Capitol Rebuild: Indianapolis

Indy's Civic Blueprint is the roadmap for so many capital cities. But can it take the final step?

City quietly builds itself into a burgeoning economic powerhouse by leaning into its strengths as much as possible. But can it take the leap to a place that where outsiders want to be a part of? Yes ‘Cers, it’s time for Indianapolis.

How Did the Capitol End Up There?

France was the first European country to claim the area of Indiana for themselves (despite thousands of years of Native American tribes populating the land) in 1670. France control in Indiana lasted for about 100 years until they gave the land over to England after France’s defeat in the French-Indian war. British rule was short-lived and after the Revolutionary War, Indiana became part of the Northwest Territory (which also included Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and a portion of Minnesota). This territory was almost immediately contested by the Native American nations that had originally been on the land before any Europeans had set foot on it. The Northwest Indian War was the first of many conflicts across the country between Indigenous nations and the United States Army.

In 1800, Ohio and half of Michigan were lopped off from the Northwest Territory and it was renamed the Indiana Territory. The original capital of the territory was Vincennes, which is the oldest European-founded town in Indiana and still remains the Knox County seat. Though Vincennes was an economically strategic location on the Wabash River, its geographic location in the far southwest corner of the area and the fact that Vincennes served as the political base of future President William Henry Harrison galvanized enough support for moving the capital to a new location.

Corydon (still currently the County seat of *ironically* Harrison County) was selected over Charlestown, Clarksville, Lawrenceburg, Madison, and Jeffersonville as the new capital of the Indiana Territory. As Indiana convened its Constitutional Convention in 1816 that paved the way for Indiana to become the 19th State of the United States, the State Constitution stated, “Corydon, in Harrison County shall be the seat of Government of the state of Indiana, until the year eighteen hundred and twenty-five, and until removed by law.” This time limit was due to Croydon being too far south and the normal state politics.

So in 1820, the legislature selected the small town of Indianapolis as the new capital and it was officially relocated there in 1825 (Editor’s note: I apologize for the lack of drama in this final act. I have not been able to find any backstory of why else a small town like Indianapolis was chosen or if there were other options. The lack of information is…..suspicious). Because Indianapolis was a relatively new town, there weren’t many choices for the original capitol building, so the Marion County courthouse was originally used. However, it quickly became clear that an official Statehouse was needed to accommodate the growing state.

The second Statehouse in Indianapolis was opened in 1836 and modeled after the Parthenon (with a bonus dome on top!). However, let’s just say some corners were cut and in 1867 the entire ceiling of the House chambers collapsed. The building was condemned in 1877 and completely razed by 1878.

Indiana’s fourth (and current!) Statehouse began construction in 1880. Determined to get this one right, there were many great design decisions made, some fairly obvious in hindsight, like making sure the building was built on a solid foundation this time, and some with great foresight, such as ensuring the building was wired for electricity even though Indianapolis didn’t have an electric grid at the time. The building opened in 1888 to much fanfare, including its new and improved dome. It has acted as Indiana’s center of government for almost 140 years at this point.

The Arc

Indianapolis experienced fairly steady growth through the 20th century. That is until 1970, when the city’s population jumped from 475,000 to 745,000 literally overnight. What the hell?

Well, it turns out it’s pretty easy to post those kinds of numbers when you annex an entire county. In 1970, the City of Indianapolis merged with Marion County to form a new consolidated government, known simply as Unigov. This wasn’t the first time it had happened in the United States that this type of consolidation had occurred as Nashville and Davidson County became Metro Nashville seven years earlier. And unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last. The impact of this decision is still being felt in Indianapolis today.

When Indianapolis was first laid out in the 1820s, planners envisioned a quaint one-square-mile capital city. They didn’t expect much growth (great job planners!). But as the city expanded, so did the surrounding communities, and by the 1950s and 60s, white flight was in full swing as residents moved from the city proper to towns outside of Indy limits in Marion County.

