Residents of Barrington, a neighborhood southeast of Fountain Square, are concerned Indy Park’s plans for a new board to oversee Stanley Strader Park could silence their voices and lead to gentrification.
While neighborhood residents will have some say about who is chosen to be on the board, city officials will ultimately decide, said Derrick Goss, manager of the Stanley Strader Park Family Center, formerly known as Bethel Park.
The park has received some upgrades over the years through Citizens Energy Group’s Sharing The Dream service project to repaint the building interior as well as $796,000 from Indy Parks’ capital budget to improve the football field and expand the parking lot. Still, residents say the field is unusable at times due to flooding.
“The park definitely got a facelift, but some of the foundational issues were not addressed,” said Natasha Cheatham, who’s lived in Barrington off and on for about 15 years. “The leveling of the park definitely needs to happen because if it rains too bad you essentially can’t really utilize a lot of the park because it almost turns into swampland.”
A park board could help change that. These groups can fundraise on behalf of the park, making it easier for residents to raise money for park improvements such as cleaning carpets or painting walls without city approval. Over time, the board could grow into a park foundation, akin to Eagle Creek Park Foundation, Friends of Holliday and Friends of Garfield Park.
Khalilullah Almuhaymin, president of the Redevelopment Revitalization of the Southside Community Development Corporation, led a petition to change the park center’s name in 2023 to honor Stanley Strader, a prominent Black resident who formed southeast community groups and served on the Indianapolis City-County Council for 10 years.
Residents have poured into the park and want a board to support it. But, they don’t want it to be at the expense of the neighborhood if the city selects park board members who live outside the area, ignore residents’ concerns and make decisions without their input.
“We’re gonna be erased,” Almuhaymin said. “Already, there’s some gentrification going on.”
Transparency concerns
The formation of Stanley Strader’s park group is in its early stages, so it has yet to be named and it’s unclear how many people will be on it.
Some discussions about the board haven’t been public. The city doesn’t have an online application for the board and information about forming the group hasn’t been posted on the park’s social media account. Community members who have visited the facility or other nearby park centers have contact information on file with the park center. Those visitors were notified via an email or phone call about meetings to form the board.
Ultimate approval, according to Goss, will come from Indy Parks.
That fuels residents’ fears that charter school Victory College Prep High School or others from outside of the neighborhood could join the park board in order to serve their own agenda. Victory College Prep moved into a former Indianapolis Public Schools building in fall 2025 and is a five-minute walk from Stanley Strader Park.
“Victory is evidently going to make donations or reach out in the community and bring other people in it,” Almuhaymin said. “It’s a class struggle (against) people without money or influence.”
In an email response to Mirror Indy, Chelsea Easter, principal of Victory College Prep, addressed some of community members’ concerns.
“Our commitment at Victory College Prep … is to be a listening and engaged community partner that works closely with our fellow neighbors to honor legacy and support a shared vision for sustainability through our work with students and families,” Easter wrote, in part. “My office is open to our neighbors.”
Barrington residents were supposed to get answers to some of their questions before the end of 2025, but they said they didn’t know the meeting was canceled until they arrived. Goss said the meeting was canceled because some city staff couldn’t attend.
“I don’t want to do anything that’s going to cause an uproar when it comes to the energy of the people of the community,” Goss told Mirror Indy. “We want to make sure that we’re doing our best to get and make everyone feel comfortable when it comes to those questions that they want answered.”
But, if residents don’t find common ground with the city, they could miss out on the park board opportunity altogether.
“The whole point of this is for them to be able to have an impact on the park,” said Alex Cortwright, Indy Parks’ chief communications officer. “And if that’s not really the direction people are wanting to go, it’s kind of up to the community members of how they want this to go.”
Cortwright said Indy Parks is working with the mayor’s neighborhood advocate to address some of the community’s concerns before continuing discussions about a park board. A date for the community meeting hasn’t been finalized.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Elizabeth Gabriel covers the south side of Marion County. Contact her at elizabeth.gabriel@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X at @_elizabethgabs.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
