Has Indianapolis hit rock bottom

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by Shakeesha

Indianapolis is not a good place for me. It has too much homeless and vagrants in the downtown area. I did not like the crime and run down areas as well. Indianapolis appears to have a solid economy, but is being passed by its peers. Other new rising cities have more going on.

Which peers have passed it? In my research I have found the reverse, that Indianapolis has passed all of its peers. I've yet to find a sizable city without homeless people sleeping downtown. Is homelessness not an issue in Nashville anymore?

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Indianapolis has never even been close to hitting "rock bottom", whatever that is suppose to mean. Indianapolis is one of the few Midwest cities that has gained population every decade since it's been a city except from 1980 until 1990 census when the population declined by about 40,000, but it rebounded by the 2000 census and is now bigger than Milwaukee, Cincinatti, Cleveland, St Louis ever was. Many of the Midwest cities have been declining in population every decade since the 1950's.

Indianapolis is not that bad of a town, in fact it's done pretty good for itself considering what it has to work with. No navigable rivers, no mountains or deserts, it's landlocked, no ocean beaches, climate is not the best. Indianapolis has to be creative to attract people from other states and regions to move there.

Indianapolis's worst critics are it's own redsidents. I don't think I have ever heard a non-Hoosier trash Indianapolis up one side and down the other.

I think what saved Indianapolis was when Mayor Richard Lugar incorporated nearly all of Marion County into the Indianapolis limits. If that had not happened, Indianapolis would probably be a city of aroind 300,000 and it never would have got the Colts and the Pacers. The Pacers and Colts have stayed put in Indianapolis since they came to Indianapolis. Look at all the towns that have lost a professional team to another city during that same time frame. St. Louis, Cincy, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Baltimore have all lost professional teams from that same time, from late 1960's/early 1970's to present day.

If Indianapolis had hit rock bottom, the professional sports teams would have already been long gone.

[pjstroh]

The violent crime is largely contained to the east side and far east suburbs. And its mostly at night....and its mostly within groups of people who are looking for trouble. I dont feel unsafe walking on any street in Indy after dark. If you are not looking for trouble it usually is not looking for you. I have a side-hustle delivering packages for Amazon. I routinely visit the worst neighborhoods after dark to deliver. Its nothing like East St Louis or South Chicago where there are places that are flat out war zones. Indy is simply not comparable to places like that.

Indy's biggest problem is they've cut taxes to the point where they cant pay for basic infrastructure anymore. (See Kansas) We need 2.5 billion dollars to fully repair our roads which are currently nothing but a never ending sequence of potholes. Everybody ******* about it but nobody wants to pay for it. Maybe we can legalize pot or something to pay for it. Score

[sheerbliss]

Originally Posted by pjstroh

The violent crime is largely contained to the east side and far east suburbs.

The east side has its problems, but violent crime isn't just here. Go to Indy's reports viewer, select violent crimes going back a while, and you can see they're all over the city. Less common on the north side, but all over. I agree that most of the violent crime is at night, and probably among people who probably know each other, but going to certain areas after dark IS looking for trouble.

[pjstroh]

Originally Posted by sheerbliss

The east side has its problems, but violent crime isn't just here. Go to Indy's reports viewer, select violent crimes going back a while, and you can see they're all over the city. Less common on the north side, but all over. I agree that most of the violent crime is at night, and probably among people who probably know each other, but going to certain areas after dark IS looking for trouble.

I would say almost any 5 year period will yield violent crime in any zipcode. There was a murder in Broad Ripple a couple years ago....but I would not classify Broad Ripple as a violent crime neighborhood.

There aren't many places in the world where you are totally safe. There are many places where you can be really unsafe and a target of random, violent crime. Fortunately there are not many places like that in Indy (in my opinion). Having said that I would not buy a house on 10th an Rural.

[sheerbliss]

Readers who take the trouble to look at homicides in the past three months--not five years--will find them scattered across the city. See link above.

If we're talking about what was happening a few years ago, three of the six areas Mayor Hogsett had IMPD focus on in 2014 were on the west side or north of downtown. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/...oods/16979317/

Two of the 25 worst neighborhoods in the United States as rated by a certain website back in 2013 were north of downtown.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by pjstroh

Having said that I would not buy a house on 10th an Rural.

Have you been in that area recently?

[ruascott]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

Have you been in that area recently?

These people have no clue and likely haven't been in these areas for years.

There are $500k+ homes on the market in that area right now.