On a misty Sunday afternoon, Fountain Square residents Lindsey and Evan Cornett and their three kids painted a traffic barrier bright red with some white hearts.
“We often wish the neighborhood was a little more pedestrian friendly,” Lindsey Cornett said. “People come through real fast.”
The Cornetts were among more than a dozen people painting knee-high plastic rectangular traffic barriers for an upcoming tactical urbanism project in Fountain Square. Some folks were painting flowers, others polka dots. One person wrote ❤️ Indy.
The art adds a personal touch, but the barriers have a serious purpose. They will be used to temporarily close off the south lane of the Calvary Street bridge over Interstate 65/70, between Virginia and Fletcher avenues. The hope is the barriers, which are filled with water to add heft, will give more space between cars and the pedestrians on the sidewalk.
“One of the things we love to do is walk around the neighborhood,” Lindsey Cornett said, “and that’s one of the streets especially that it just doesn’t feel very safe. So we’re excited to have another nice place for us to walk to go see all the cool shops and restaurants in the Square.”
The Fountain Square Neighborhood Association received a $6,500 matching grant from the city for the project. The work follows several other tactical urbanism projects in the city, including in Community Heights and Mapleton-Fall Creek. The Department of Public Works has even started a lending library program so neighborhoods can rent tactical urbanism supplies.
Dakota Pawlicki, president of the Fountain Square Neighborhood Association, said the project will better connect the Fountain Square and Fletcher Place neighborhoods. The two are connected by a roughly half-mile stretch of Virginia Avenue that sees a lot of walkers and bikers.
“Infrastructure divides so many of our communities, and we have to get creative about ways to reduce that divide,” Pawlicki said.
Another component of the project includes creating temporary curb bump outs along McCarty Street, which connects to Edna Balz Lacy Park. The bump outs extend the sidewalk into the street to narrow the road and shorten crossing distances.
“There’s a lot of people that speed pretty badly down on McCarty Street,” Pawlicki said. “So for there, it’s much more about reducing speed and making sure neighbors can cross the street to the park.”
Temporary curb bump outs are also planned near the intersection of College and Virginia avenues.
The barriers, meanwhile, will be installed April 12 and be up through mid-October. Data on vehicle speed and the number of pedestrians and cyclists in the area will be collected to measure the project’s impact. If it’s successful, Pawlicki said the neighborhood will work with the city to find permanent solutions.
And he’s hopeful the project will work. Because people want to see their neighborhoods get better, he said.
“Where you live has a massive impact on not only your quality of life, but how long you live,” Pawlicki said. “And so you got to invest in your own home. And the community is part of your home.”
Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian or on Bluesky @darianbenson.bsky.social.
Related
Community Heights made 10th Street safer. A permanent fix could take several years.
A tactical urbanism project on the east side showed residents how 10th Street could be safer.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