Mayor (and future Senator) Richard Lugar’s solution to this trend: If you can’t beat ’em, consolidate ’em. Working with the Indiana General Assembly, Lugar led the charge to consolidate Indianapolis and Marion County into one political entity. This dramatically expanding the city’s boundaries, tax base, and influence, but also included a slew of exceptions and carveouts that made Unigov far more complicated than it should have been.

So while Unigov boosted the city's economic and political power, it also had immediate negative consequences for Indianapolis' most vulnerable residents, especially its Black population. The merger diluted Black political power by folding the city into a wider, whiter county electorate and reinforced school and housing segregation, as the newly drawn city boundaries preserved suburban school districts and zoning patterns rather than integrating them. Shocking, I know.

Today, the legacy of Unigov is everywhere. Indianapolis remains one of the largest cities by land area in the U.S., but also one of the most politically and spatially fragmented, which we will come back to when we discuss about what’s not working in the city and what needs to be fixed.

My Experiences with Indianapolis

I’ve lived in the Midwest for over 25 years now, the first sixteen in Chicago. And even though Indianapolis is only a three hour drive away, it took me moving to Detroit before I made my first visit. Since then, I have had the opportunity to visit a number of times, usually for work, and experience different neighborhoods and talk with lots of different groups. Because of the economic development success Indianapolis has had, specifically in innovation and entrepreneurship, I’ve spoken to a number of folks in their ecosystem to learn what has worked and what they don’t talk about. All that background to say, get ready for the takes.

What’s Working

Quite a lot.

Civic Infrastructure

Economic growth in Indianapolis is pretty much due to the way its civic partnerships have flourished. And it starts with sports.

When politicians around the country still idiotically approve public subsidies for pro sports teams, they often have a specific vision in mind: "Let's do become the next Indianapolis." Good luck with that because the Indianapolis story is a multi-decade story built on deep civic partnerships.

In the 1970s, Indianapolis was a fairly typical state capital. People drove into the city for work in the morning and then they all drove out again at 5PM. Downtown was mostly dead after hours. The city had the Indianapolis 500 as an attraction, but there wasn’t much else to drive visitor activity.

Mayor Lugar (yes, the same one who led Unigov) saw sports as Indianapolis’ future calling card. It started with his decision to use public dollars to support building an arena for the Indiana Pacers (who were still in the fledgling ABA). There was one catch with this offer: the arena had to be in Downtown Indianapolis as opposed to the suburbs. This was a bold ask at a time when most teams were moving out of city centers.

Over the next 12 years, Indianapolis, backed by funding from the Lilly Endowment (more on them later) and the leadership of Mayor Bill Hudnut, invested $122 million in new sports facilities. The focus of this investment was on on amateur and Olympic-level events, something that was being ignored by the rest of the country. This helped Indianapolis land the Pan American Games in 1987, complete with a wild grand finale in the opening ceremony (skip to about 2:55:10). Around this time, it was becoming clear that Indy was not messing around when it came to its sports strategy. This investment in sports then saw billions of dollars of additional investment in downtown Indianapolis, which encourage more sports activity. Possibly the biggest win of all was the NCAA moving its national headquarters from Kansas City to Indianapolis in 1999, establishing the city as the center of gravity for college sports for the last 25 years.

Indianapolis has hosted:

• The NCAA Men’s Final Four eight times

• The Women’s Final Four three times

• The Big Ten Football Championship

• The Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments

• The Super Bowl in 2012

• The NFL Scouting Combine (every year since 1987)

• And this month, the WNBA All-Star Game

This has helped keep Downtown Indianapolis active year-round, with events, visitors, and national exposure most cities on Capitol Rebuild can only dream of. If you’ve got an hour to kill, I highly recommend the hour-long documentary Naptown to Super City which tells this story in full detail.

