don't come here - 12/13/2014

Having lived on the west coast, north east and mid atlantic areas, I have experienced life in multiple settings. Indianapolis is the only place I have ever lived that seemed to offer almost nothing positive. The negatives far outweighs any positive. Will be retiring soon and getting out of here ASAP. In summary: Pros: traffic isn't terrible Cons: crime is horrendous, interest in sports far exceeds interest in academics, homogenous suburbs with cookie cutter housing developments, no outdoor recreation, unfriendly people, public schools are dismal, people are uninteresting, lack of racial diversity, racism, damp nasty climate (miserably hot in summer and damp, cold, bland winters), most people you meet were born in indiana and have never left nor shown any interest in other areas, vacuous materialism in the suburbs, lack of progressive views about women (still refer to female employees as "girls"), hyper religious…...

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Indianapolis, most depressing city I've ever lived - 12/1/2014

I moved from a fairly large city in Europe to Indianapolis 4 years ago. Initially I quiet liked the city. Driving downtown surely is easy. Rush hour in Indy was as crowded as my old city in Europe was on a Sunday evening. There are also some pretty buildings downtown and the canal is a nice place for a summer evening stroll. There are some nice restaurants if you know what to look for and there also is some hipness as far as organic food availability and healthy choices for organic food buying it straight from the farms. The people I found to be quiet nice and helpful, especially in the church community. My biggest disappointment with Indy is the lack of natural beauty. There are some local parks like Eagle Creek and Harrison park on the East side. But if you do not live near any of these places, you will not find any green place to walk your dog or enjoy nature. It's a concrete jungle. And to get to anything green, you'll have to scale the freeways (the crossroads of America) for a long drive to get there. The air quality is horrific. Then the weather: it is humid and beastly hot or arctic cold. I love being outside but found myself being cooped up in the house for most of the year because of the weather. Either too hot or too cold. And if the weather allowed it, there's really not much to do. Like someone else said, unless you're into sports and car racing, there's really not much to do. It's flat, so no sledding or skiing. The roads are terrible in the winter time. They do not get de-iced. My kids have been in several school bus accidents in the past couple of years. We lived on the south side which is full of low income trashy people. The water is horrible as well. Until I found a natural spring on the north side of the city which has water that tastes amazing. Lots of people go fill containers there with natural spring water. I was a fitness instructor by trade when living in Europe but I got fat and depressed from living in Indianapolis. I will never live there again. I am now fortunate enough to live on the central coast of California. Life is absolutely great here. If you don't care too much about living near anywhere with natural beauty or scenery and if you don't mind extreme weather, this might be the place for you. Yes it is affordable and there are things to do since it's a fairly large city. But I'd much rather be in my teeny tiny town on the central coast of California where the scenery is beautiful and there are tons of outdoor activities to do.

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Dreadful place to live for me, but lots of people - 11/11/2014

