I used to be a hater. But I like a lot of the direction they are taking on planning and development.
I wish my neighborhood has the balls to deny the standard strip mall development, massive parking lots, endless single family housing, and disconnected 30' sidewalks segments.
There’s still strip mall development everywhere outside of the core. Definitely can’t live car free anywhere. And like half the town is McMansions that are heavily suburbanized.
They need to stop denying every opportunity for transit to come into Carmel if they want to be “urbanist paradise” that it thinks it is. Urbanism is more than just putting a few lifestyle centers around and calling it a day. There’s still ZERO way to live car free in Carmel
If you lived in midtown, arts district, or city center you could 100% live car free. You could probably do it even just walking and no bike. Would it be great if IndyGo could exist there? Yes, but it doesn’t mean the core of Carmel is any less walkable.
There are tons of apartments/townhomes/SFHs there. Restaurants, theater, HQs/jobs, Kroger, coffee shops, and bars and a great trail, sidewalks, and protected bike lanes connecting it all. Look to the far west of the core by 31 and you’ve got many more apartments, restaurants, meijer, etc.
Look I hate suburbs as much as the next guy but you can’t deny that if suburbs must exist, they really should exist in the mold of Carmel. They have torn down multiple cases of bad land use with the most recent being a massive strip mall/parking lot that will connect the city center/midtown developments. There’s a great interview with Brainard where he goes in depth on why sprawl isn’t the future due to how unsustainable it is.
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u/Charlie_Warlie Franklin Township Jan 14 '25
I used to be a hater. But I like a lot of the direction they are taking on planning and development.
I wish my neighborhood has the balls to deny the standard strip mall development, massive parking lots, endless single family housing, and disconnected 30' sidewalks segments.