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I am currently living in Pittsburgh with my wife, two dogs, and children, ages 15 and 9, but my wife got a new job with a healthcare provider in Indy (I think Eskenazi?) so we are more than likely to move there by March of 2015. I've never been there before, although I've always been curious about it. We're pretty optimistic about it, Indiana seems nice.....but moving to Indy has me a little spooked after meeting someone from around there recently. Somebody just got hired at my job in PA from a suburb of Indy, I think he said either Fishington or Fishers, and I told him my situation. He pretty much told me that Indianapolis is absolutely out of control in terms of race relations and crime, and that it turned into "Detroit Jr." decades ago. He spouted on for a long time about how there is always huge gang related brawls and initiations at local shopping malls basically every weekend, and that downtown and 90% of the rest of the city is in complete disrepair. Now my gut tells me that this has to be an exaggeration, to some extent anyways, because I've been a lot of places including Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis, and I just have a hard time believing that Indy is anything like that. But regardless, I've never been there, and hearing that does kind of have me a little nervous.....can somebody please give me some sound advice on what it is like there? Pretty much anything from how livable the city proper is, and the lowdown on crime in the area. Also, we aren't exactly sure where to look yet, but after seeing google maps I was thinking southside outside of 465 or maybe the north or far west sides as options right now. I haven't looked east because in every decent sized city I've ever lived in, the eastside is almost always the side with the most crime, unless that isn't the case here. Anyways, sorry for a long rant, some info would be greatly appreciated!
Decide on how far you want to commute, how big your schools should be, and what amenities you would like near. The three areas and I have lumped them all are north side (with Fishers east, Carmel middle and Zionsville West), Greenwood/Center Grove area on the southside, and Avon/Plainfield on the west. I live downtown but if you wanted urban living, you would already have asked about it. Decide on your price range also since it is pretty structured on where you can buy. Mibor.com will give you ideas of housing and their map gives you a clue about locations so you can get a general idea.
There are some nice areas inside the loop of 465 and mostly it will be schools that determine where you want to live.
As with every single other city, there are areas that have poverty and violence since they go together so often. I doubt you would look at any houses in these areas as they have low values and most, not all, are in Indianapolis Public School areas. It is not an overwhelming city wide area and if you commute from any of the suburbs, you would even not see much of it. I like living and working downtown. I am only about 2 miles from the hospital your wife might be working in.
Your friend was most certainly exaggerating. While Indy does have a bit of an issue with crime in parts of the city, it is in no way shape or form that bad. Downtown is pretty vibrant and safe with the exception of some isolated incidents from time to time. I wouldn't recommend moving into IPS schools unless you know a lot about the specific school the kids will be going to. There are township schools though still in the city that aren't part of the actual IPS school system. Lawrence township schools on the north side (still inside of 465) are pretty good. Ben Davis on the west side is a good high school, though extremely large with at least 1000 kids in a class.
There are certain areas where crime is more of a problem, and these areas seem to be spread across the city as opposed to one centralized location. General guidelines would be that the east end has the most crime, avoid most anything within a couple blocks of 38th street or along Martin Luther King. There are exceptions to this of course, but it's good advice for a nervous newcomer.
Beech Grove is a pretty quiet, safe area inside of 465 on the SE side. From east to west: Starting around 56th street and heading north on the east side it's pretty nice. Keystone Ave is pretty nice from the Glendale Mall area (Kessler Blvd) north. The areas surrounding Meridian are super nice from about 38th street north. Michigan Rd is spotty from 38th street north, but there are still enough good areas to consider it. The west side along 56th street and heading north, as well as the area around Saddlebrook Golf Course, are pretty nice for the most part.
Outside of 465, it's a little rough on the east end still, and also on the west side near 465 from about 10th to 38th streets. Other than that though, you can't go too wrong.
As a reference, I commuted from 146th and Spring mill on the Carmel/Westfield border down to Methodist hospital on 16th street for a short time. That's close to Eskanazi. It was all surface streets and it took about 40 minutes each way. Commutes from most places should be no more than that unless you're dealing with the heavier traffic on the NE side along I-69.
Was your co-worker smoking something? I've lived in Fishers for 17 years and was unaware of all of the issues this person told you about. I think this is a great area to live in. While crime has increased, most of it is in certain pockets of town that I don't think you'll be hanging out in. If you can tell us your housing price range that would help.
I grew up in metro detroit and live in carmel now. I did something with my family sunday that i would never have done in detroit. We went to a movie in downtown. Indy is much much much better than detroit.