+++

The Lilly Endowment is a private philanthropic foundation created through gifts of stock in Eli Lilly and Company. Thanks to the explosive growth of Lilly’s stock, most recently driven by Zepbound, the Endowment’s assets total almost $80 billion, making it the largest private foundation in the United States. By law, the Endowment must distribute at least 5% of its assets each year. Do the math: that’s $4 billion annually, most of which is spent in and around Indianapolis. For comparison, the entire FY25 city budget is $1.6 billion. This gives Indianapolis an enormous advantage on both supporting necessary services and investing in the future.

+++

And speaking of the future, Indianapolis has a growing innovation economy, fueled by strong civic leadership and strategic partnerships. The city is tapping into in-state talent from Purdue University and Indiana University, helping drive startup growth in life sciences, agtech, and advanced manufacturing. The 16 Tech Innovation District is emerging as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, while TechPoint, a statewide tech advocacy group, played a key role in securing a federal Tech Hub designation. Purdue is also expanding its presence in Indianapolis, anchoring one end of a 65-mile hard tech corridor that runs between its campuses. To help retain young talent in Indianapolis, the Orr Fellowship was created to connect recent college graduates with local tech companies and startups. The impact is significant: 59.5% of Orr Fellows stay in Indiana after graduation, compared to just 42.7% of all graduates statewide. Like most things in Indianapolis, the progress in the innovation economy would not be possible without the Lilly Endowment.

Place

Whew, that was a lot of words on civic infrastructure. Fortunately, there isn’t as much to talk about on place.

The Cultural Trail is the city’s signature achievement and has served and a national model for how to rethink public space for over a decade. This 8-mile urban trail, completed in 2013, weaves through Downtown Indianapolis and its adjacent neighborhoods, connecting key districts like Mass Ave, Fountain Square, White River State Park, and the Canal Walk. It integrates art, landscape architecture, and mobility into a seamless public experience. Since its completion, the trail has spurred hundreds of millions in adjacent private investment, increased property values, and helped encourage downtown residential growth. It has served as a template for other cities, like Atlanta and Detroit, to invest in connected urban trails.

+++

Let’s keep the focus on mobility and discuss IndyGo’s Red Line, the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in the city. It opened in 2019 and runs north-south through the densest part of the city. It offers dedicated lanes, off-board fare collection and level boarding platforms, all terms that bring a certain warmth to my heart. The idea was that the Red Line would be the backbone of a BRT network across the city and the residents supported the concept by overwhelmingly voting for a 0.25% income tax.

And the buses lived happily ever after?

Unfortunately, no. Despite a democratic process that passed the referendum, the state legislature did not agree with the voters and decided to make it more difficult for IndyGo to access this funding. Instead of being able to utilize this new revenue source as a way to access additional federal funding, the legislature required IndyGo to secure private matching funds at a 10:1 ratio to access the income tax funds. No other transit agency in the country (as far as I know) has to clear this hurdle to access voter approved funding. While IndyGo should have been able to get $60M a year in new revenue, they have struggled to raise the private funding necessary to access these funds. This is simply insane.

Arts & Culture

Indianapolis has a number of impressive arts and culture institutions (not shocking with the level of philanthropy in the city), including Newfields (home of the Indianapolis Museum of Art), the largest children’s museum in the world, the Eiteljorg Museum which focuses on Indigenous and Western art, and the Indiana State Museum and Madam Walker Legacy Center. There are a number of cool neighborhoods in Indiana that are built around arts and culture, including the Mass Ave Arts District, which is a walkable neighborhood with the Phoenix Theatre, The District Theatre, and public art. At the east end of Mass Ave District is the Bottleworks District, which includes an amazing reuse of a Coca-Cola bottling plant as a hotel.

