"Why Indianapolis is a test case for a fairer form of gentrification."

That word again -- not gentrification, but "fairer." It isn't always used in this context.

Why Indianapolis is a test case for a fairer form of gentrification, by Cara Courage (The Guardian)

“I helped change one neighbourhood into a hipster place, and then we got priced out of there.” Artist Jim Walker is describing the shift in fortunes of the Fountain Square district of Indianapolis, where his Big Car arts collective was born a decade ago – and of the artists and residents who have been forced to move on by the neighbourhood’s gentrification.

Walker’s experience is an increasingly familiar story in cities around the world – a tale of urban pioneers who play a central role in the redevelopment of a downtown area, only to find themselves unable to afford to stay there. Is there a more equitable way? That’s just what Walker is trying to find out with his latest arts-led Indianapolis project.

The twist is a "land trust."

While some lower-rent properties are still available in Fountain Square, the change led Walker to look at other areas in the city that could offer the vacant space Big Car’s operation requires. But this time, Walker wanted to do it differently – pushing for a model of regeneration that places the arts in control of the development process; a model that keeps artists and locals at the centre of the change, and should prevent residents from getting priced out.

His Big Car collective is now busy in Garfield Park, a disinvested area on the south side of Indianapolis, having located a new home on one of the city’s arterial routes, Shelby Street, which is lined by a small parade of service stores, a secondhand bookshop and a cafe.

Thanks to city government and philanthropic help as well as its own funds, Big Car has bought a “land trust”, as Walker calls it, “for the artists working hard with neighbours to improve the area”. The development includes two former factories now repurposed as studios, exhibition and performance spaces, and the Listen Hear sound-art gallery and radio station – located in what used to be a laundromat. Vacant houses are being renovated into affordable homes for artists; Big Car is also a key partner in a community-led safer streets programme, and in talks to bring Indianapolis’s rapid transit to the area.

Fairness, distress and inequality in cities.

Contrast the thoughtful weighing of factors here ...

What do we mean by fairness in cities?, by Danny Dorling and Richard Brooks (The Guardian)

... London is a unique city – today and historically – and we therefore expect Londoners to view fairness as a unique combination of equalities, rights, justice and freedoms.

... with the dull thud of this pronouncement, via the Washington Post.

The most distressed cities are in blue states. The most unequal are in red states.

... A new study has identified 10 large cities where the most substantial shares of the population live in economically distressed communities. It also shines a spotlight on the major and midsize cities where the gaps between those struggling and those doing well have grown largest.

Louisville makes the "economic disparity" list, as Jake discusses at The 'Ville Voice. 

Well, at least we're not Memphis. That's got to improve Greg Fischer's day.

What's right for Main Street is right for the rest of us, too.

Main Street already runs two ways. This means that the precondition of most importance already has been achieved.

But Main Street was degraded for decades according to its usage dictates as a state road, and now the city can do with it as it pleases, so a multi-million dollar corridor redesign is underway. It will calm traffic, repair infrastructure and provide decorative touches.

All of this is quite good, although we might examine costs a bit more closely. This perpetually open checkbook we now seemingly possess is becoming a bit worrisome. It depends on Cappuccino's abacus, and that is not a sure thing.

I fully support the notion of transforming Main Street into a slowed and beautified avenue, with this deal-breaker of a caveat:

What's right for Main Street is right for the rest of us, too.

It has been said before, and I mentioned this very topic in passing during public speaking time at the Monday council meeting: What is being planned for street grid changes along the generally affluent Main Street corridor cannot be allowed to occur in a vacuum.

For one, whatever traffic rowdiness is displaced from Main Street will migrate to other east-west streets in the city. The fine-china-shaking trucks will seek routes elsewhere.

More significantly, one-way arterial streets like Spring and Elm still slice directly through transitional neighborhoods, which are in need of traffic calming, walkability enhancement and overall street safety every bit as much as Main Street.

When considering the higher speeds and distracted vehicular chaos generally associated with one-way arterial streets, can expenditures like those boosting neighborhood stabilization in less affluent areas to the north of Main Street truly succeed if their street grid's very design contradicts their aim and precludes ultimate success?

These one-way streets also constitute a kind of “environmental racism,” where speeding motorists on one-way streets increase the levels of exhaust, noise, and pollution. One-way streets are predominately located in older downtown neighborhoods in minority, poor and working-class neighborhoods. Engineers claim that "one-way” is the best way because it moves traffic quicker, but they don’t understand the sociological, ecological and economic impacts of a one-way street.

As quickly as possible, the city of New Albany needs to be openly forthcoming about the "rest of the plan" for downtown streets. Pleadings of poverty will not be tolerated in the wake of millions spent elsewhere. It's time to build upon those successes we've managed to achieve, and get the streets right -- because what's right for Main Street is right for the rest of us, don't you think?

Street grid fairness ordinance? Show me the plan.