Indianapolis is abuzz with everything Super Bowl XLVI, and deservedly so. Downtown is amazing! Our city has been preparing itself for three years for this week, and all early impressions from the media indicate that we are succeeding!
One of the Super successes of this whole experience has been going on a couple of blocks down the street from our office. The Super Bowl Legacy Project - http://www.indianapolissuperbowl.com/legacy-project-overview/ - has re-gentrified a corridor of East 10th Street on the near-East side that suffers from abandoned homes, higher crime rates, drugs, prostitution and high unemployment. If you haven’t driven down E. 10th toward downtown for a while, you should make the drive. The transformation is nothing short of amazing!
Do these problems still exist there? Yes. In fact, just a couple of days ago, I saw a prostitute pick up a john not even 100 yards from the boundary of the beginning of the Legacy Project. But it is a giant step forward for our neighborhood. It is a battle won in the war against urban decay.
Partners In Housing has been a soldier in that war for 19 years now. Starting with The Burton Apartments in 1995, we have identified properties written off as “blight” (almost all of them on Indianapolis’ East Side) and completely renovated them into housing units for some of Indianapolis’ most vulnerable citizens.
We wish to thank the Super Bowl Host Committee for their work in bringing the Super Bowl to the Circle City, their selection of the near-East Side for the Legacy Project, and all they have done to revitalize our neighborhood!