What’s Not Working

Downtown

There are a lot of people in Downtown Indianapolis. According to Downtown Indy, there were 117,904 employees in Downtown and the city experience its biggest year for visitors ever. But this is what the Downtown is built around, not supporting the needs of people who would be there 24-7-365, also known as residents. This is a mind-numbing stat: there are are a little over 12,000 residential units in the Downtown compared to 7,500 hotel rooms in Downtown with 4,700 of those rooms directly connected to the Convention Center. That is nuts. There is an additional 2,300 rooms in the pipeline. Because the downtown population is primarily people that don’t live there, the area reflects that. Wide one-way street network which seemingly has the vehicular capacity of Midtown Manhattan and creates a really bleak atmosphere for pedestrians. Too many chain restaurants and a lack of access to basic things that make it easy and attractive to live. It lacks any sort of authenticity or soul (see the third point below).

Lack of Diversity

Indianapolis is a really White city. While the broader metro area is more diverse, that diversity isn’t reflected in who holds power or who shapes the city's narrative. Black residents, who make up nearly 30% of the population in Marion County, face structural barriers across education, housing, entrepreneurship, and politics. Without intentional efforts to expand opportunity, invest in historically excluded neighborhoods, and diversify who’s at the table, Indianapolis risks becoming a city that succeeds on paper is feels exclusive in practice.

What is Indy Culture?

For all its assets and momentum, Indianapolis still struggles to project a clear, authentic sense of place. Too much of Downtown feels like it was designed for visitors and office workers, not residents. Chain restaurants dominate the streetscape, and walkability is undercut by wide one-way roads built for car throughput. Even in the city’s more vibrant neighborhoods, it seems hard to describe what feels uniquely "Indy." There’s no shortage of talent, creativity, or local pride, but the city hasn’t fully tapped into it or elevated it into a recognizable cultural identity like Detroit or Nashville.

People Doing the Work

In 2020, Malina Simone Jeffers was working at a real estate company as their vice president of marketing and corporate responsibility. However over the last five years, she has been one of the engines of the Black arts and cultural movements in Indianapolis, co-founding GANGGANG, a creative advocacy firm that centers racial equity through cultural investment, and launching BUTTER, a nationally recognized fine art fair that exclusively features Black artists, blending economic empowerment with cultural celebration. She is not only transforming art in Indianapolis, but also who gets to benefit from it.

Caitlyn Clark. Seriously. When I was in Indianapolis recently, my visit coincided with a Fever game. Every license plate at the hotel parking lot was Iowa. I’d say 2/3 of the people walking around had on some sort of Caitlyn Clark jersey. Their average attendance is higher than the Pacers and I’m willing to guess that the amount of people coming from outside of Indianapolis is much much higher. There is a number of $36M annual impact that some economist came up with.

You will never catch me throwing shade for anyone embracing the weird. Indianapolis IF Theater and the IndyFringe Festival is the city’s engine for weird, led by Paul Daily. Inspired by the original Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Indy Fringe festival featuring experimental theater, solo performances, dance, and music. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the festival has become a beloved institution and a cornerstone of the Mass Ave Cultural Arts District, helping to define the area’s creative energy and offbeat spirit.

2025 Capitol Score

Capitol Score is my subjective ranking (using a 10 point scale) on how the city stacks up with regards to place, innovation, arts & culture, and overall livability. A perfect score isn’t the goal, improvement is.

Indianapolis 2025 Capitol Score is 7.4

Indianapolis has a Capital Score Potential of 9.7

Three Wishes from the Policy Genie

Just a quick note here. This is just me throwing ideas on the wall based on my limited knowledge of what’s happening. There are likely many many things that need improvement and the folks on the ground will always know more.

Put the State in a Trance to be Indy’s Partner

Indianapolis will never reach its full potential unless the State of Indiana lets it breathe. The General Assembly knows how to support Indy when it aligns with their interests, like sports, conventions, economic wins. But that’s not the same as letting a city become a city. No one is asking state leaders to officiate a LGBTQ wedding or open an art gallery. But they do need to give Indianapolis the freedom to govern itself on issues that matter to its residents, like housing, transit, public safety, and inclusion.