I've lived all over the country, and have a pretty open mind and free spirit, willing to try anything once. About two years ago I moved to Indianapolis for a job, and I will share my opinions here. The crime is ridiculous. Twice as much crime and half as many police as anywhere I have ever lived. This is not hyperbole, I did some research, and it is generally true. Home invasion robberies, murders, dead bodies left in alleys. It's shocking how frequent, often, and how close to home it hits no matter where you live. Some areas are worse than others, but no areas are truly safe. The natives I know and work with tell me that's just the way it is, what are you going to do. Move, I guess? Horrible climate. Humidity galore. Humid in the summer, humid in the fall, humid in the winter, etc. Like there will be days when it's not raining but it will be 99% humidity. It's very unpleasant. It leads to cold days feeling much colder, and hot days feeling much hotter. It's like trying to breathe underwater sometimes, the air is so thick and wet. And one of the side effects of all the humidity is that when I first moved here, I noticed everywhere smelled like a wet basement. You get used to it after a while and don't notice it so much, but there's a dampness and mildew smell that exists all over, even in buildings you think are modern and upscale. Then there are the tornadoes, thunder storms, and bitter, horribly cold winters. Bugs. So many bugs. I have never seen such a variety of insects in my life, and so many. And so huge! Gross. Unless you like lots of bugs. I had an insect on my windshield once the size of a parakeet, he was making eye contact with me. So of course I couldn't kill it. Another one was living in my basement on the ceiling next to the washing machine and would wag his tail when I would go downstairs to do laundry, couldn't kill him either, but still, would prefer not to share my life with so many insects. Indy is not a particularly attractive city. It's mostly flat, a few muddy brown rivers here and there. There are a few blocks of downtown that are okay. Zionsville has a few blocks of coolness to it. Broad Ripple tries to be hip, but really it never will be as long as it continues to stay loaded down with chain restaurants. The suburbs like Fishers are so boring I would die if I had to live there for more than a week. Plain vanilla houses in plain vanilla subdivisions surrounded by plain flatness and strip malls. Weak infrastructure - bad roads, potholes of death (seriously a police officer died last year running their motorcycle into a pothole). Government that prides itself on being fiscally conservative - which means they don't spend money on pesky things like roads, police, or public transportation. Public transportation - virtually non-existent. I have seen a couple busses here and there. But just for curiosity I looked up the bus routes to see what it would take for me to get to work on the bus - 2 1/2 hours, each way, and about 1 mile of walking in between but stops. This is to go 10 miles, which takes 22 minutes by car. Very few dog parks, and the ones that do exist you have to pay to use. Not very good food selections. As an example, everyone raves about this one pizza place as having the best pizza in the world, to die for. I have tried it a few times, and yuck. Tastes like a saltine cracker with tomato paste on it. Lots of chain restaurants if that's your thing. Tons of deep fried foods everywhere and things covered with cheese or cheese facsimile. Pork tenderloin is an example of a local food that people claim to be very "Indiana". It's basically a deep fried, heavily breaded piece of thin pork the size of which Fred Flintstone might order, it is generally 3 times as large as the bun on which it is served. Usually with a side of fries. Did I mention many people in Indiana are double extra large. Yes, if you're a little chunky, you won't feel self conscious in Indiana. People around here aren't afraid to eat fatty foods, drink like a fish, and then eat some more fatty foods, and wash it down with even more booze. The stereotypical big American can be found here for sure. Shopping not very good. Like for example, they do have a Nordstrom, but it's the saddest one I have ever seen in my life. Limited selection and fashions that are specially selected for people who are afraid of being too fashion forward. When I first moved and wanted to buy furniture, it was really hard to find anything modern, contemporary, and moderately upscale. One furniture salesman said "You're in Indiana, you can't get what you want, they don't sell it here". I think I'm pretty conservative, but I guess even my moderate tastes are too wild for Indiana. Very gun friendly state. You need one to protect yourself from all the crime. Seriously. Not exaggerating. If one of your hobbies is protesting at women's clinics, good news, you're in luck, you will find plenty of people to join you, from what I can tell. And if you want to go to church, good news there too. I think there's 1 church for every 4 residents. They're everywhere. Not a lot of diversity in Indiana. You're either white (about 64%) or african american (about 34%), and then a teeny, tiny smattering of others scattered about. Best things I can think of about Indianapolis are: Housing prices - dirt cheap. You get the biggest bang for your buck here, it's absolutely amazing. Mostly that has to do with the fact it's not a very desirable place to live, so it's very, very affordable. For the price of a 1 bedroom condo in my hometown, I could buy a 6,000 square foot house on 1 acre of property in Indianapolis. Family friendly - you can afford to buy a house big enough for your family to fit in and some left over to take them to do fun things. The people I know who live here who are super family oriented seem to do well and like it. Traffic - very light. Lots of wide freeways with hardly any cars on them, except during road construction, then it can get congested. But coming from a bunch of other large cities, traffic in Indianapolis is an absolute breeze. I'm sorry Indianapolis, I tried to be fair and write lots of good stuff. But there's just too much crime, unpleasant weather, very little natural beauty, lack of diversity in all things. What I notice is that many, many people I work with were born here, raised here, went to college here, and shockingly many of these college educated adults have never even left the state before. They have no point of reference for life outside of Indiana. So for them, it's cool. For someone like me who has been all over, just not quite the right fit.

