From fantasy to reality: Picture this for urban core 7.31.11

INDIANAPOLIS STAR

Indy's urban landscape could look very different within a decade. On the Near Westside, along Indiana Avenue, scientists may well live close enough to walk to their labs in the city's new 16 Tech life sciences park. On the Near Southside, scores of young professionals may flock to attractive new homes on the old grounds of the General Motors stamping plant.
A worker may leave her home in the Near Eastside's still-vibrant Super Bowl Legacy Project to catch an express bus to a job in an industrial park on the city's Northwestside. She'll share the ride with architects, artists, students and computer technicians, who ride the bus by choice rather than necessity.
A string of cyclists will share the Cultural Trail with teams of office workers out for a lunchtime stroll. They'll chat about the vegetables ready for harvest in urban gardens that sprout where abandoned houses once stood.
Is such a vision for Indianapolis’ urban core merely a fantasy?
It doesn't have to be. After decades of severely neglecting its neighborhoods, this city is finally putting the pieces in place to make dramatic improvements that could enhance the quality of life for everyone who calls Central Indiana home.
But the progress is by no means guaranteed. A major test is expected to come next winter when mass transit proponents will once again ask the General Assembly for permission to pursue referendums that would pay for bus and rail lines and other transportation options.
Whether Central Indiana finally moves forward with mass transit after decades of delay is one measure of the progress that will determine whether neighborhoods that are now sliding further into decay will find new life. Transit, if done right, would connect residents in the city's core with jobs in outlying places such as Park 100 in Pike Township and the airport on the Far Westside. The resulting growth in family incomes and economic opportunities would pump fresh dollars into the city's oldest neighborhoods.
The future of the city's core also could be shaped by two new, dynamic proposals -- the 16 Tech life sciences park and the Urban Institute's plan for the old GM plant. Both would bring new residents and new jobs to neighborhoods near Downtown. Both also would mark a significant step forward in the city's ability to cast new vision for struggling neighborhoods.
But on the flip side of growth and revival is continued decay and decline. Indianapolis isn't Detroit; nor is it even close. It's also avoided the deep problems that plague other Midwestern cities such as Cleveland and St. Louis.
Still, quality of life issues such as crime, education, transit and housing are at a tipping point in Indianapolis. Failure to adequately address one or more of those concerns could cost the city its opportunity to attract and retain more young professionals, the demographic most likely to breathe new life into core neighborhoods.
The city's new mayor -- whether incumbent Republican Greg Ballard or Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy -- must lead the drive to revive neglected neighborhoods. But it's not just about concrete and asphalt. It's also about casting a vision that refuses to settle for mediocrity and that measures this city not against its past but by what its future could be.
The best days for Indianapolis' neighborhoods aren't necessarily in the past. A bright future is within reach. Are we wiling to stretch enough to reach it?
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110731/OPINION08/107310345/From-fantasy-reality-Picture-urban-core?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s