Indy's new and improved park system
Why it matters: A multiyear, multimillion-dollar plan to strengthen Indy's parks is bearing fruit across the Circle City this summer as new and improved facilities debut.
State of play: Last month's grand opening of the Grassy Creek Environmental Community Center on the east side marks the end of the $45 million Circle City Forward initiative announced in 2021 to improve our parks.
It also included the Riverside Adventure Park, which opened May 1; the Frederick Douglass Park Family Center, which opened in May 2024; the renovated Krannert Park Family Center, which opened in January 2024; and the Riverside Promenade, which opened in October 2023.
Yes, but: Circle City Forward was just one piece of a more than $140 million parks investment puzzle that also includes the city's $16 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and an $80 million Lilly Endowment grant to pay for improvements across 42 parks.
Zoom in: The ARPA projects will transform 28 playgrounds in 26 parks by the end of this year. Seventeen of those projects are done.
In addition, ARPA funding covered the cost of the Wes Montgomery Basketball Pavilion, which opened late last year.
Lilly grant projects currently under construction include Tarkington Park, Holliday Park, Washington Park and Garfield Park.
Stunning stat: The funding will allow Indy Parks and Recreation to replace more than 40% of the city's 132 playgrounds, according to Indy Parks spokesperson Alex Cortwright.
Flashback: The city's post-pandemic push to make our parks better came years after falling to the bottom of the annual ParkScore Index rankings alongside Fort Wayne in 2017.
The two cities have since opted out of participating in ParkScore, according to a spokesman for the Trust for Public Land, a pro-park nonprofit that compiles the rankings.
While Indy isn't part of the rankings, the nonprofit's assessment of the city found that just 4% of its land is used for parks and recreation, well below the national median of 15%.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit says, 35% of Indianapolis residents live within a 10-minute walk of one of our more than 220 parks. That's a far cry from the national average of 76% among the 100 most populous U.S. cities, and 57% among all urban communities.
Between the lines: Cortwright said that scoring is affected in part by our city's history.
Many of our parks were established before the " Unigov" legislation that merged city and county governments in 1970, expanding the city's territorial jurisdiction from 82 to 402 square miles.
The majority of our parks are within the old city boundaries, he said.
What they're saying: "That's where you see a lot of those empty areas, and where we're looking to establish more parks. That's why things like what we're working on in Decatur Township where we acquired some land last year are really so important," Cortwright said.
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Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Yahoo
An Asheville respite supports the unhoused after hospital stays. It is now expanding.
ASHEVILLE - Trokon Guar was finally walking without a wheelchair. He'd come to Haywood Street Respite eight months earlier with a fractured leg. In July, the respite's screened-in porch dimmed the summer heat, an alcove tucked away from the near-constant activity of the downtown church. Guar demonstrated a few calf raises, grinning. He is a composer and musician. When it comes to genre, he's not picky — R&B, rock, jazz. But he favors spoken word hip hop. In a new music video on his YouTube channel, snippets of footage are filmed in Haywood Street Congregation's sanctuary, backlit by stained glass. The 12-bed respite offers post-acute, short-term care after hospitalization for people experiencing homelessness. The intervention is intended to give them a place to recover, rather than ending up directly back on the street. 'This place has changed my life," Guar, 34, told the Citizen Times July 17. He has been homeless for years. In-and-out of the hospital. If not for the respite, he said, "I had nowhere else to go." More: Homelessness after Helene: With final Buncombe disaster shelter closed, what's next? Respite expansion underway The respite is slated for expansion using funding from a $1.6 million grant, awarded by Buncombe County via American Rescue Plan Act dollars in September. The Continuum of Care recommended funding for the program after issuing a request for proposals last year to bolster area shelter beds. The project will grow the respite to 25 beds, more than doubling its capacity, adding a second-story addition to the building, along with an elevator and 3,300 square feet of new offices, bedrooms and common areas. Haywood Street Congregation, an urban ministry with the mission, "relationship, above all else," opened the respite in 2014. The brick church sits on the outskirts of downtown. It hosts a midweek Downtown Welcome Table, often a refuge for the city's unhoused. If the welcome table is the ministry's "hub," respite is its "heart," said Executive Director Laura Kirby. The city began processing its permit application July 1. Construction on the $1.9 million project is expected to begin construction in late September, Kirby said. It will take about 12 months. The respite will temporarily relocate residents to allow for uninterrupted operations. Respite Director Nicole Brown said the expansion will mean, first and foremost, turning less people away. Staff will also have more flexibility to keep people longer, leading to better outcomes for residents. A stay starts at two weeks, but lasts 45 days on average. Placements are made by referral, with many coming from Mission Hospital and the county's community paramedics. Those in respite care have a safe place to rest, meals, transportation to follow-up appointments and assistance accessing services and support. In 2022, the National Institute for Medical Respite Care selected Haywood Street's program, along with four others in the country, to receive capacity building assistance to increase the integration of medical respite with behavioral health care. There is a licensed clinical social worker on staff, as well as an in-house case manager, a peer support specialist, nurses and other 24/7 support. Asheville faces lack of affordable housing The goal is to create an exit