Indianapolis Cultural Trail

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick is different from most downtown development projects for many reasons. One of the biggest differentiators is the Cultural Trail’s funding sources. Most of the funding, approximately $35 million of the $50 million budget, will come from charitable contributions. We are also using $15 million in federal transportation funds, but no local funding.

To date, we have raised $27 million in charitable contributions from individuals, like Gene & Marilyn Glick, who gave $15 million in 2006 to help launch the project into reality. Local charitable foundations and a few businesses have made generous pledges or gifts as well. (See a partial donor list.)

Yet, we still need to raise $8 million to complete the plans we have started on time and on budget. It’s not fun to think about but the fact is: Without this funding, the Cultural Trail will not be completed.

People give donations for many reasons. Maybe you give to honor someone’s anniversary or wedding. Or maybe you give in memory of someone you loved. Maybe you give because it’s something you believe in and it connects with your core personal values.

Individuals, foundations, and businesses have supported the Cultural Trail for many different reasons. Many of them have given because it is an opportunity to show their support for something that will transform our hometown. They understand that one gift to the Cultural Trail is an investment in our city’s future.  

A gift to the Cultural Trail is an investment in making Indianapolis: 
– more environmentally friendly through 500 new trees, plantings and storm-water planters 
– more healthy through access to bicycling, running or walking
– more connected to neighborhoods, cultural districts and greenways
– more artistically diverse through $2 million in new public art 

If you believe that this project is important, for these reasons or your own, please consider making a gift. We cannot do this without you. Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) manages the Cultural Trail’s charitable donations, so your gift is also tax deductible. CICF can take gifts of cash, check, credit card or even stock, real estate, and estate planning gifts.

For more information on giving, please contact Gail Payne, 317.713.3333 or Gail@IndyCulturalTrail.org.

p.s. Thank you to ALL of our donors who have helped this project become a reality.

Trail signage helps cyclists, walkers stay on the right side of path.

The Cultural Trail creates a new city street environment that welcomes many different types of transportation – walking, cycling, roller-blading, even Segwaying (no skateboards, though. They’re not allowed on the Cultural Trail). While this is a great “green” development, we ALL need to better understand how to behave safely on and off the Trail.

About 60% of the Cultural Trail has separate bike and pedestrian lanes while the other 40% of the Trail has a shared bike and pedestrian path. The Trail clearly marks which path bicycles and other things with wheels versus pedestrians should take all along the route.

The Cultural Trail also features audible signals and large queuing areas at each intersection for Trail users to gather while waiting to cross safely. As users cross, the colorful intersection markings guide them to stay in their appropriate lanes to continue their journey along the Trail. The intersection markings also warn motorists that they are entering a unique area where they should be more alert to bicyclists, pedestrians and other users.

Trail signage helps users merge from separated trail into combined use path.

Cyclists should be following the same “rules of the road” as cars. In other words, cyclists should follow traffic signals and/or pedestrian crossing signals. If turning, cyclists should signal appropriately: left arm bent upwards for a right turn and left arm pointing left or downward for a left turn. Stopping should be signaled with the left arm turned downward (palm facing behind you).

Similarly, walkers, rollerbladers, and Segway-ers should also follow pedestrian crossings, avoid quick stops or other sudden movements and be aware of other users on the Trail at all times.

This diverse culture of transportation is exactly what we need to encourage if we want to reduce our dependency on cars, improve the environment and become a healthier community.  As more of the Cultural Trail is completed, it’s the perfect time to re-orient and re-educate ourselves about the basics of keeping the Trail and roads safe for everyone.

For more information about traffic and bicycle safety tips, contact the Indiana Bicycle Coalition, 317.466.9701, Info@BicycleIndiana.org, or visit www.BicycleIndiana.org.

See trash? Please pick it up. Thanks.

Now that the first half-mile is complete, we are creating a plan to maintain this as a world-class facility for decades to come. The Cultural Trail’s $50.35 million budget includes a $5 million maintenance endowment* that will provide some funding for maintenance long-term. We also plan to build a team from our partnership with the City of Indianapolis and bring in new players to help, like Indianapolis Downtown, Inc., which already provides maintenance management for much of the downtown area.

We need your help, too. The Cultural Trail provides trash receptacles, among other site furnishings (lighting, bike racks, bollards, benches) that we felt would most enhance the trail’s experience and help maintain it as a world-class amenity.

If you see trash, pick it up and place it in the trash receptacles.

If you see glass on the Trail, call us (317.713.3333). We will have it cleared as soon as possible.

If you see people vandalizing the Trail with stickers or paint or skateboards, call them names and then call us. We will make sure it is reported.

If you’re smoking on the Trail, please put out your cigar or cigarette safely in an appropriate container. The butts are trash, too. They don’t belong on the ground.

And, if you’re chewing gum, whatever you do, do not throw it on the trail or the in the plant bed or anywhere on the ground. Let’s just say that Brian Payne may personally come after you if you do!

We need to work together to keep our city clean and beautiful. Thank you for your help and cooperation!

*The Margot L. and Robert S. Eccles Charitable Fund, a CICF Fund, will match your gifts to the Cultural Trail maintenance endowment! For example, every $2 you give, it will chip in $1. Contact Gail Payne today to make a gift: 317.713.3333 or Gail@IndyCulturalTrail.org

Stormwater Planters are Greening Indy

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick is known mostly for being a bicycle and pedestrian path. It’s also adding significant greenspace in the downtown area. Along the first half-mile alone (Alabama Street from North Street to Market Street), 60 new trees, and 16,000 square feet in new shrubs, perennials and other plantings have replaced concrete and asphalt.  But did you know that many of the planting areas are specifically designed to reduce and clean stormwater runoff from the street? Typically, all stormwater on the street runs into a storm sewer and from there into our rivers and streams. These planters are dramatically reducing the amount of runoff and associated sediments and pollutants that eventually flow into the storm sewer system. These are the first stormwater planters in the city!  (Maybe even the state. We’re not sure.)

It’s great that we can learn from other cities and apply best practices to this dynamic project. The stormwater planters were inspired by Portland, Oregon, which uses them extensively throughout its neighborhoods and urban areas. Next time you’re in Portland, check out the Stormwater Walking Tour presented by Portland State University: or if you just want to learn more, check out Portland’s Sustainable Stormwater Management Program.

When you consider the overall impact of the stormwater and other planters planned along the eight mile Cultural Trail, that’s a LOT of water saved from our sewer system. The plantings will also make downtown more beautiful, green and create better air quality.

Learn more about the stormwater planters along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: http://www.indyculturaltrail.org/east.html

"Ann Dancing" by Julian Opie

Our first permanent public art installation, “Ann Dancing” by Julian Opie is “taking five” for a little “repair and renovation.”

One of four sides of the LED display was not working properly and needed to be repaired at Atlas Signs of Indianapolis.

We hope she’ll be back soon, ready to rock out in the Mass Ave Cultural District on the corner of Vermont St., Alabama St., and Mass Ave.

Learn more about the new, permanent public art that will be along the Cultural Trail on our Web site: http://www.indyculturaltrail.org/publicart.html