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Indy is very underrated - 11/10/2014

Indianapolis is the nations most affordable big city and is one of the most underrated in the country. The Downtown is super clean and ranked as one of the best in the nation according to livability and other reviewers. Downtown Indy is very affordable too and Indianapolis has the lowest cost of living of any big city and the most affordable housing market. Low taxes, tons of jobs and opportunity, tons of events and cultural festivities downtown for everyone to enjoy. massive sporting events and conventions such as Gen Con and the Indy 500. Super bowl 46 was held in Indianapolis and over 99% of the people that came had a very positive impression of the city. Indy is the fastest growing city in the midwest and in the top 15 fastest growing cities in the united states. This is due in part to its aggressive economic growth strategy and being one of the best cities in the country to start or do business in.

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Indianapolis is just awful - 10/11/2014

I moved to Indianapolis based on glowing reviews I read online. Silly me. This city is a failure by any reasonable measure. It does a good job of managing its online image. It does a poor job of just about everything else. People here love to go on and on about downtown, and they'e done a lot of building there, but downtown is surrounded by crime-infested and largely abandoned neighborhoods. These are dangerous places that you have to drive through to get downtown. The population of Center Township is less than 50% of what it was in 1950. Two of the most dangerous neighborhoods in America are located just north of downtown. The east side is a war zone. Infrastructure is crumbling. Nobody seems to care. There are new stadiums and national chain restaurants downtown but the mall that everyone talks about is failing. Nordstroms has closed down, and the local newspaper and a for profit college have moved in. Does that sound like a thriving retail scene? Locals prattle on endlessly about the local microbrew scene. They claim to be a national leader, but most don't realize that the microbrew revolution happened like 30 years ago in places like Portland and Denver. It seems like everything happens in Indy about 30 years after it happens someplace else. Take Jack in the Box, for example. Not long ago, Jack in the Box opened their first local franchise. Locals lined up around the block...to go to Jack in the Box. That's Indy. This is supposed to be Sportstown USA, but even the 2 local pro franchises have trouble selling out. Locals are proud of the fact that they have bought more NFL jerseys than people in any other city. Yeah, that's something to be proud of, if you are a conformist and just want to follow the crowd. Indy might possibly be the worst city in America. I am counting the days until I leave. I no longer care where I go next, as long as it is far from here. I honestly don't know what people who post positive comments see about this place that I'm missing. Heaven knows I've tried to like it, but there's nothing here to like. It's a miserable little place full of people who all think alike, and I can't wait to get out of here.

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Water Quality - 4/11/2014

Have lived all over the United States, never had such poor quality of water in all the communities surrounding this city. People are not friendly. Not much for transportation, especially for those who do not drive. We are anxious to move, but looking for the best place to over the qualities we need.

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Large City but ran very small - 2/26/2014

Indianapolis is a large city but governed as if it is a very small town. Many times the city was closed because of weather conditions. Not clearing streets or highways. No reliable public transportation. When you speak with people who are natives of Indianapolis many do not see it as a large growing city needing public transportation or advancing like a larger city. People from here want to keep it small. It lacks diversity. Also many times people from here see diversity as how people think only but not necessarily culture differences. Many young people leave and do not come back. With this said, great sport teams and great place to raise your children. Being an African American, we do not plan on staying because of the lack of opportunities and growth. Also, I'm originally from a larger area and I enjoy public transportation and living in a busy city. Diversity is important.

