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Last week’s issue of IBJ—one dedicated to all things downtown Indianapolis—came together almost completely as we’d hoped. But one piece landed on the cutting room floor even before it was written.
I’d intended to elaborate last week in a column or story on the nearly 2,000 responses we received to a survey we sent about downtown. But time and space got away from me.
The survey—which IBJ emailed to readers and posted on LinkedIn—did inform last week’s issue. Your responses helped us put stories and overall issues into larger context.
We also called a number of people who indicated on their responses that they were open to talking to a reporter. And along the bottom of the stories about development, crime, homelessness, tourism and living downtown, we included quotes from survey respondents—with their permission.
But I wanted to share a little more about what readers told us—with a few caveats. First, nothing about this survey is scientific. We emailed it to more than 50,000 people and posted it publicly on LinkedIn. We took steps to prevent people from answering it more than once from the same device, but that’s not foolproof.
In addition, we expected that those who live or work downtown, who previously lived or worked downtown, or just have especially strong views about downtown or Indianapolis politics would be more likely to respond.
With that said, the responses were interesting and largely thoughtful. It’s clear that many people who responded have intense feelings about downtown, whether they are enthusiastic or frustrated about its direction.
Respondents gave downtown the highest marks for its entertainment and restaurant options—and that was true whether the respondents lived downtown or elsewhere or whether they worked downtown or not. About two-thirds of respondents said they had a favorable or very favorable view of downtown’s places to eat, and nearly 70% expressed favorable or very favorable views of downtown’s entertainment options.
Interestingly, downtown workers were the least likely to give the area high marks for restaurants.
We saw general consistency when we asked people their views on downtown cleanliness. Overall, about half of the respondents said they had an unfavorable or very unfavorable view of the central city’s cleanliness—and that remained true when the answers were filtered for people who live elsewhere and those who work downtown.
Fewer of the respondents who live downtown said they felt unfavorably about downtown’s cleanliness. Still, only about a third gave downtown a favorable or very favorable rating in that area.
Crime and homelessness elicited the most dichotomy of responses.
More than 70% of respondents who live outside Marion County said they had an unfavorable or very unfavorable view of downtown safety. About 55% of respondents who live in Marion County but outside downtown have an unfavorable or very unfavorable view of downtown safety.
Among downtown residents, however, only 28% shared those feelings. (We acknowledge that 28% is still far too many, but the differences among groups are striking.)
We are still analyzing the survey results, and so I hope to have more to share in the future, especially about the many ideas and suggestions people had for city leaders and downtown organizations.
And if you missed it, you can still take the survey. Go to IBJ.com/downtown-survey.•
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Weidenbener is editor of IBJ. You can reach her at lweidenbener@ibj.com.
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