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I promised a few weeks ago to share more information about what we learned when we surveyed readers about their views on downtown Indianapolis—and what people have been telling us since then.
The responses we’ve received illustrate the wide gap in views about both downtown and how IBJ writes about it.
I want to start with LeAnne Zentz of Carmel, a reader who answered IBJ’s survey and then talked with a reporter in more detail about her thoughts but did not end up in one of the stories in our Feb. 17 issue dedicated to downtown. Zentz emailed me later to say that she was disappointed her view wasn’t included in a story about downtown crime and safety.
The story said that more than 70% of the IBJ survey respondents who live outside Marion County said they had an unfavorable or very unfavorable view of downtown safety.
The survey was not scientific, as we pointed out, but we thought this comparison was interesting: About 55% of people who live in Marion County but outside downtown expressed an unfavorable or very unfavorable view of downtown safety. And among downtown residents, 28% shared those feelings.
Zentz is not among that 70% of suburban residents who think downtown is unsafe. Zentz’s daughter lives in the Mass Ave area, and she comes downtown often to visit and go to the movies, restaurants and sports events. “I live in Hamilton County, and I really love to come Downtown to do things,” she wrote in her survey. “There are many different options.”
And she told us it’s frustrating that so many people, particularly suburban white residents, say that downtown is scary. That, she said, is “another reason I like to go downtown and talk about how wonderful it is.”
Her concern is that IBJ molded the story about public safety to fit our perception that people in suburbs are scared of downtown.
Interestingly, at about the same time, I received an email from another reader who specifically said he did not want me to publish his name. He also had concerns about IBJ’s downtown coverage—and in particularly a column I wrote a few weeks ago specifically about the survey.
He accused IBJ of “bending over backwards trying to ‘market’ a better downtown Indy.” And he said that IBJ is trying to make people believe downtown is safe. “Maybe tell that to all that have been killed, raped, beaten, robbed, etc., in Indy just in the last 24 months,” he wrote.
He said that IBJ failed to take into account that people who have bought expensive houses downtown are more likely to say downtown is safe to protect their property values.
Our goal with the downtown issue and the crime story in particular was to paint as accurate a picture as we could, both about the perceptions of crime and the data about crime.
The story detailed the share of crime that occurs downtown versus in other police districts in the city and found that downtown is one of the safest areas on a per-capita basis. The story also noted that the number of homicides and manslaughters has increased downtown, although the numbers remain relatively small.
And the story explained how two business owners in the same industry made different decisions about keeping their offices downtown based on both actual and perceived public safety. In a recent episode of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King also talked to those business owners in more detail about their decisions.
Our goal was not to mold this or any story to fit a preconceived idea. It’s to do strong reporting and craft a story based on that information.
In this case, both of these readers’ opinions are worth thinking about. We don’t always get everything right. But I can assure you that our intent was sincere.•
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Weidenbener is editor of IBJ. Reach her at lweidenbener@ibj.com.
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The most telling thing about this series is the fact it exists at all. There would have been no need to have these discussions just 6-8 years ago because no problem, or perception of a problem existed. Unfortunately, in that period we have a mayor and prosecutor bent on showcasing their liberal credentials. And please stop it with “Covid Caused It”, Trump Caused It”.
Donald, this is superficial politicized ranting that makes little sense. Of course covid had a large part to play in this as our downtown (and city as whole) has been built in sprawled fashion to depend on office commuting and tourism for large conventions to support downtown core. When a once in a century pandemic led to changes (or very much rapidly sped them) in remote work, less tourism/conventions, less events, less indoor shopping, of course our downtown core would take a hit. In addition, during pandemic homelessness, substance abuse disorders, mental health struggles all increased while funding for and availability of meeting needs for these individuals greatly decreased. These are complex issues and require nuanced responses to help counter. From a political sense, it seems like one side of isle wants to simply sequester or jail these folks without doing anything to counter the root causes or problems as a whole. As someone who does not like trump, of course trump did not cause downtown indianapolis to have safety perception issues. I will say, however, that the trump mentality of spread fear and hate while offering no substantive policies, ideas to improve issues seems to contribute to these perceptions. This is why I extend invitation to you Donald to come downtown and see our downtown neighborhoods for yourself! 🙂 all are welcome 🙂
Well written. I enjoyed the series that IBJ published focusing on downtown. As a downtown resident for past 8 or so years, I have to say downtown as a WHOLE feels much safer than when I first moved downtown, however, the mile square-specifically circle center area (where many visitors or residents for that matter of metro perceive downtown to be) does feel less safe. With that being said, the “less” safe is still not an unsafe perception, but it is simply more desolate without as much foot traffic which leads to that. “Easy” fix would be renovating circle center mall. The downtown as a whole, as above, feels exponentially safer. The surrounding neighborhoods such as mass ave, fountain square, near North side (Kennedy king, old Northside, Herron morton, bottle works), near east side (holy cross, now elevator hill), 16 tech have revamped indy into feeling like “actual” large urban area. More businesses, more housing, less deserted lots, less overgrowth, improved infrastructure with trails, lighting, roads, sidewalks have led to all of these areas to feel so much safer and vibrant. Mile square, specifically old US40 in Washington Street were decimated by covid lack of conventions, tourism and remote work (and too much reliance on indoor mall) have gone other direction for sure but this is only a sliver of downtown.
So in conclusion, in trying not to reflexively jump on suburbanites for being fearful and in bubbles, out of touch, this is my way of seeing where u all are coming from while also encouraging u all to come back and visit ALL of downtown and am confident these perceptions will evolve significantly towards feeling safe.