I'm not a huge apologist for Indy. There's a lot of things I'd like to see change around here. The city has a long way to go. But it is a huge step up from Detroit, St. Louis, and frankly in some respects Chicago.
I don't know Pittsburgh well, but imagine there's probably a lot of parallels between Indy and Pittsburgh. Both cities have worked hard (and mostly successfully) at coming back from the Rust Belt brink. 20 years down the road, I think both of these cities will be much more on people's radar.
People out in the suburbs like Fishers and Carmel have strong opinions about the city itself because a lot of suburbanites live in constant fear of everything that moves. Very insular world out there, in my experience.
I live on the Eastside a block from where it starts to get gritty, and I've never had the slightest problem with crime.
Southside outside the 465 belt line is going to be worlds removed culturally from the Northside. Absolutely different universe. Yet the Northside is dull in its own way, like almost any area that's mostly residential. You'll want to come visit and hang out for a week or two, to compare different neighborhoods.
Overall, I can't think of anything about Indianapolis (culturally or crime-wise) that I think would be worse than in Pittsburgh or Western Pennsylvania generally. Probably better in some respects. And this is coming from someone who is really interested in what's going on in Pittsburgh.
For whatever reason, Indy doesn't attract the flurry of interest among young people who consciously want to move into a dirty, formerly-declining Rust Belt town and work to revitalize it (Pittsburgh, Lousiville, Detroit, Cincinnati, and St. Louis all seem to have more of these folks, and I think they contribute a lot to those cities. Durham, NC, was a great example of a city that completely re-invented itself in about 5 or 10 years through the influence of hip young people moving in. I watched it turn from a dilapidated dump of a tobacco town into something really pretty cool.) Never figured out why Indy doesn't attract more of that. People who tell you that Indianapolis is hip and trendy are talking about very specific areas of town. Not the city as a whole, which still needs some polish, in my opinion. But I'm hopeful.
I might not move here for other reasons, but I definitely wouldn't let a scared guy from Fishers make me anxious about coming here from Pittsburgh.
I'm from Pittsburgh too, and have lived in Mt Lebanon (old white suburb with great schools and a downtown, within 10 miles of downtown; nice but too class-segregated for my taste), Oakland (busy urban university campus with strong class/ethnic/racial mix), and Squirrel Hill (mostly white and professional urban neighborhood with thriving small business core and high walkability, more class and ethnic diversity) there. If you told us what areas of Pittsburgh you like, some of us could help match you with Indy area.
In Indy, my wife works at IUPUI and we live downtown on the old Northside. It's two miles or so from campus (where Eskenazi is, also) and a lovely neighborhood with many awesome old (1880-1920) big houses within walking distance of downtown's best amenities. We have a five-year old in kindergarten in one of the public magnet schools called the Center for Inquiry. It's a lottery school and a local treasure. The IPS schools are hit or miss, and it's easy to research the schools. There's a magnet public high school downtown (lottery) called Herron (at border of neighborhoods Herron Morton and the Old Northside) and it's one of the most celebrated public high schools in the area. There are also many excellent private schools downtown that don't require lotteries, if you're willing to go private.
If your taste is more suburban, then lots of folks here will steer you to places to the north of downtown. The city of Carmel has many fans and its publicity materials like to note that it is an especially affluent area with excellent public schools and amenities. The public art sculptures adorning its "art and design district" are quite humorous and worth a quick drive-by look.
I'm not a huge apologist for Indy. There's a lot of things I'd like to see change around here. The city has a long way to go. But it is a huge step up from Detroit, St. Louis, and frankly in some respects Chicago.
I don't know Pittsburgh well, but imagine there's probably a lot of parallels between Indy and Pittsburgh. Both cities have worked hard (and mostly successfully) at coming back from the Rust Belt brink. 20 years down the road, I think both of these cities will be much more on people's radar.
People out in the suburbs like Fishers and Carmel have strong opinions about the city itself because a lot of suburbanites live in constant fear of everything that moves. Very insular world out there, in my experience.
I live on the Eastside a block from where it starts to get gritty, and I've never had the slightest problem with crime.
Southside outside the 465 belt line is going to be worlds removed culturally from the Northside. Absolutely different universe. Yet the Northside is dull in its own way, like almost any area that's mostly residential. You'll want to come visit and hang out for a week or two, to compare different neighborhoods.
Overall, I can't think of anything about Indianapolis (culturally or crime-wise) that I think would be worse than in Pittsburgh or Western Pennsylvania generally. Probably better in some respects. And this is coming from someone who is really interested in what's going on in Pittsburgh.
