A safe, walkable place (Indianapolis, Greenwood: apartments, rentals, neighborhoods)

[Irialla]

Hi everyone,

I'm going to move to Indy next month and I'm looking for a place to stay. I'll be working in Plainfield, about 10 min from the Airport and don't mind to commute 30-45min each way everyday. However, I also love walking and I would totally not like to live in a place where I'll need to drive to go to a grocery store or a coffee store. Any suggestions? Oh! The cheaper the better (assuming reasonable safety) since I won't have much to spend.

[chalcedony]

Indy is limited in options that are both safe and walkable, but you will still find a few great opportunities. Your best bets are probably in the urban neighborhoods downtown or close to it. The North Side is the strongest option for being both walkable and reasonably safe, though the area between 16th and 38th Street on the north side is still very hit-or-miss in terms of safety. The near-East Side has many walkable neighborhoods but only a few would be considered safe. Same with south side (though less dangerous than the East Side). On the West Side, Speedway is pretty safe and is at least reasonably walkable, while so is Beech Grove on the southeast. Both are middle class/working class independent cities that are surrounded by Indianapolis. Lastly, further to the north, neighborhoods like Broad Ripple are very desirable, quite walkable, and generally safe. The commute to Plainfield for the areas I've listed would range from 15 minutes to 45 minutes at most.

[sweetana3]

Due to where you work, I would check out the apartments on Rockville Road US 36 (actually a little off Rockville by a block or two) around the big strip mall stores. Walkable to some extent. There are several usually down side roads.

Around SuperTarget is Barnes and Noble with good coffee cafe, Walmart just down the street, lots and lots of chain restaurants.

When and if you want to enjoy a day/evening out, drive to Broad Ripple, downtown, Greenwood, etc.

[BU191433]

Downtown or Broad Ripple is your best bet

[HikeND]

You might want to check out the Mass Ave area. There are plenty of shops and things to do within walking distance. As far as I know the only real grocery store downtown is the Marsh at Vermont and Michigan-which is within walking distance. I recently moved in the area and like it so far.

I checked out the Argyle apts at Mass and North during my search and they were pretty cheap but not renovated at all and no dishwasher. I think rent was around $550, which is pretty cheap. My advice is to drive/walk around and look for locally owned properties, as the will generally be cheaper (although riskier) than complexes you'll find online. Van Rooy Property Management has a pretty large variety of properties when it comes to price. Zender Properties has a lot of cheap rentals but from what I've read (mostly on this board) this is a company you should avoid if possible. Just my opinion though. Good luck.