Beautification and Cleanliness: Keep Downtown Looking Good

Keeping Downtown beautiful has included a number of projects from planting trees and gardens to forming cleaning committees, recruiting volunteers and raising funds. Since 1994, 2,249 trees have been planted and 60,025 volunteer hours for beautification efforts have been recorded.

Seasonal Plantings Add Beauty
In partnership with Indy Parks and Recreation and City Department of Public Works, IDI plants two seasons of flowers in Downtown's 191 planters. A "Beautification Calendar" that lists key events, timelines and flower colors is distributed to more than 300 Downtown businesses for a coordinated look. Nine planters were added on Pennsylvania Street filled with topiary hibiscus and coleus to create a beautiful corridor identify for the new Penn/Market District.

Downtown Corridor Improvement Program (DCIP) Enhances Streetscape
Since 1995, the City of Indianapolis has completed $24 million of corridor improvements to enhance streets and revitalize the south side of Downtown including the following efforts:

• Washington Streetscape features trees surrounded by beds of daffodils, daylilies and ornamental railing from Delaware Street to Capitol Avenue.
• Jackson Place, between Union Station and the Omni Severin Hotel, is a Victorian perennial garden with a 10-foot wide granite and Indiana limestone urn.
• Infrastructure improvements include repaved streets, new sidewalks, historic street lights, 238 shade trees, thousands of colorful perennial flowers, new trash receptacles, storm sewer upgrades and improved traffic signalization.

Each spring since, the Kiwanis Club has planted trees in Downtown with the most recent planting of 27 trees along the Capital Avenue Gateway. More than 270 trees have been planted on public rights-of-way by the Kiwanians since 1997.

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West Street Grows Greener
West Street, a major traffic corridor between I-65 and I-70 in Downtown, has an updated, fresh look due to efforts that were completed in 1999. . The 2.3-mile stretch features more than 1,000 trees, 298 shrubs and 1,528 perennials and bulbs.

The West Street Landscaping Project improvements were made possible through an extensive public-private partnership totaling $764,367 including a $280,000 ISTEA grant from the federal government. The City of Indianapolis, IPALCO Enterprises, Lewis & Wagner, Rotary International, IUPUI and IDI were also actively involved in the project.

This is the largest tree planting of its kind in the state and was unprecedented in the Midwest because maintenance funding was included in the construction budget. Phase II of the project earned three awards: 1998 Monumental Affairs Award, National Arbor Day Award and the Indiana Urban Forest Council's Project of the Year Award.

Gateway Gardens Welcome Visitors
Since 1993, IDI has transformed 18 neglected urban eyesores into gateway gardens. Professionally designed by local landscape architects, these distinguished gardens feature salt-tolerant, drought-resistant and low-maintenance urban plants and trees.
Gateways maintained by IDI:

• Garden at 10th & Central streets (1994)
• Garden at Alabama & St. Clair streets (1994)
• Washington Streetscape (1995)
• Jackson Place (1995)
• Marian College's Pathways to Peace Garden (1995)
• Kiwanis' planting on Illinois Street from McCarty to Merrill streets (1997)
• I-70/Illinois Street Gateway (1997 & 2001)
• Rotary Greenway (Phase II of West Street Landscaping Project) (1998)
• Market Street Temple Garden (1999)
• Kiwanis' planting at Capitol Gateway (2006)

• Ohio Street & College Avenue (1995)
• West Street median between Indiana Convention Center /RCA Dome and Victory Field (Phase I of West Street Landscaping Project)(1994)
• Kiwanis' planting near Marion County Jail (1998)
• Kiwanis' planting at White River State Park (1999, 2002)
• West Street Landscaping Project Phase III (1999, 2004)
• I-70/ McCarty St. Gateway (developed by the City of Indianapolis and Eli Lilly) (2001)
• Kiwanis' plantings at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (2003, 2005)
• Kiwanis' planting at 16th Street & Fall Creek Park (2004)

Partners regularly step outside their property boundaries to help keep Downtown clean. They remove litter, gum and graffiti from their buildings, parking lots, loading docks, sidewalks and alleys up to four times a day. In doing so, they increase property values, improve property appearance, enhance perceptions of public safety and increase the economic vibrancy of Downtown.

To clean up the proliferation of cigarette butts, Monument Circle businesses and the City installed 54 ash urns in 1999. Since then, cigarette butt litter has been reduced by 95 percent. In 2000, a coordinated sidewalk pressure-washing plan was implemented to make Downtown even cleaner. In 2004, the sidewalk evaluation area was expanded to include the Mile Square. In November 2005, 89 percent of the sidewalks were rated "clean."

According to IDI's 2004 Downtown perception survey, 85 percent of central Indiana residents surveyed indicated that Downtown is clean.

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Fundraising and Volunteers Make It Happen
Many supplies are donated or discounted by local landscapers, greenhouses and other retailers. Since 1994, Downtown benefited from more than 60,025 volunteer hours from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 481, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Marion County Juvenile Center, Marian College, local schools, Master Gardeners, Tree Stewards and Downtown friends and neighbors. The City of Indianapolis and community service workers also help with routine maintenance.

The Downtown Beautification Committee, comprised of 15 community-minded volunteers, created the Marge Tarplee Downtown Beautification Fund, named after long-time beautification visionary and advocate Marge Tarplee, chairman of the committee. To date, a $350,000 endowment has been raised to support plant material, maintenance, holiday decor, lights and electricity. Memorials to honor family or friends are also welcome.

Gator Provides Cleaner, Greener Downtown
IDI's beautification coordinator manages the Clean 'n' Green Gator, a motorized John Deere vehicle painted bright purple. The coordinator treks around Downtown picking up litter, maintaining green spaces and giving directions and maps to visitors.

Trees Shine Year-Round, During Holidays
During the holidays, IDI works with its partners to install more than 750,000 twinkle lights on Downtown trees to create a magical, festive environment. Four IBEW-NECA/Quality Connection member companies maintain year-round lighting on 63 trees around Monument Circle. Volunteer union workers also install the holiday lights that decorate the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Monument Circle.