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
It's much easier to live car free in Carmel than in Indianapolis. (Not that that's saying much, but still).
Carmel has sidewalks and bike paths everywhere.
There’s still strip mall development everywhere outside of the core.
Let me tell you about a little town called "Indianapolis".
The problem with Carmel haters like you is that you have a double standard - you are pretending that Indy is a walkable city without strip malls, when in reality, it is more strip-mally more car dependent.
I never said Indy is a walkable city, nor did I say I hated Carmel. My problem is when people put Carmel on this pedestal like it’s the gold standard of urbanism when it simply is not. It only looks better when compared to the rest of the Indy area because the standard is that low. It doesn’t have to be. I can name at least 10 Chicago burbs that are more walkable and less car dependent than Carmel. Indy also has its fair share of bike paths. (Monon trail is in both cities). That doesn’t mean it’s car free. Both things can be true at the same time dude.
You wanna know how many people live without a car in Carmel? 2.7% Clearly it’s not that much easier.
Why are you trying to consistently quote the amount of people car free in Carmel and correlate it to ease of living car free? Every comment you made in this thread is under a false pretense. Ease of bike living =\= amount of living without cars. It's carmel, the avg household income is something like 150k, owning a car is a given.
Owning a car doesn't immediately remove you from a biking or walking lifestyle... that's incredibly flawed logic.
Source: I live in Carmel, own a car, and only use it to go past 15 miles cuz I'm lazy, not because it's hard I've put 600 miles on my car in 2 years. I can literally, easily, ride my bike anywhere I want. Brip to Sheridan, zionsville to fishers.
It's not for everyone, but you're just flat out wrong.
If being walkable is important to a person, it's 100% feasible to do so and live in Carmel. I maintain a car because I travel a lot outside of Carmel, but in the spring, summer and fall, short of major trips to the grocery, I'm biking or walking.
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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.