"Broad Ripple" we're not!

For years I have constantly heard from certain elements here in Irvington about how we don't want our community to become another Broad Ripple with all the insane night-life, after all Irvington is a "family neighborhood". While I agree that we don't need all the crazies of Indy to converge out here every night, I do firmly believe that Irvington needs some "Night Life" scenes. Yes, we do have some historic pubs here and poetry venues, but what we do not have are venues that make Irvington a city-wide evening desitnation. We "roll up the sidewalks" instead. Our moms & dads, for the most part, hire a sitter, and then take off for fun times somewhere else, none of their money stays in Irvington. If we are ever to be a truely "vibrant" community then we MUST work to make Irvington a "destination" point both day & night.

"Alleluia - He Is Risen!"

Today, while doing some research for Easter oriented clip art for use in this publication, I stumbled onto a couple of web sites that truely qualify as "Sick". This first one is actually a parody site and is supposed to be a harmless "spoof", (http://www.landoverbaptist.org). This next site turns out to be a real site, (http://www.godhatesfags.com).
It strikes me that this kind of mentality is one of the chief reasons that all of the mainline Christian faiths here in America are suffering from negative growth. The younger generation are very internet savy and can easily find these sites that represent the 'fucked-up" fringe of the Christian faith. We have allowed the continum of centuries of Christian tradition to be relegated to the "irrelivant" in our sad attempt to entertain the young generation with some kind of "fun worship". Between the efforts of the churches to constantly dilute dogma in an effort to remain relevant to young people & sites that encourage these kind of beliefs, it's no wonder churches suffer member loss.

Reverse Boycott

I applaud the Irvington Terrace group for their innovative "Reverse Boycott" of the Irvington Plaza Marsh Grocery. As a retired union member, I have always been proud to shop occassionally at the Eastgate Kroger, (in that Kroger is a union store), but I must admit that most of my grocery shopping is at Marsh, two blocks from my home. I have found that recently the store management has stabilized greatly over that of a few years ago. The current manager & his staff are very attuned to the community wishes. I can wholeheartedly support the innitiative and would urge all readers to participate and shop our Irvington Marsh!

Irvington web sites

These days, with the ever increasing use of the internet, I'm sure many people daily get their first exposure to our community web sites. Our Irvington area web sites serve as our ambasadors to the rest of the world.
What disturbes me greatly is the condition of one particular site, that of the Historic Irvington Community Council. If you go to that site even now, you'll see all the publicity concerning the up-coming 2009 Halloween Festival! This home page is now over 6 months without any update. There are a few other Irvington area sites with similar problems. It's one thing to create a great looking site and quite another to maintain it & keep the contents current.
When we present these out dated and poorly maintained sites to the world they make a statement as to the inner workings of our community.

Rapid Transit

In recent weeks we have all seen the media coverage regarding the proposed new "Rapid Transit" system. While in general I support the concept, I do have a concern about a portion of the plan.
All of us here in the Irvington area have, for the last two years, been working hard to raise funds for the "Irvington Street Scape" project. The first phase of that project is slated to start early next year. One of the features of the project is the creation of esplanades in the middle of Washington St. These are for both beauty and to slow down the traffic.
What I have a hard time understanding is where the newly proposed "Light Rail" line from Cumberland to the airport goes. Those proposing the system are saying it would run down Washington St. Does that mean it will go over or under the Street Scape esplanades?