For whatever reason, Indy doesn't attract the flurry of interest among young people who consciously want to move into a dirty, formerly-declining Rust Belt town and work to revitalize it (Pittsburgh, Lousiville, Detroit, Cincinnati, and St. Louis all seem to have more of these folks, and I think they contribute a lot to those cities. Durham, NC, was a great example of a city that completely re-invented itself in about 5 or 10 years through the influence of hip young people moving in. I watched it turn from a dilapidated dump of a tobacco town into something really pretty cool.) Never figured out why Indy doesn't attract more of that. People who tell you that Indianapolis is hip and trendy are talking about very specific areas of town. Not the city as a whole, which still needs some polish, in my opinion. But I'm hopeful.
I might not move here for other reasons, but I definitely wouldn't let a scared guy from Fishers make me anxious about coming here from Pittsburgh.
Completely agreed that Indy doesn't attract a young, creative crowd that pushes gentrification. Certain areas of the city are, in small amounts, attracting that kind of crowd and are gentrifying. Drive on I-70 near downtown and some of those close-in neighborhoods. Many of the neighborhoods that you can see from the interstate are clearly blighted, and look even worse when you drive through them. A lot of boarded up homes, busted up windows, people loitering, etc. While there are portions of Indy that are quite neglected and blighted, after driving around Detroit for a Saturday back in August, Detroit is on another level of decay. Still, the decay I've seen in bad parts of Indy is as bad as I've seen outside of Detroit, Toledo, and Appalachia.
I drove through Indy quite a bit on the interstate coming from IA to TN and back. You don't see the nicer parts of the city, nor the affluent suburbs, from the interstate. Aside from downtown, you mostly see sprawling office parks, industrial areas, or blight. For people who are just passing through, it's virtually the worst impression you can give. This doesn't help.
The couple of cities mentioned above are generally "older" than Indy, whether in feel or actual founding. I've only driven through Cincinatti, haven't been to St. Louis or Pittsburgh, but Louisville and Pittsburgh have a lot of amazing architecture than I personally haven't seen in Indy. Indy has a much newer feel, and what's old feels "old," not rustic or antique. I think that knocks off some of the "charming grit" these people like to renovate off of. There just doesn't seem to be as much "underneath the surface" in Indy as there would be in Pittsburgh.
Most crime is going to be between people who are running afoul of the law anyway, no matter where you are or where you go. Is the city limits like Syria, like some people would make it out? Far from it. Is most of the city going to be more dangerous, statistically, than Carmel or Fishers? Sure. But the "city limits" are large here. I walk in a neighborhood on the north side at lunch, and aside from the traffic from Meridian and College at its boundaries, it feels like a small town neighborhoods - fairly large yards, well kept homes, some homes being renovated, etc. I'd have no problems living there.
Drive on I-70 near downtown and some of those close-in neighborhoods. Many of the neighborhoods that you can see from the interstate are clearly blighted, and look even worse when you drive through them....
I drove through Indy quite a bit on the interstate coming from IA to TN and back. You don't see the nicer parts of the city, nor the affluent suburbs, from the interstate. Aside from downtown, you mostly see sprawling office parks, industrial areas, or blight. For people who are just passing through, it's virtually the worst impression you can give. This doesn't help.
Agreed 100%. I would just add that a big part of why the nicer parts of Indianapolis aren't clearly visible from the interstate is because the interstates are directly and hugely responsible for a lot of the blight this city has suffered from, historically and right now. In the older parts of town that pre-dated the interstates, blight has almost followed them like litter thrown out a car window.
A lot of neighborhoods near I-65 were cut in half and all but obliterated by interstate construction back in the 60's and 70's. Parts of town that were still largely pedestrian or at least totally walkable were literally cut in two. Walking was no longer safe, and noise pollution was another nail in the coffin of a lot of neighborhoods. Areas around Fountain Square were absolutely victims of this.
The thing about Indy is that even once you get off the interstates onto some of the main city streets, it's STILL hard to see a lot of the genuinely nice neighborhoods here. On the East Side, for instance, Washington, Michigan, and New York Streets look like almost total dives, except for maybe a block or two. But the side streets between them are perfectly decent, even in parts of the Near East Side, which overall is still one of the most blighted parts of the city.
From what I understand, forced busing to achieve racial integration in public schools was also a gigantic detriment to once thriving and relatively self-sufficient neighborhoods. The damage that mandatory busing did to urban neighborhoods was basically the equivalent of what school consolidation did to rural areas, where the local township schools were closed and students from all over the county were forced into a couple of big county schools. Busing and school consolidation were largely disasters for local communities, even in the city.
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