Pulliam: This Indy neighborhood is ready for a revival
After decades of decline, Twin Aire finally seems ready to echo Fountain Square's rebirth.
Pulliam: This Indy neighborhood is ready for a revival After decades of decline, Twin Aire finally seems ready to echo Fountain Square's rebirth. Check out this story on IndyStar.com: http://indy.st/2yh4isz
IndyStar Published 4:59 p.m. ET Sept. 21, 2017 | Updated 3:44 p.m. ET Sept. 22, 2017
Jeff Sparks talks about the Twin Aire area as he takes people on a tour of the 46201 Project area, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. The 46201 Project which is a multi-group collaboration to improve the community over five years.(Photo: Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar)Buy Photo
The city's new justice center is just one piece of a larger vision for renewal of the Twin Aire neighborhood on Indy's southeast side.
The justice center, including a new county jail, is on track to transform the site of the old Citizens Energy coke plant. But neighborhood leaders hope for an even bigger revival of what once was a thriving area of the city.
As nearby Fountain Square made its comeback in recent years, Jeff Sparks wondered if the renewal could spread east to Twin Aire. Sparks, founder of the Heartland Film Festival, has in recent years taken on the role of community organizer.
He helped neighborhood groups form a coalition that worked to impress city officials as they decided where to build the new criminal justice center, which will include county courts and a mental health center.
The Local Initiatives Corps. has named the area a Great Place 2020, to encourage more investment of city resources. It's also part of a federally designated Promise Zone and is included in Project 46201, which will renovate homes in the ZIP code. Citizens Energy gave $375,000 to match a federal grant to help with neighborhood planning. And National Nazarene Church conventiongoers helped to build five homes and fix up another 83 in the area this summer.
Sparks said home ownership in the area is at about 50 percent. "There are not a lot of boarded up homes," he said. "You can buy a move-in home here for about $30,000."
Pulliam is associate editor of IndyStar. Follow him on Twitter: @RBPulliam. Email him at Russell.Pulliam@indystar.com.
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