Exploring your neighborhoods
Each month, we introduce you to a neighborhood association and its president. Our goal? To make it easier to get involved in your neighborhood. Use this map to find your neighborhood association. Check the “Neighborhood Organizations” box and scroll through the alphabetized list.
Bob Weaver has lived in Nora, a northside neighborhood near Castleton, for 15 years. About 13 years ago, he saw other neighborhoods take part in a plan envisioning what Indianapolis could look like in 2020.
“It seemed like a lot of the projects were focused on, like, the Mile Square and the Cultural Trail and maybe some up-and-coming neighborhoods,” he said. “But the further you got out to the big sprawl of Indianapolis, there was maybe less attention.”
So, he co-founded Nora Alliance in 2015. The neighborhood group started with a focus on urban design: Parks, green space and sidewalks. People often bring up walkability at bi-monthly Nora Alliance meetings.
“A lot of people who show up and have concerns, they’re based on walkability and making sure that the center of Nora doesn’t get taken over by commercial interest and cars and trucks,” Weaver said.
“I still see a value in kids being able to walk to school, older folks being able to go across the street and go to Kroger and then get home without feeling like they were taking their life in their own hands,” he added.
Nora Alliance defines the neighborhood as the area between I-465, the White River, Township Line Road and the Keystone Avenue overpass.
At the center of Nora, there’s a commercial strip along 86th Street. It has a Target, a Marshalls, a Kroger, an Aldi and some smaller shops and restaurants. The Monon Trail also intersects with 86th Street, a crossing that’s been a problem for pedestrians and cyclists for years.
Bicycle Garage Indy partnered with Nora Alliance and other groups in the area to install temporary plastic bollards, rumble strips and curb bumpouts at the intersection last summer as part of a tactical urbanism project. That story is ending in a victory for advocates of pedestrian and cyclist safety — there’s a bridge that will be built over the intersection in 2029.
A representative from the city’s public works department will be at the Nora Alliance meeting Oct. 1 to talk to neighbors about the project.
“We’d like to have some input on the aesthetics and the design and the street crossing. That’s still a concern for us,” Weaver said.
Weaver, 54, has a day job — working in marketing and communications for DePauw University. His interest in architecture and urban design started in Muncie, where his mom worked as an administrator for Ball State University’s architecture program. Ball State architecture students helped Nora Alliance create a pocket park with a pollinator garden at the Monon Trail entrance by Aldi, off of 86th Street.
When Weaver and his family moved to Nora, he’d ride his bike to a now-closed hardware store on Saturday mornings when he was renovating his house, room by room. His two kids grew up playing sports at First Baptist Athletics, and had high school jobs at Habig Gardens, the place where Weaver and his family get their Christmas trees every year.
A view of Habig Garden Shop in Nora on Sept. 9, 2025, on the north side of Indianapolis. Credit: Ted Somerville for Mirror Indy 
Habig Garden Shop’s Mackenzie Lord poses with a pumpkin in front of the shop in Nora on Sept. 9, 2025, on the north side of Indianapolis. Credit: Ted Somerville for Mirror Indy 
Habig employee Peter Cohen waters plants at the garden shop in Nora on Sept. 9, 2025, on the north side of Indianapolis. Credit: Ted Somerville for Mirror Indy
“We could basically get around and do our daily things without needing to hop in the car, even,” he said.
Now, his kids are a junior at Indiana University and a senior at North Central High School.
These days, you can find him hanging out at Illumine coffee shop and Big Lug, or riding or walking the Monon.
On a recent visit to Illumine, he ran into Steve Carr, who he calls Nora’s “unofficial” mayor. Carr is the athletic director at First Baptist Athletics.
“Everybody takes their kids over there and participates in those programs,” Weaver said. “He’s always there.”
How to go to a Nora Alliance meeting
Nora Alliance meets every other month in the community room at First Baptist Athletics. Meetings are on the first Monday of the month at 7 p.m. The next meeting is Oct. 1.
Why to go to a meeting
Nora Alliance can connect neighbors to other resources in the area. Washington Township Schools, the Mayor’s Action Center, First Baptist Athletics, Saint Luke’s and the Jordan YMCA are partners that regularly invest in the area’s wellbeing or join in on events, such as neighborhood cleanups.
Nora Alliance also works with the Nora-Northside Community Council, a neighborhood association in the area that shares resources with residents and promotes growth and development that aligns with Nora neighbors’ interests.
The alliance can also connect neighbors to each other.
“People in Nora, they work in Indianapolis in various capacities,” he said, “And they can bring their knowledge from other neighborhoods where their jobs take them, particularly if they’re engineers or construction or in real estate.”
Bob Weaver’s goals for Nora
More from the neighborhood
This year, Weaver and the Nora Alliance will continue advocating for or against development in their neighborhood. That includes supporting the 86th Street bridge and working with their city-county councilor, Brienne Delaney, to buy an 8-acre area of the Haverstick Woods, just north of North Central High School on 86th Street.
Delaney, a Democrat, is using $1 million from last year’s city budget to buy and protect the forested area. Weaver hopes trails or paths will be added.
Some neighbors in Nora also want to revive a holiday tradition that stopped after COVID — the Christmas Luminaria. Residents would put luminaries along the Monon Trail and set up a coffee and hot cocoa stand by the Jordan YMCA.
A correction was made on Sept. 12, 2025: An earlier version of this article did not list the correct year the city will build a bridge over the Monon Trail at the intersection of 86th Street. Construction will start in 2029.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Sophie Young covers services and resources. Contact her at sophie.young@mirrorindy.org.
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