"India-no-place" No More

By Jacob V. Lamar Jr.

The subject of a joke gains major league attention

Hardly anybody writes odes to Indianapolis. No Sandburg or Gershwin has ever praised the Midwestern city's hard American beauty. No bustling metropolis, that town; no seething cauldron of culture. Instead, folks mockingly called it "India-no-place." For almost a century, it was a city lacking a distinct identity. Sure, it was the state capital and could boast about being "the crossroads of America," what with U.S. Highways 31, 36, 40, 52 and 136 and Interstate Highways 65, 69, 70 and 74 all converging there. And since 1911, the city has hosted the Indy 500, that annual race-car extravaganza, which drew special attention last week when Rick Mears thrilled 400,000 spectators by winning at a record average speed of 162.6 miles per hour. Alas, for many not enamored of highways and racing, the town remained India-no-place.

Over the past decade, however, America's 13th largest city (pop. 708,000) has been laboring to dispel its old image and prevent the depressingly familiar slide into urban decay. New businesses have moved in, aided by tax breaks and lured by the city's location near the center of the nation. A once dreary downtown area has become slick and modern. Gleaming office towers, as well as a sports arena and an expanded convention center, decorate the skyline. A street paved with red bricks winds around venerable Monument Circle, lending new stateliness to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument with its slender 284-ft. limestone shaft. Indianapolis is feeling major league, and its residents have ample reason for civic pride. "The excitement here reminds me of Atlanta in the early '70s," says Charles Blair, 36, a senior program officer for the Lilly Endowment, which gives about $20 million annually for city improvement. Says he: "Things are happening quickly, and this is the place to be. People smell the money."

Perhaps the best thing to happen to Indianapolis recently was the defection of professional football's Baltimore Colts last March. Under cover of night, Colts Owner Robert Irsay had his team's equipment piled into a convoy of moving vans (Mayflower movers of Indianapolis) for shipment to the Midwest. Baltimore has filed motions in federal court to block the sale of tickets to Indianapolis Colts games, but this has hardly curtailed the excitement of the Hoosiers over their new National Football League team. Irsay has been hailed as a hero; WELCOME COLTS signs are all over town; I LOVE THE COLTS T shirts are worn proudly by the citizenry.

The team has a 20-year lease agreement to play in the newly built, seven-acre, 61,000-seat stadium known as Hoosier Dome. The $78 million complex is in the heart of downtown Indianapolis, its white-fabric, air-supported, 257-ton roof puffed up like a huge blanket. The stadium, built with a combination of public and private funds, including multimillion-dollar endowments from foundations and a 1% tax on food and beverages, is a major reason why the Colts have come to Indianapolis, and a tribute to the foresight and business acumen of the people running the city.

The boom had its origins in a state law that placed Indianapolis and most of surrounding Marion County under a unified government in January 1970. This quadrupled the city's land area to 379 sq. mi. and boosted the tax base from fewer than half a million to three-quarters of a million residents. Most significantly, the law encouraged more direct cooperation between the government and the private sector.

This partnership has pumped an abundance of money and ideas into Indianapolis and has resulted in more than 20 major downtown renewal and construction projects for housing, office, convention and cultural space. Since 1974, nearly $800 million has been spent on such impressive projects as the one at Merchants Plaza, a downtown complex of two office towers and a Hyatt hotel with an elaborate atrium. The city seeded the development by issuing $4 million in bonds, purchasing a four-acre plot, then leasing the land to a group of local bankers and businessmen.

The largest project in the city is just getting under way: White River State Park, a 250-acre, $200 million park just west of downtown. It will feature the Indianapolis Zoo, a performing arts center, botanical gardens, restaurants and a 1,000-ft., $15 million tower reminiscent of Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Indianapolis now boasts a ballet company as well as a fast-improving symphony orchestra, a repertory theater and the world's largest children's museum. Unlike other expanding cities, Indianapolis still remains affordable and offers some of the lowest housing costs in the country: the average price of a single-family home sold in the first quarter of this year was $50,600.

Homes are thus within reach of low-and middle-income families. The city is also considered a promising spot for minorities because of opportunities in new growth projects and business ventures. Despite all the hoopla, however, the fruits of economic growth have not reached many in the city.

The metropolitan area's unemployment rate in February was 8.9%, down from January's 9.5% but still high for a town bursting with prosperity. The area's manufacturing industries, particularly the transportation-equipment industry, which accounts for nearly 20% of the jobs, have been slow to make a come back from the 1982 recession.

Mayor William H. Hudnut III, now in his third term, is hopeful that the planned construction of several new hotels and the arrival of the Colts will stimulate more jobs in the city.

India-no-place, then, might just be a symbol of the past.

Bob Farley, 69, owner of a local taxi company, had considered leaving Indianapolis. He has changed his mind. "This town is on the move," he says. "It's booming, and I ain't goin' nowhere; I'm gonna stay here and boom with it."

-- By Jacob V. Lamar Jr. Reported by Don Winbush/Indianapolis

With reporting by Don Winbush