Broad Ripple Needs More Than Nostalgia. It Needs A Comeback

Broad Ripple Needs More Than Nostalgia. It Needs A Comeback - Page 4

Can Indianapolis preserve its history without freezing an important neighborhood in place?

Broad Ripple's historic fire station presents a redevelopment challenge, but doing nothing is not preservation.
Local businesses want Broad Ripple to thrive again, and new investments signal potential market opportunities.
Civic leaders must confront Broad Ripple's problems, not just talk around them, to enable the neighborhood's comeback.

Broad Ripple Needs More Than Nostalgia. It Needs A Comeback

Tony Katz isn’t buying the idea that Broad Ripple’s 104-year-old fire station should be treated as untouchable simply because it is historic.

The Department of Metropolitan Development has issued a redevelopment request for the former station, a one-and-a-half-story building that received an addition in 1994 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. Katz said the question is not whether history matters — it is whether Indianapolis can preserve that history without freezing an important neighborhood in place.

“Is the issue that you can’t do anything to the building because it’s 104 years old?” Katz asked, warning that any proposal will likely meet resistance from residents determined to protect what they see as part of Broad Ripple’s fabric.

But Broad Ripple, Katz argued, needs more than nostalgia. It needs a comeback.

For years, the neighborhood has been caught in what Katz called a “limbo state” — remembered as a once-great destination, then battered by concerns about violence and safety. Local business owners want to see it thriving again, and there are signs that investors may see an opening where others see a write-off.

A new high-end steakhouse, is expected to take over the former HopCat location at Broad Ripple and Hamilton. Katz said that kind of restaurant — with steak, seafood and classic cocktails — sends a message: either operators believe there is an untapped local market willing to spend more than $60 on a steak, or the economics of the area have become unusually favorable.

Either way, it is movement. And Broad Ripple badly needs it.

“We would be foolish to say, ‘Broad Ripple, we should just let that die on the vine,’” Katz said. “Absolutely foolish thing to do.”

Katz pointed to the Bottleworks District downtown as proof that Indianapolis still has enormous room to grow when development is allowed to work. He said the city “thrives in spite of its leadership,” taking aim at Mayor Joe Hogsett, City-County Council President Vop Osili and what he described as a broader class of civic leaders who talk around the city’s problems instead of confronting them.

The fire station presents a real challenge, Katz acknowledged. Redevelopment may require preserving its façade, finding a new use for the structure or building elsewhere and repurposing the parcel. But doing nothing is not preservation. It is surrender dressed up as sentiment.