If the state government could simply recognize that a stronger, more diverse, more vibrant Indianapolis is good for Indiana’s economy, talent base, and national profile, there would be no stopping Indianapolis. This isn’t about red or blue. It’s about building a city that people actually want to live in and provide opportunities for advancement. This is the only way for Indianapolis to feel like more than just a Purdue or IU alumni gathering every Friday night.

Let the city be the city.

Bring Downtown to Life for Residents

Downtown Indianapolis has great bones. The skyline’s growing. Conventions are booming. There’s office space, hotels, arenas. But without more residents, downtown won’t reach its full potential. Cities thrive when people live in them, not just commute, visit, or cheer from the stands.

The path forward is clear: build housing, and make it as attractive of a place to live as possible. That means going beyond just units. It requires full residential neighborhoods with grocery stores, pharmacies, cafes, schools, and safe, walkable streets. A nightlife scene that isn’t just chain restaurants. A sense of daily life and rhythm.

The lens for downtown should be: “We’ve done the events and conventions. Now let’s build homes and neighborhoods.” Go all in on building for people who want to wake up in Downtown Indy, raise their families there, and grow old there.

Don’t Waste the Water(front)

For all the progress Indianapolis has made attracting visitors and building major venues, it’s shocking how little attention has been paid to the White River and how disconnected it is to the city. It’s clearly one of the city’s most underutilized assets and a huge opportunity to support future growth.

Most cities would kill to have a river like this winding through their downtown. But in Indy, it’s surrounded by fragmented land uses, outdated infrastructure, and little sense of connectivity. That needs to change.

The riverfront should be treated as a front door, not a back alley. That means planning around it, investing in it, and making it a destination for residents and visitors alike. Parks, trails, housing, performance spaces, there’s just so much possibility. And apparently I’m not the only one who sees the opportunity.

What’s Happening in Indianapolis?

IU Indianapolis expanding into second year

Quick background … for decades, Indiana and Purdue shared a campus in Downtown Indianapolis. A year ago, Purdue ended this partnership and announced their plans to invest more in Indianapolis. Nothing better than competition to get the best out of both Purdue and IU? This is a pretty significant marker for the future of innovation and entrepreneurship in Indy.

Indianapolis drivers are better than Detroit and Chicago

I remember doing an interview about something similar when I was in the Mayor’s Office and I wanted to shake the reporter and be like “why is this news?!?!?”. But congrats to Indianapolis drivers for this commendation.

Indianapolis airport ranks among nation's best

I’ve always driven to Indianapolis, but this seems about right. If you’re as reliant on visitors as Indy is, there isn’t a dollar amount high enough to invest in your airport.

Braun replaces IEDC board members with new appointees

Only one appointee from Indianapolis and they are a staffing company. Surprised by the bi-partisan nature of the selections, but I’d be concerned by the lack of focus on the type of economic development that could help the city and state experience explosive growth.

(Thanks to Axios as they make this section much easier to cover).

Final Thoughts

Indianapolis has already cracked the hard stuff, from fueling economic growth to carving out a distinct identity on the national stage. The foundation is there. What’s missing are the basics: a genuine partnership between the city and state, and a focus on building a culture that feels uniquely Indy.

Get those right, and this city won’t just compete in Capitol Rebuild. Indianapolis will win.

Capitol Rankings

Capitol score (Capitol potential)

1. Phoenix, 7.9 (8.4)

2. Indianapolis, 7.4 (9.7)

3. Santa Fe, 6.9 (8.5)

4. Des Moines, 6.7 (8.2)

5. Montpelier, 6.1 (6.3)

6. Olympia, 5.6 (6.7)

7. Little Rock, 4.9 (7.4)

8. Trenton, 4.3 (6.8)

9. Harrisburg, 4.3 (6.1)

Next week we visit the city that broke Indy’s heart in the NBA Championship, Oklahoma City.