that wasn’t there before.  “Younger people aren’t busting to get out of Indianapolis anymore,” she said. “They’re proud of their city and they wear it on their T-shirts. When your city innovates and has fresh ideas, that has to make you a little proud.” A 'usable' city There’s been a turnaround from previous years. Fernandez hears people say they love Indy.   “Everyone’s always surprised - ...

Roscoe Brown didn’t expect this to be easy. Some of IndyGo’s critics are pushing back on the new Red Line bus rapid transit project. But progress doesn’t happen without struggle. “We’re going through a lot of change now. But you have to go through the process to get to the end result,” said Brown, IndyGo’s chief operating officer and vice president of operations. “We’re experiencing that now – people are talking about all the construction – but a year from now it’s going to be really exciting to see the things folks have to say.” The Red Line, scheduled to begin this year, will run 13 miles on mostly dedicated lanes from Broad Ripple through downtown Indy to the University of Indianapolis. The idea is to connect major employers, who represent a quarter of Marion County’s jobs, in a densely populated area with buses arriving every 10 minutes for 20 hours a day, seven days a week. Such systems are known as bus rapid transit, or BRT lines, and can be found in Los Angeles, ...