Why does Indianapolis get a bad rap as a boring city? (Terre Haute: crimes, colleges)

[ServoMiff]

Originally Posted by W & C

No, you won't find "everything" that you would in another big city in Indy.

I'm happy for anyone who loves Indianapolis, and there are reasons to like it - it's cheap, relatively comfy, has somewhat of a feel of a major city, a pretty nice downtown. But let's not pretend it's got even remotely the amenities of a major city. Except the crime rate, of course - in that category it can compete, and beat most of the big boys.

And that's what really surprises me about Indy.

I lived in Indy for 8 years, and I honestly hated every second of it. There certainly are some very nice people there, but it's boring because it's a flat fairly treeless landscape, there's a limited set of qualities to the city (sports, andddddddd......?) and there really were parts that reminded me of a worse section of South Chicago. I also consider myself to be pretty centrist, and I had a hard time finding people who could intelligently talk about politics or social issues. I can see why conservatives love the area though - cheap land and plenty of sports options, and 3 hrs from Chicago if you want to experience a real city.

I nearly lost my life driving South on Binford Blvd on an icy Saturday morning on my way to IUPUI back in the early 2000's. It was incredibly windy, the roads hadn't been touched once (go figure), and a gust of wind sent me flying into the median and into oncoming traffic. I vowed to get out of the state ASAP as soon as that happened. For as much as homeowners pay in taxes (I realize it's not terrible compared to other major metro areas), you'd think the quality of services you got for those taxes would be better. The roads are inundated with potholes, and they simply don't care to make them even remotely passable in the wintertime. Kentucky has fewer resources, and does a much better job with their roads than Indiana. It's amazing, really. They're both quite conservative states (other than Bloomington/W Lafayette in IN and parts of Louisville) and yet Louisville, and to a lesser degree Lexington feel so much better than Indy.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by W & C

No, you won't find "everything" that you would in another big city in Indy.

But let's not pretend it's got even remotely the amenities of a major city.

Like what?

[indy771]

Originally Posted by W & C

No, you won't find "everything" that you would in another big city in Indy.

I'm happy for anyone who loves Indianapolis, and there are reasons to like it - it's cheap, relatively comfy, has somewhat of a feel of a major city, a pretty nice downtown. But let's not pretend it's got even remotely the amenities of a major city. Except the crime rate, of course - in that category it can compete, and beat most of the big boys.

When comparing Indy to other "big" cities it doesn't necessarily means = Chicago, NYC, SF, LA or even cities like Philly, Seattle, Dallas. Anybody with common sense would know Indy is out of their league.

Comparable big cities to Indy in population and economy would be Cincy, STL, Louisville, KC, Columbus, and so on ..

Unless you don't consider Indy to be a "big" city

[W & C]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

Like what?

Robust public transportation, plentiful selection of authentic ethnic dining, happening happy hour scene that caters to young professionals, variety of walkable urban neighborhoods complete with independent quirky coffee shops and non-chain restaurants that give other cities such character, varied nightlife - from hipster hangout to preppy bars for college-aged to house music enclaves to upscale lounges, Chinatown, variety of urban markets, etc.


Edited to add: based on the previous history of interactions with mr. Toast, I'm going to preemptively say as a disclaimer - I've never said that Indy doesn't have some of those things I mentioned above - the key words here are plentiful selection and variety. Therefore, please feel free to not come back and point to that one place that serves dim sum in Indianapolis as an example of both authentic ethnic dining and Chinatown

[msamhunter]

Originally Posted by indy771

When comparing Indy to other "big" cities it doesn't necessarily means = Chicago, NYC, SF, LA or even cities like Philly, Seattle, Dallas. Anybody with common sense would know Indy is out of their league.

Comparable big cities to Indy in population and economy would be Cincy, STL, Louisville, KC, Columbus, and so on ..

Unless you don't consider Indy to be a "big" city

You do realize that out of those cities, Indy has the 2nd smallest metro ahead of Louisville but the 2nd highest GDP behind stl and the highest per capita GDP out of all of them. There's only one metric that guages size of economy and GDP is it. The 800k difference the only reason stl with a higher GDP but according to you everyone else is better.

A quick jaunt to trip advisor and you would see ALL of them have about the same with Louisville being on the lower end simply because it's smaller. Indy generally at or around the top end.

