opinion

Tully: Big hopes, big challenges in Broad Ripple

Drive through the heart of Broad Ripple on a weekday afternoon, past the bars and restaurants, and it is easy to spot one of the area’s biggest challenges.

It’s too quiet.

A quirky and lovable little neighborhood that should be bustling with shoppers and pedestrians instead has empty sidewalks, a ton of traffic that’s just driving through, and too many businesses that won’t come alive until after dark. That, the district’s new councilwoman-elect says, needs to change. And changing that is, in part, how you begin to better address some of the area’s other issues.

“A big part of improving Broad Ripple is attracting new business investment and, more than anything, trying to diversify the strip,” said Colleen Fanning, who was elected to represent the area on the council last month. “We need more daytime traffic. We need more reasons for people to come here in the morning and afternoon.”

Because, Fanning said, there’s a new reality in Indianapolis. After so many years in which Broad Ripple “was the only night game in town, that’s not the case anymore.”

Not at all.

In fact, Mass Ave and Fountain Square long ago grabbed Broad Ripple’s title as the king of local late night. And that’s left Broad Ripple with a bit of an identity crisis, particularly the northern part dominated by Broad Ripple Avenue. It’s still dominated by bars, but that is no longer enough.

Addressing this and evolving will be a challenge, given the entrenched interests in the area and the competition for the hearts and minds of residents in search of a lively neighborhood, but taking it on is worth it in a neighborhood that is as unique to Indy as it is important.

“There is so much great going on here,” Fanning said Monday over lunch at Public Greens, which sits just off the Monon Trail. “At the same time, I have some real concerns.”

Among them: Crime, a shortage of the kind of new apartments and other housing that millennials and empty nesters are seeking, poorly designed sidewalks, crumbling infrastructure and, as much as anything, a lack of coordination and communication that has kept Broad Ripple from fully embracing ideas to exploit its unique assets.

“My role is going to be about representing the standpoints of the residents and the business owners as much as possible,” Fanning said of her new position. “This isn’t going to be about what I want. It’s really about being a reflection of the prevailing visions of the people who live and work here, and for those who could be potential stakeholders.”

A 34-year-old Republican whose recent campaign was her first, Fanning will represent the broader 2nd District, which stretches to the northern county line and includes Nora, parts of Meridian Kessler and other neighborhoods. But given the outsized role Broad Ripple plays in Marion County, and the issues it has faced in recent years, I asked her to lunch to talk in particular about Broad Ripple, which she also calls home.

Her impressive council campaign, dominated by knocking on so many doors, laid bare the concerns on residents’ minds. Time and again, she said, residents talked about a persistent crime problem that despite some ugly, high-profile incidents has often goes unnoticed by those who don’t live there.

Some of the solutions are basic, such as more lighting within the neighborhoods, which a local moratorium has blocked in recent years. “A lot of the crime happens where the streetlights end,” Fanning said. “That’s when people get mugged. They’re easy targets.”

At the same time, she said, a council member must work to improve communication between police and the neighborhoods, encourage residents to take basic steps to lower their risk of being victimized and fight for adequate patrols.

Other concerns are tougher. Fanning will be representing a district that at times has been hampered by a lack of cooperation between different stakeholders and plagued by sometimes-competing views among residents and business owners about what’s best. It’s a place where new developments have sometimes been fiercely opposed, and that can make it hard to attract the type of new investment that is desperately needed — investment that will help Broad Ripple take on its many other issues.

Like many, Fanning looks at the canal and sees an underused asset, one that could be turned into a major destination point with a boardwalk or a well-designed esplanade. She looks at the four-lane Broad Ripple Avenue, with its thin sidewalks, and wonders if it would be possible to eliminate the two parking lanes and turn it into a pedestrian-friendly stretch like Georgia Street Downtown.

“I just think it would help the business owners attract daytime traffic,” she said. “It would make it easier to diversify the businesses we have on the strip.”

She’s right. And while Fanning, a small-business owner, will be only one of many Broad Ripple leaders pushing for change, she plans to use her role to better bring all of the voices together. As much as anything else, that is what being a council member should be about.

“Our location is fabulous, and there is so much to love here,” Fanning said. “But we need to be a cultural destination. We have to keep this great local residential feel but we also need to be a little more of an arts village.”

In the end, she said, a better Broad Ripple comes down to one thing: “We just need to up our game.”

You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or at Twitter.com/matthewltully.