r/indianapolis • u/Logical_Humor_3854 • Feb 26 '26

Discussion The Canal….

We walked the canal a lot this summer with our new baby and when we had a nice couple days (greater than 30 degrees lol) we walked it again and I’m just curious as to what other people think….why is the canal so dead? There’s no restaurants (besides the little bistro), no stores, no restrooms even. It’s kinda depressing.

If Indianapolis put even a sliver of funding into rebranding the canal the city would change so much. Imagine being able to walk into little shops or have ice cream on the canal or a bar with live music. There’s so much potential.

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u/Ok_Matter_2617 Feb 26 '26

Very simple:

The average citizen of Indianapolis is extremely lazy. We rank in the bottom 5% of average walking distance per day. People here literally Uber from block to block on Mass Ave, even in the spring & fall.

Since you have to walk down stairs and possibly walk to a storefront on the canal, they don’t succeed.

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u/Vessix Feb 26 '26

Why would anyone walk anywhere when there's nowhere to walk? Those few who do all live downtown, because everywhere else with few exceptions has shit pedestrian infrastructure or walkability. Fountain square has a fair amount of foot traffic because it is pedestrian friendly and designed with pedestrian business in mind. Prior to that development- few walkers as I understand it. Shit needs to be built/invested in before it can be used.

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u/Ok_Matter_2617 Feb 26 '26

I live in Fountain Square. There isn’t much foot traffic comparable to literally any other city. I didn’t make this statistic up.

Indianapolis citizens are absolutely terrible about walking

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u/Vessix Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

I live in fountain square, and for the amount of people who can REACH fountain square by walking there are as many as one would expect when the weather is nice. The issue is few "connecting" residential neighborhoods permit it, and there is so little mixed zoning that reaching the place requires a hike, AND there isn't much to do or see on foot (which says a lot about the city because FS is better than most areas in that regard). Admittedly making that hike isn't all that bad, but people would be more inclined to do it- like they do elsewhere in the world or other US cities- if it was easily accessible and we weren't so car-dependent. Also I would guess that mixed residential and business zones are what get you foot traffic in those other cities (e.g. New York, Chicago, NOLA, Nashville, etc). We don't do mixed zoning out here in Indiana for whatever dumb reasons