All of them have great museums. Art wise would def go to kc but the others are not far behind. Indy children's museum is in a tier all by itself. The next one would probably be Houston.

City dynamics are different. Stl, kc and cbus are neighborhood nentric. Louisville, Indy are more downtown centric.

I will say it again if you cannot entertain yourself in the city or any city of a certain size, it's not the city, it's you. Humans like to blame everyone but the person in the mirror. Just the whole point about binford blvd says a lot. Have you ever experienced Florida drivers in a rain out? A lot worse than Indy I can tell you that.

[W & C]

Originally Posted by indy771

When comparing Indy to other "big" cities it doesn't necessarily means = Chicago, NYC, SF, LA or even cities like Philly, Seattle, Dallas. Anybody with common sense would know Indy is out of their league.

Comparable big cities to Indy in population and economy would be Cincy, STL, Louisville, KC, Columbus, and so on ..

Unless you don't consider Indy to be a "big" city

Well, the post that I responded to said that Indy has everything that other big cities have plus the standard of life is much higher, which I guess meant a low COL. Post then goes on to decry these other cities as having high crime (not true at all, at least when compared to Indy), being overcrowded, stressful, etc..

Based on that I'd have to assume that they are talking about the set of cities mentioned in the first paragraph of your post and not places like Louisville or KC.

[msamhunter]

Originally Posted by W & C

Robust public transportation, plentiful selection of authentic ethnic dining, happening happy hour scene that caters to young professionals, variety of walkable urban neighborhoods complete with independent quirky coffee shops and non-chain restaurants that give other cities such character, varied nightlife - from hipster hangout to preppy bars for college-aged to house music enclaves to upscale lounges, Chinatown, variety of urban markets, etc.

Must not have got out much. I never had that issue. Urbanspoon will show you happy hours. You must have never walked butler up to 56th and Illinois or down to IMA. Lockerbie has been walkable for years. Used to grocery shop at the then omalias way back in the early 90's. Used to live at 13th and meridian then and walked everywhere and it's 5 times better than it was then. Cultural trail completely opened up fletcher place and fountain square even though fountain square has been on an upswing for several years. East 10th after the sb had gone thru a nice transformation since the super bowl as well as holy cross.

As far as ethnic, odds are you may not be one of those caught dead on e 38th street between Lafayette square and 465 and roughly 23% of all downtown establishments are chains. The remaining are mom and pops.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by W & C

Robust public transportation, plentiful selection of authentic ethnic dining, happening happy hour scene that caters to young professionals, variety of walkable urban neighborhoods complete with independent quirky coffee shops and non-chain restaurants that give other cities such character, varied nightlife - from hipster hangout to preppy bars for college-aged to house music enclaves to upscale lounges, Chinatown, variety of urban markets, etc.

I know we've gone back and forth, and frankly, nothing you said here is new. It would be fair to say our mass transit needs improved, and so do several of our neighborhoods. I do know many people working toward that end, and they don't spend a lot of time crying about indianapolis or any other city from a computer in Seattle.

I would ask what you have to contribute.....but I know your canned answer already.

[W & C]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

I know we've gone back and forth, and frankly, nothing you said here is new. It would be fair to say our mass transit needs improved, and so do several of our neighborhoods. I do know many people working toward that end, and they don't spend a lot of time crying about indianapolis or any other city from a computer in Seattle.

I would ask what you have to contribute.....but I know your canned answer already.

Well, it's a good thing then that I haven't spent anytime "crying" about Indianapolis (or any other place in this universe, I might add)

My only intent was to correct the post I previously responded to that asserted that Indy has everything big cities have, which I've done - no tears required

Toxic, it's been a pleasure, as always

[W & C]

Originally Posted by msamhunter

Must not have got out much. I never had that issue. Urbanspoon will show you happy hours. You must have never walked butler up to 56th and Illinois or down to IMA. Lockerbie has been walkable for years. Used to grocery shop at the then omalias way back in the early 90's. Used to live at 13th and meridian then and walked everywhere and it's 5 times better than it was then. Cultural trail completely opened up fletcher place and fountain square even though fountain square has been on an upswing for several years. East 10th after the sb had gone thru a nice transformation since the super bowl as well as holy cross.

As far as ethnic, odds are you may not be one of those caught dead on e 38th street between Lafayette square and 465 and roughly 23% of all downtown establishments are chains. The remaining are mom and pops.

Please see my edit to the post you replied to.