What I Love about Indianapolis (and especially Speedway)

I have lived in many places over the years, and it has recently occurred to me that Indianapolis, and particularly Speedway, is home. Full stop.

I should probably address Indianapolis at large first, beginning with the circle. I work on the circle, for now, and I love having such a beautiful monument at the heart of our city. Of course, it's surrounded by a basic business district with too many office buildings and too few local restaurants, but that's life.

I am kind of mixed on what has happened on Mass Ave in the past decade, but overall I think that it's a plus. More bars. More restaurants. It kind of creates some competition for Broad Ripple for the night life. If you've never been to the Chatterbox, you must.

Fountain Square has had a similar run as Mass Ave, though it has gone more in the direction of art and music and less in the sports bar/fine dining direction. I went to the Hi Fi the other night, and that was a great little dive to see some music.

Of course, I lived in Broad Ripple for a long time as well. What can I say about Broad Ripple that everyone doesn't already know? The strip is nice if you want a whole bunch of sports bars and dance clubs. Off the strip always has nice restaurants that seem to rotate. It's tragic that the String Shop is gone, but the sushi spot that replaced it is a definite upgrade.

Then there's Speedway.

I have a park within a five minute walk of my house. My street is quiet and safe for approximately 363 nights a year, and it gets unbelievably raucous the other 2. I joke with people that I live in Mayberry 50 weeks a year and Mardi Gras the other two. I can ride a bicycle from one end of the town to the other. If I wanted to do a pub crawl of the entire town, I could do it on foot.

One of the iconic sporting events on the planet occurs within a mile of my porch.

A quarter million or so of my closest friends come to visit in May.

Little boys dream of driving race cars, yet it actually happens within walking distance of home.

There is so much more to Speedway than just the race, but for anyone who is not from Indiana, this is Indiana.

Lots of places have NFL teams. Lots of places have basketball. Lots of places have corn fields. Every place has sports bars and dance clubs.

Only Speedway has the Indianapolis 500. Embrace it.