plan for each person in respite care, like working toward long-term housing or connecting them with a behavioral health provider. It ensures people are added to the by-name list — a standard practice for an area Continuum of Care, with real-time information used to prioritize people to be slated for available housing programs dedicated to those exiting homelessness through coordinated entry. Asheville's list includes 690 people actively engaged with providers, according to Emily Ball, manager with the city's homeless strategy division. For the respite's first decade of operation, 70% of residents went somewhere other than the streets upon departure, and 87% were newly connected with primary care, with most attending at least the first follow-up appointment, according to Haywood Street figures. Guar, for example, is awaiting documents he needs to replace his identification and Social Security card before he can take next steps toward housing. He is hopeful for placement in a group home, before eventually moving into his own place. Others are waiting for housing at Vanderbilt Apartments or the housing authority. As the ministry shifted its model to work with people facing more complex issues — like those with intersecting medical and behavioral health needs — it can be more difficult to exit them into shelter, Brown said. Some shelters also may not be structured to support people in wheelchairs or on oxygen. 'So it might be that they're going outside, but they're going outside hopefully a lot more supported than they were when they came in," Brown said. Asheville also faces a lack of affordable housing options, Brown said. The city's 2024 Affordable Housing Plan found that 36% of all Asheville households are "cost-burdened," meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Between 2015 and 2021, median rent increased 33%, from $866 to $1,152, while median wages for workers in Asheville's top industries increased only 15%, the study found. Asheville has among the highest rents in the state. For this reason Haywood Street embarked on its own housing venture: constructing 41 permanently affordable apartments less than a half-mile from the church, aiming for occupancy by November. More: Haywood St.'s 41 affordable apartments named for Asheville activist Gloria Howard Free Community 'changes things' In the respite's kitchen July 17, hospitality manager Elizabeth Bower, affectionately referred to as the "house mom," was serving up a baked potato bar. She and Brown remembered the earliest days of Haywood Street Congregation's welcome table, back in 2010, making large batches of scrambled eggs in a residential kitchen. They didn't know the color changed when kept warm for too long. Faced with a pot of green eggs, they just made ham, too, Bower said. At the kitchen table was Tracy Fowler. He was homeless for about three years before coming to respite. 'I've been able to get the rest I've needed, get off the streets, get regulated on my meds. Become myself again," Fowler, 57, said. Accepting someone into a community is crucial to respite's mission, Brown said. "(It) just instantly changes things," she said. 'While the stay in respite might be short, the relationships that you build, and the support we offer, is long term with that connection with Haywood Street.' John Madden, 78, who prefers to go by "Jaunito," was living in Mexico when he fell ill. Unable to afford a doctor there, he came back to Asheville, where he lived for more than a decade before the pandemic in 2020. "I came back with no plans but to stay alive, if I could, or find out what was going on,' he said. He's experienced homelessness before — he estimated about 25 days total in the last five years — but the 10 days on the street before securing a spot at respite were brutal. One night on the street, "and I unravel in a way that is startling," he said. 'This place has been beyond miraculous," Madden said of the respite. "The staff are astonishing. I call them ninjas, because they have to handle every kind of problem, from psychological to housing ... I started to exhale once I got through the door.' Phillip Lucero, 65, was clear about the emotional and physical toll homelessness takes. He was in shelters for about three years, and on the street "fairly recently." 'This can really happen to anybody. I had a very good job. I had a really good apartment … And it just, piece by piece, fell apart in a matter of months," Lucero said. 'A couple of bad decisions and here I am. And it is extraordinarily difficult to survive." Places like respite make it possible, he said. They do a good job to make you feel "at home." He, Madden and Fowler are on various housing waitlists. Lucero said he has been on some of them for years. 'You become a target' The respite is working to break a cycle people can become trapped in when experiencing homelessness: bouncing from the street, to shelter, to jail, to the hospital and back. It is complicated by a lack of shelter beds. Further complicated by difficulty finding affordable housing. Sleeping or existing outside while homeless can result in a second-degree trespassing charge, Brown said. 'When you're homeless, you become a target for a lot of people. No one really cares about you," Guar said. You are arrested for disorderly conduct, for trespassing or are kicked out of buildings. It was enough to make him feel like no one "wanted anything to do with me." 'But these people here care," he said of respite. "They've shown me that there is people out there that care. My mentality has changed completely.' How to get help Call Haywood Street Respite at 828-301-3782. Learn more about respite referrals at More: BeLoved Asheville rebuilds with resilience in Swannanoa's Helene-damaged Beacon Village More: Could Asheville get alcohol-friendly social district downtown? Council may consider it Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@ or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Downtown Asheville's Haywood Street Respite is expanding its beds Solve the daily Crossword
Chicago Tribune
24-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Air Force veteran's Park Forest home gets thousands in repairs through Cook County program
