Georgetown Rd. Closure

I don't really care. There, I said it. I don't care . . . largely because it does not affect me.

Perhaps I should clarify the above statement. I don't have any problem with the closure of Georgetown Rd. In fact, I am happy that it happened, not so much because Georgetown Rd. is now closed to thru-traffic, but because it has enabled the development of the roundabout at 16th/Main/Crawfordsville and the entryway to to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For the Russian trolls reading this site (f*** you for messing with our election and saddling us with Donald Trump), Georgetown Rd. is a north/south road in Indianapolis that used to run from 16th Street on the south end to Lafayette Rd. on the north end; it ran right next to the west end of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and enabled traffic to go from 30th Street to 16th Street. It is now a dead end just north of 16th Street.

Here is a map as Georgetown Rd. used to be, with a big red arrow showing the part that is now a roundabout:

Please note that the picture is not perfectly oriented. Where the arrow points is now a roundabout and is actually at the southwest corner of the track. Note also that the road running parallel with the north end of the track is 25th Street. For a map (which I had problems embedding today for some reason), see here. That intersection, which used to rank as one of the worst and most dangerous intersections in Indianapolis, is now a roundabout (which, if the research in Carmel is to be believed, renders the intersection considerably safer than it once was.

(Gratuitous picture of Georgetown Rd. on race day):

Anyway, many people in Speedway seem upset about this closure of Georgetown Rd. I've noticed that the anger over this development is largely concentrated in two camps:

Camp 1: These people generally reside on Auburn Street, which is the next street to the west upon which traffic can get from 25th Street down to Crawfordsville Rd. This was previously (and still officially is) a "side street." Traffic that would otherwise have gone down Georgetown Rd. now goes down their street. I find Camp 1 to have a legitimate grievance that is eminently solvable. All one needs to do is have Auburn Street go one way north from 21st to 25th, and one way south from 21st to Crawfordsville Rd. Problem solved. Of course, this would require a little bit of change for the residents of Auburn St. I don't blame people for wanting things to not inconvenience them, but this is a very solvable problem.

Camp 2: I find Camp 2 to be considerably more difficult to stomach. Generally, Camp 2 is populated by people who seem, to me at least, to be contrarian by nature and believe that by being contrarian to and nitpicking at the Speedway Town Council and the Speedway Redevelopment Commission, they are somehow "sticking it to the man" or "looking out for the little guy." Newsflash Captain Contrarian - your constant complaining doesn't help anything. If you have such a problem with what the Speedway Redevelopment Commission has done in the past decade, go ahead and sell your house (in this white-hot housing market). Go ahead and pocket the tens of thousands of dollars in appreciated real estate from which you have benefitted, largely thanks to the forward-thinking members of the Town Council (reminder, not all of them are forward thinking) and the Speedway Redevelopment Commission (which is certainly fallible but not worthy of the derision heaped upon it).

Bottom line: change is hard. I'm certain that when the Meadowood Park neighborhood was built back in the mid 1960s, plenty of people had a problem with it. "It's gonna destroy the character of the Town!" However, if Speedway refuses to change, Speedway will only deteriorate.

Again, if Speedway refuses to change, Speedway will only deteriorate.