Hopeful signs for urban core

The Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis has badly neglected many of its neighborhoods, especially in the heart of the city, for decades. Thousands of abandoned houses and businesses have dragged down property values and driven up crime rates. Sidewalks and streets have crumbled in many residential areas. Extensive brownfields — old industrial and retail properties that must be scrubbed environmentally before they can be put to new use — have hampered redevelopment.

The neglect has been so severe that even up-and-coming neighborhoods such as Fountain Square and Mass Ave remain only a shadow of what they could be.

But fresh signs of hope are emerging in much of Indy’s urban core. The Super Bowl Legacy Project is pumping new life into the Near Eastside. Indiana Landmarks’ dazzling renovation of the Old Centrum provides a focal point in the ongoing rebirth of the Old Northside.

And two recently proposed projects — 16 Tech, a life sciences park that would stretch all the way from 16th Street to the IUPUI campus along Indiana Avenue, and the Urban Land Institute’s plan to transform the old General Motors stamping plant into a multiuse development southwest of Downtown — could create a miles-long stretch of well-planned, attractive commercial, residential and recreational space in the interior of the city.

Yet there’s also a danger that the recent efforts won’t be sustained for the long haul. The 16 Tech and stamping plant projects are far from certain. The lack of a long-term funding source for infrastructure remains, a fact that could leave the city scrambling for dollars.