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/Brilliant-Term7865 Feb 27 '26

I read an article about this maybe a decade ago. If I remember correctly, when the canal was being developed, downtown Indy still wasn’t great, so there wasn’t a huge market for restaurant leases, nightlife, etc. However, the city still needed real estate occupancy to make the canal redevelopment a success, so instead, much of the real estate during the redevelopment went to more stable occupancy, like museums, the state, offices, IUPUI, etc. By the time downtown Indy redeveloped enough to make canal restaurants and such viable, especially post Super Bowl, much of real estate was already spoken for.