Making the Case for Indy Commuter Rail: Part 3d “Midtown”
52nd Street: Click to enlarge
Welcome to the next part. I use the term "midtown" loosely in that I cannot think of a fancy way to say halfway down the line that runs across the northeast quadrant of town. So I will refer to this as the "Midtown" stop of the NE Corridor. When we went out taking photos, we had planned on stopping at 62nd street. For some reason I thought that I had remembered this being one of the 5 planned stops. In my research, I havent been able to track down where I read that. We didnt stop at 62nd street because I wanted to get further south, before the sun dipped below the horizon. That said, 62nd street doesnt offer many opportunities to access the track and also promote good development without a lot of money being pumped into the area in purchasing land already being used by lower tier businesses, or residential properties. When I explored the line I traced further south, an area I am personally familiar with since I live further south in the southern Broad Ripple area. I will preface the following recomendation by saying that I would LOVE to see a stop in this area because they would have at least 1 rider (ME) heading out to the NE side for work every day.
Looking south from 52nd Street grade crossing
The other reason I say this is that I would think a large part of a favorable demographic will be younger professionals or recent graduates from college. I dont think I even need a census study to conclude that Broad Ripple as a whole contains a lot of these types. My street alone is settled by young couple and singles. White, black and hispanic alike. I feel that the proximity of a station located in the 52nd street area would sing to this group. Not only that, but further south seems a bit more economically depressed and would invite a number of riders. An alternative station stop would be the 46th street area as well. There is some surface area not really being taken up by much and would be easily acquired for a platform.
Weeds line the east side of the tracks, a Walgreens is to the left, Nikon D90 w/ Tokina 12-24 f4
I stopped recently and collected a couple of photos at the 52nd street track crossing. I drive past here everyday, so it is merely for my reader's purposes that I display these photos. There is a LARGE area of undeveloped land east of the tracks in this area. There are some businesses, but largely it is ripe for putting SOMETHING there. It would be easy to construct a park and ride if needed, and also would be easy to build a large rain garden to catch storm water since the land slopes gradually away to the east of here. There is a similar structure that was constructed this past year along Fall Creek (click for an article I penned about it) that could be referenced in its design here.
I believe that many objectives would be met with a station put in this area. Stay tuned for the last part of the station exam portion of my write up, the 25th street area, coming soon.
Nothing of note except signage on the west side of track, Nikon D90 w/ Tokina 12-24 f4
part 3e: 25th Street
Part 4: Future Expectations
