On November 4, 2021, the Near Eastside Quality of Life plan partners welcomed over 120 attendees in-person and online to a presentation from the City of Indianapolis Department of Public Works and IndyGo for the conversion of New York Street and Michigan Street into two-way streets beginning in Spring 2023.
The meeting lasted over two hours and saw high levels of engagement among present community members. The Two-Way Conversion of Michigan and New York, which will turn the now one-way streets into two-ways, has been a controversial issue for near eastside residents. Concerns over child safety were raised consistently amongst attendees, considering the locations of several schools along the portions of New York and Michigan. Department of Public Works and IndyGo representatives alike assured the meeting attendees that two-way streets are safer for pedestrians and provided peer-reviewed research and examples from similar projects as evidence.
Team members from both DPW and IndyGo stayed long after the meeting’s end to answer individual concerns and talk through neighborhood maps that were placed along the walls of the meeting room. While tensions were high for much of the meeting, by the conclusion of the meeting, there seemed to at least be a reluctant willingness to find compromise and work together as a city and community to find safe solutions to the infrastructure issues facing the near eastside.
For more information, please visit the Quality of Life Plan website, http://neareastplan.org/near-eastside-fall-summit/