New Places in Old Spaces

poster abstractUrban abandonment in the United States has taken a devastating toll on neighborhoods and communities. Some Indianapolis neighborhoods are dealing with decline in creative ways, as there is a renewed market demand for those communities while others continue to be forgotten. This poster describes cycles of decline and rebirth in urban Indianapolis neighborhoods as seen through the eyes of local residents. We will take you on a journey through time and place in 3 different Indianapolis neighborhoods: decline and rejuvenation in Lockefield Gardens; stories of near east side residents as they battle the challenges of seeing their neighborhood abandoned; and a community that is reusing abandoned lots to rejuvenate and reunite their neighbors through the creation of a community garden. Through these three case studies, we are analyzing the ways that neighborhoods are both reinventing themselves and, in other cases, falling prey to neglect as a result of the failure of the market to create a demand for their homes and businesses

Trends in Maternal and Child Health Indicators in Making Connections Sites

Reviews the rates of teen births, low birth-weight babies, and first-trimester prenatal care received, as a share of total births, in Casey's Making Connections initiative neighborhoods. Compares the neighborhood data to overall trends in the county

The Importance Of Community: Investing In Effective Community-Based Crime Prevention Strategies

After more than a year of listening to our community, researching evidence-based practices, and evaluating our own efforts, 'The Importance of Community' inaugural report unequivocally asserts that our greatest potential of reducing homicides and incarceration as a result of committing a crime is deeply rooted in collective community action and targeted interventions aimed at serving narrowly defined populations. In this report, The Indianapolis Foundation will summarize years of community-based recommendations and provides a specific community investment plan based on multiple community convenings, crime prevention related reports, and listening to our community

Mallory Main Street : a post-industrial rust belt ecodistrict

This study examines a redevelopment of a traditional post-industrial neighborhood located in the East Washington neighborhood in Indianapolis into a sustainable EcoDistrict. As local economies change as a result of exporting manufacturing jobs, neighborhoods that were once booming have fewer supportive resources and are plagued by blight, violence, and high-vacancy rates. Sustainable redevelopment strategies can result in positive social, economic, and environmental impacts for the local community, residents, and environment. Identifying the key problem issues for post-industrial rust belt neighborhoods will lead to the development of a framework to guide sustainable neighborhood planning and an understanding of how public-private partnerships and other strategies help redeveloping neighborhoods reach their sustainability goals.Department of Urban PlanningThesis (M.U.R.P.

Reinventing Municipal Governance: From the New Generation of Big-City Mayors

The decade of the 1990s brought to power in many American cities a new breed of mayors who have sought to reinvent municipal governance through a variety of innovations that, like the mayors themselves, defy easy partisan or ideological classification. These innovations are widely viewed as having helped to turn around such cities as Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York, and Chicago. The purpose of this paper is to explain the most notable of these innovations for possible consideration by Atlanta's incoming mayor

A framework for strategic geographic targeting of the Community Development Block Grant in Indianapolis, IN

CDBG funds have been shown to effectively catalyze neighborhood revitalization when a critical mass of funds is deployed in a concentrated area. This paper presents a data driven framework to strategically target CDBG funds into a limited number of neighborhoods with the greatest potential for revitalization. This framework takes the needs-based approach of public fund allocation a step further to identify which neighborhoods have the greatest potential for transformative investment according to the neighborhood’s existing characteristics. The paper identifies ten distressed Census tracts with the greatest potential for revitalization in Indianapolis, IN.Department of Urban PlanningThesis (M.U.R.P.

Hypergrowth of the Hispanic Population in Indianapolis, 2000–2010

Indianapolis experienced a 300 percent increase in Hispanic population between 1990 and 2010. This article examines the change in the composition of census tracts in Indianapolis between 2000 and 2010. Hispanic-white tracts and Hispanic-black-white tracts increased between the two censuses while majority-white tracts declined. Regression analysis revealed that number of Hispanics by tract in 2010 was negatively associated with percentage of black population and positively associated with number of Hispanics as of 2000. Hispanics were attracted to tracts with a higher percentage of median housing value ($50,000–$100,000), tracts with a high level of turnover between 1995 and 2000, and tracts that had a greater percentage of new dwellings built between 1990 and 2000. These results indicate that Hispanics avoid low-income tracts and have intensified their location in the core Hispanic tracts as well as advanced into the outer tracts of the city

Making School Choice Work Series: How Parents Experience Public School Choice

A growing number of cities now provide a range of public school options for families to choose from. Choosing a school can be one of the most stressful decisions parents make on behalf of their child. Getting access to the right public school will determine their child's future success. How are parents faring in cities where choice is widely available? This report answers this question by examining how parents' experiences with school choice vary across eight "high-choice" cities: Baltimore, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Our findings suggest parents are taking advantage of the chance to choose a non-neighborhood-based public school option for their child, but there's more work to be done to ensure choice works for all families

Program-Related Investments: Social Investments

Outlines the rationale behind Casey's program-related investment to stimulate private investment in charter school facilities in Indianapolis. Describes the decision-making process and the issues considered, including fund management and risk mitigation

Cities, The Sharing Economy and What's Next

This report seeks to provide an analysis of what is currently happening in American cities so that city leaders may better understand, encourage and regulate the growing sharing economy. Interviews were conducted with city officials on the impact of the sharing economy and related topics, and the report centers around five key themes: innovation, economic development, equity, safety and implementation.The sharing economy is also commonly referred to as collaborative consumption, the collaborative economy, or the peer-to-peer economy. This term refers to business models that enable providers and consumers to share resources and services, from housing to vehicles and more. These business models typically take the form of an online and/or application-based platform for business transactions