Two great news stories from central & southern Indiana:
The I-69 extension from Indy to Evansville is drawing protesters, again. And this time it appears they are lodged in trees along the new path to be cut for the highway extension. Several protesters have camped out in trees along the path of the new interstate to connect southwestern Indiana with the rest of the state.
Logically, it would seem the I-69 extension is something necessary that, as you look at a map, appears should have always been. But then there is the argument that, if I'm correct, the new road would cut less than 20 minutes off the drive from Indy to Evansville. It takes me almost that long to drive around river city sometimes. Wasteful spending? Unnecessary loss of cropland and woodland? There are road extensions I plan to boycott here in river city once they are complete, but I'm not going to promise to boycott I-69.......the trip to Holiday World is a long one with kids.
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Hooray for Zionsville! Evidently Zionsville officials have defeated a plan by Wal-Mart to construct a super Wal-Mart on the famed Michigan Road. Quoted as the primary reason was the destructive influence Wal-Mart would have on the charming character of this community. What I think is unfortunate is that it evidently takes well educated and wealthier folks to understand that their community has character. Imagine if the rest of us out here in possum hollow understood the importance of protecting our communities' character. There would be no Wal-Mart.......imagine.
3 comments:
When I moved to Indy in 1994, the MR was four lanes near I-465, but narrowed to two shortly thereafter and was a very nice country drive all the way to Logansport. But then Carmel went on its we-will-conquer-all annexation kick and now all of the MR in Hamilton County is part of Carmel. Not surprisingly, strip malls and big stores followed, including a Lowe's and a Super Target. And as Zionsville became more and more a bedroom community for Indy, those two lanes became mighty jammed morning and evening. So now the MR is four and five lanes to north of Zionsville (but somehow still always jammed at rush hour). It's just another suburban highway overrun with strip malls and big stores, including a Lowe's and a Super Target. The charming character of the Michigan Road and its communities in that corridor has been lost for years. I don't think much of this growth has pushed into Zionsville's outskirts in Boone County yet, but I'm not sure a couple more big stores would make any more difference.
I do have a personal reason for being glad Zionsville nixed that Wal-Mart. If it had been built, it would certainly have meant closing the one at 86th and Michigan just 1.5 miles to the south. I don't love shopping at Wal-Mart; I even wrote about it in my blog once. But there are some things I buy where Wal-Mart is just the best choice, and that 86th St. Wal-Mart is smack dab between work and home -- AND it avoids the traffic headache of the MR in Hamilton County. Not that the 86th St. Wal-Mart is a pleasant place to shop; its employees are disinterested at best, surly and deliberately unhelpful at worst, and the place is always dirty. But it does serve a useful purpose, and I don't want it moved. Enough stuff has moved out of the 86th St./MR area to the nicer suburbs, whether north to the MR in Carmel or west to the Traders Point area, and none of that is convenient for me. But that's how it goes in cities. The latest ring of growth is along the arc made by Traders Point and Carmel/Zionsville and things will move out there, leaving the last ring (86th St/MR) in decline.
HR....you TREEHUGGER! It is time you switched Parties!!!! Join me on the dark side of the force! HAHAHA! INDOPE (indot) is out of control!!!!!!
A world without the superpower of walmart, I can only imagine.
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