What are the public spaces that calm you? Energize you? Connect you with friends and neighbors? What makes them so attractive? Everyone needs these places in their lives. However, many communities and neighborhoods lack them or have amenities that are under-invested. What can we do to ensure that everyone has easy access to the vibrant public spaces they deserve?

About the Inspiring Places Initiative
Generous donors and visionary leaders have bestowed central Indiana with high-quality natural, cultural, and built public places. At their best, these unique resources have proven themselves to:

• Break down economic, physical, and cultural barriers between people
  
• Act as economic and cultural anchors to their surrounding neighborhoods
  
• Catalyze community energy and build a sense of community identity and mutual ownership
  
• Encourage healthy lifestyles and civic engagement
  
• Inspire and aid tourism and other economic development initiatives
  
• Lead to enhanced national recognition for central Indiana’s quality of life

Unfortunately, most places and amenities don’t realize their full potential as community assets. Too many of these spaces are under-used, under-invested, and disconnected from each other and from easy access by our neighbors. And, some communities lack them altogether due to economic changes.

Our goal is to help active citizen groups transform underused spaces into high quality community amenities. These public places include parks and public plazas, historic business districts and cultural districts, and the greenways and pedestrian/bike trails that connect them. Communities may already be using beautification and development programs, public art, or festivals to enhance their public places.


Current Activities (updated Aug. 2007)

• Cultural Trail  – CICF is leading a team to develop this proposed pedestrian and bicycle trail that would thread through downtown Indianapolis, connect the five Indianapolis Cultural Districts, engage the many cultural resources of the regional center, and provide a central hub for the nationally acclaimed Indianapolis greenway trail system.
• Coxhall Park and Gardens – As the Hamilton County Parks Department's philanthropic partner, Legacy Fund holds the Coxhall Park Endowment Fund.  A $2 million gift from Jesse Cox inspired the community to support the creation of this park considered a “jewel in a sea of homes”. Jesse’s gift lives on through contributions to the Coxhall Park Endowment Fund.
• Indianapolis Parks Foundation – A CICF Partner, the Indianapolis Parks Foundation is catalyzing improvements to a low-income neighborhood in Warren Township through the renovation of Windsor Village Park.
• Pocket Parks – In 2006, anonymous donors at CICF worked with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) to establish a fund for creating “pocket parks,” small parks managed by neighborhood groups and built in cooperation with KIB.  Read about some of the successful projects.
• Project for Public Spaces- CICF is hosting this international expert for an October 4-5, 2007 workshop on creating active and vibrant public parks, plazas, greenways, and historic and cultural districts.  For more information, contact Tony Macklin at tonym@cicf.org or 317.634.2423.