Getting our slice of the tourism pie

Making Mass Ave a “must” for any visitor to Indianapolis – and for locals as well – is the goal of the current Mass Ave Place-Making Plan now being massaged by local stakeholders.

Of course, it’s already a “must,” as those us who hang out along in the Mass Ave Art & Theatre District already know. The idea is that many other folks don’t – especially those who swoop down upon the city to attend such events as the NCAA Final Four, the Big 10 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, or that holy grail of soirees, the 2012 Super Bowl.

For the tourists, the hurdle is the six or seven blocks between ground zero – the heart of Downtown and its sports venues – and Mass Ave. Not to mention the fact that one of the city’s biggest selling points for such events is the close proximity of the basketball and football arenas to hotels, restaurants and watering holes. Informing folks that Mass Ave is a uniquely local pit of happiness is just not high on their priority list.

Overcoming such obstacles is the idea of Wayne Schmidt and his staff at Schmidt Associates, the Mass Ave firm engaged by Riley Area Development Corp. to update the 10-year-old Mass Ave Commercial Development Plan.

Two public input sessions were staged in late March and early April, giving Mass Ave stakeholders a chance to brainstorm. The resulting rough draft took note of the benefits which can be reaped if consensus can be achieved. That list includes:

Increased density and increased consumer spending.
Creation of a transformative experience for visitors.
Better movement of visitors around Downtown.
And, of course, the aforementioned idea of Mass Ave as a “must-see” and “must-experience” destination.

My first thought was this: Change the corridor’s name to the French Quarter. We wouldn’t need to do anything pro-active to attract tourists. Call it the French Quarter and folks would flock like lemmings. Two problems: We don’t have any 24-hour bars or exotic dancers or Hurricanes being served from street-side to-go windows.

And it sounds too much like Broad Ripple. OK, so maybe a Mass Ave Place-Making Plan is in order.

Let’s review some of the acknowledged “facts” about Mass Ave, as brainstormed in those public sessions:

There’s a good existing brand – “45 degrees from ordinary.”
At least $100 million in improvements have been invested in the last five years.
It’s now, or soon to be, on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.
There are seven art galleries, a smattering of impressive public art, 12 restaurants, 20 retail businesses (most notably in the 400 block), five taverns and four theaters.

Those are facts. But what about “emotional responses.” In that category, stakeholders came up with numerous notions. Among those mentioned frequently are that:

Each block is different.
Mass Ave is the “Main Street” of the Downtown residential community.
We need to build synergies and connections.
Diversity is great.

But any self-evaluation requires self-criticism. Here are some reasons at least some stakeholders thought any plan to “sell” Mass Ave to outsiders won’t work:

Lack of parking in certain blocks.
Business hours of operation are not consistent.
Some sidewalks are in disrepair.
Parades (or other Downtown events) block access to local businesses.
Too many critical properties are vacant or are private parking lots.
The lack of commercial activity in the 500 block, home to the fire department and Barton Tower.

Now, on to the ideas on how to improve Mass Ave as a cultural destination. As long as we’re going to the trouble to coax Michigan State fans or Ohio State fans or New Orleans Saints fans or, heaven forbid, New England Patriot fans to Mass Ave, we ought to deal with:

The poor street lighting.
Less than great signage and way-finding elements.
The lack of strong “gateway” features at either end of the Avenue.
The need to expand on the “45 degrees from ordinary” brand.
The idea of making it easier for street performers to ply their craft.

The latter idea involves getting the city to cooperate in the permit process, which would open the door for more opportunities for the folks who have already been drawn to the area by the Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival.

There are far more nooks and crannies to the multi-faceted report which the Schmidt Associates people are now polishing – far too many to go into here.

But the idea which jumps off the page most easily involves lighting.

Perhaps a network of lights canopied over the major blocks. Perhaps Christmas-style lights in the trees which line the Avenue. Perhaps lighting focused on building entrances. Whatever tact is adopted, the need for lighting – both to create that coveted “sense of place” and to heighten the safety factor – is evident.

And probably more affordable than another key idea emerging from the process: A major piece of art at each intersection, even spanning the entire intersection, clearly letting people know they are entering or passing through the Mass Ave Art & Theatre District.

Once the final plan is unveiled April 29, the plan is to spend the next 10 months “building partnerships and implementing the plan.” That’s when the real work will begin, to ensure that Mass Ave merchants share in some portion of the wealth Downtown is generating, primarily with Super Bowl 2012 in mind.

And then all we’ll have to worry about are those New England Patriot fans.

– Found in mid-April by Chatterbox owner David Andrichik: Five or six flyers posted on Mass Ave trees by the folks at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Problem is, the flyers were nailed to the trees – by sizable nails. Who do we contact at PETT – People for the Ethical Treatment of Trees? And, now that we think of it, the situation wouldn’t have been any better if the flyers had been Velcro-ed or gummed to the trees. Flyers are litter, by any other name.

– Coming next month in Urban Times: An update on the status of bicycling in Indianapolis, with a special focus on the effectiveness of the bicycle lanes on Michigan and New York streets.

What may occur before the June issue, however, is a coordinated enforcement blitz of new city ordinances protecting bicyclists. The laws went into effect at the first of the year, giving bicyclists exclusive use of the designated lanes.

The effort is a coordinated program of the Department of Public Works and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Dept.

As a bicyclist, I am looking forward to better understanding between motorists and bicyclists. A massive public relations campaign, akin to the “Click it or Ticket” billboards is needed here, so that motorists understand that bicyclists have as much right to the roadway as they do.

But as a motorist, I hope the crackdown includes bicyclists themselves – many of whom routinely streak through red lights and ride the wrong way on one-way streets.

Bicyclists are on formal notice: If you ride on city streets, you obey the same laws as motorists are supposed to obey. Ride with traffic, not against it. That way you won’t end up staring at my rapidly approaching front bumper.