Mark Kellogg and his wife, Keisha, were looking at taking out a hefty home equity line of credit to pay for thousands of dollars in repairs at their Park Forest home. But the U.S. Air Force veteran didn't have to pay a dime for $30,000 worth of work, completed this spring through a Cook County program that repaired homes of 30 military veterans, including homes in other south suburbs. At a news conference outside Kellogg's home Tuesday, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said the program was meant to make veterans' homes 'more accessible, safer and more secure.' 'Our veterans have given us so much,' she said. Launched in 2023, the Veterans Home Repair Program tapped $1.25 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. Along with Kellogg's home, the county program repaired the homes of veterans in Chicago, Blue Island, Calumet City, Dolton, Homewood, Lansing, Matteson and Richton Park. Interior and exterior work was done on all of the homes, with costs ranging from $15,000 to $45,000, according to the county. At Kellogg's home, work included new gutters, a new furnace and water heater, repainting six rooms and replacing a concrete patio in the backyard. 'When we bought the house we didn't know rain pooled against the back of it,' he said. The county program replaced the concrete patio and regraded the soil underneath so that storm runoff is directed into drains in the backyard. Kellogg said fixing that problem alone would have cost him $16,000. 'I am extremely greatful I was chosen to participate,' Kellogg said. He said he and his wife have lived in the home since 2010. Kellogg was in the Air Force from spring 1988 to winter 1992. He is commander of the American Legion post in Park Forest and works for the village's Public Works Department. He grew up in Harvey and has six siblings, and his family moved to Park Forest during his senior year of high school. After graduating from the since-closed Rich East High School in 1987, he joined the Air Force. Kellogg said he comes from a military family and that his father and a younger brother both served in the Air Force, and other relatives, including a grandfather, uncle and cousins, were in other branches of the military. He said he applied online last December for the county program and was told in March he'd been selected. All of the work was done by the end of April, he said. The 56-year-old Kellogg and his wife have been married 22 years and have three daughters. The county worked with Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago, which relies on volunteers to repair homes and other buildings in the Chicago area. Since 1991, the organization has repaired 1,900 homes and 285 facilities operated by nonprofits, according to its website. Wanda Ramirez, Rebuilding Together's president and chief executive, said there are a 'growing number of homeowners who cannot afford to make repairs' needed for them to stay in their homes. Without the financial resources needed, Ramirez said the many veterans 'may have to live in substandard housing.'
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Remodel or replace? Johnstown considers 'way overdue' options for nearly century-old Public Safety Building
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – As the Johnstown Public Safety Building closes in on the centennial anniversary of its dedication, the structure appears headed toward one of two fates over the coming years. City officials expect to either rehabilitate the facility to make it a clean, modern and structurally sound home for the police and fire departments. Or the structure could be rejected, razed and replaced with a brand-new building somewhere else in the city. Johnstown City Council's ultimate decision about what to do will, in large part, come down to money. A rehab is estimated to cost $10 million or more. Constructing a new building would likely top $20 million. Right now, Johnstown has $5 million for the project – $2.5 million apiece in federal American Rescue Plan Act for COVID-19 pandemic relief money and in state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant funding. 'One of the drawbacks we have there is the funding stack,' Johnstown City Manager Art Martynuska said. 'We have a little, but not enough to do even a remodel.' Public Safety Building | Downtown Johnstown Public Safety Building on Washington Street in downtown Johnstown on Thursday, June 12, 2025. The building, 401 Washington St., was constructed and equipped at an approximate cost of $500,000, according to a Johnstown Tribune article from 1926. Work was done throughout 1925 – the year carved in stone on the front of the building – and 1926. It was formally dedicated Dec. 16, 1926. Sine then, the building has served as home to the fire and police departments that have protected city and regional residents in day-to-day times of need and during major events such as the 1936 and 1977 floods. But the building is now in disrepair. In recent years, the city has done mold remediation, water-proofing of the basement with new drains and sump pumps, and HVAC improvements to make it 'a little bit of a safer facility,' as Martynuska said. 'That's what we've been doing – patching it,' Johnstown City Councilman Ricky Britt said. 'Patches here, patches there. After a while, you don't have anywhere to put a patch. You can only patch it so many times.' Britt said 'the old building has served its use' and 'that the project there is way overdue.' 'We've definitely got our usage out of it,' Britt said. 'Hopefully we find the proper location and come up with the right amount of funds to build a new building.' Britt is among a group of city officials who support a new structure. That would involve finding a site, possibly dealing with floodplain issues in the downtown, and likely needing to knock down the current building so it does not become yet another vacant property in the municipality. Others, including City Councilwoman Laura Huchel, favor upgrading and modernizing the existing structure. 'I feel and think, based on some contributions from the planning commission, that the Public Safety Building can be rehabbed and retrofitted to be exactly what Johnstown needs out of a public safety building,' Huchel said. 'It's a very large building. It's more than we need for our current staff, so there are some rental opportunities there if we make it a welcoming space. 'The expense of doing that, while significant, does not even approach the expense of creating a brand-new building and then being faced with needing to demolish the old one.'