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indyanoplacetolive - 2/18/2014

I lived in Indy for 20 something years before escaping.I got stuck their when I married.His classic redneck family from indy was clannish.I l cut to the chase...bad school.. great if your trying to raise dropouts and thugs. the poor neighoods their are crime ridden constant shottings stabbings rape break ins.The mentality their is a bunch of fat ugly rednecks men and the women who put up with their ....Who cares how cheap it is to live...youll just spend it fixing your vandalized car or what everelse was stolen.The slum lords on the neareast and southside need to be run out of town roaches rodents fleas dog dodo.I left that uglybutt boring town I live in Portland Or now and I can tell you you can find a two bedroom decent place here for 700 750 if you know where to look.Spend the extra 100 bucks..to live in a Much better place.Left the hillbilly haters behind yuck run from their......

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indyanoplacetolive - 2/18/2014

I lived in Indy for 20 something years before escaping.I got stuck their when I married.His classic redneck family from indy was clannish.I l cut to the chase...bad school.. great if your trying to raise dropouts and thugs. the poor neighoods their are crime ridden constant shottings stabbings rape break ins.The mentality their is a bunch of fat ugly rednecks men and the women who put up with their ....Who cares how cheap it is to live...youll just spend it fixing your vandalized car or what everelse was stolen.The slum lords on the neareast and southside need to be run out of town roaches rodents fleas dog dodo.I left that uglybutt boring town I live in Portland Or now and I can tell you you can find a two bedroom decent place here for 700 750 if you know where to look.Spend the extra 100 bucks..to live in a Much better place.Left the hillbilly haters behind yuck run from their......

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Indianapolis - 2/4/2014

It's a nice place to live.

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climat'es great (my arse)! - 11/24/2013

not much more to say

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"Nap Town" - 9/29/2013

I've always been a big city guy. I moved here right after college because of a job opportunity. Indy doesn't have the nickname "Nap Town" for nothing. Indy is pretty boring. It is a drive through city. Big named concerts are always on the weekdays because the artists are on their way to Chicago. It seems like all there is to do here is go to sporting events and get drunk. Everything is rotated around alcohol. If you go to a home and garden show, there are alcohol stands in it. If you go to an art show, there are wine booths. All festivals have alcohol: Irish fest, Brew Fest, Wine fest, Italian fest, etc. I've gotten pretty good at drinking living here. Forget culture in this city. There is none. The dating scene is abysmal. All of the girls go to Chicago after college.

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Trapped in Indy - 9/20/2013

Indianapolis could be a wonderful city. It has a jewel of a downtown with old brick buildings, a city market, beautiful parks, a glitzy mall and a fantastic zoo. Unfortunately, it is anything but wonderful. Indy has become a war zone. Homicides, robberies, rape, daily shootings, the entire spectrum of wild west society’s ills. Maybe it is because I am from Germany and not used to these kind of conditions, but the 9 out of 10 here on Sperling’s violent crime scale says it all. We live in a suburb and used to enjoy going to downtown because there are a lot of things to do. But due to the decreasing lack of public safety, we are nowadays just trying to stay away as far as we can from anything within and close to I-465, which has become a huge slum over the past several years. Driving here is a nightmare, driver’s ed is visibly optional and you need to become a master in defensive driving to avoid accidents. People don’t pay attention, are constantly distracted, drink and drive, are texting or using their cell phones while driving, and don’t seem to understand the easiest and most common sense traffic rules. I would like to suggest other means of mobility, but there aren’t any. No trains, no trams, no metro. I am not sure if public transportation would even be safe in a city that suffers from this much crime. The climate here is most extreme. Sometimes, spring and fall are gorgeous with very comfortable temperatures and beautiful trees and flowers. Summers and winters, however, are dreadful. Winters are often grey, windy and hardly produce any snow. And while skiing, sledding and snowboarding is not an option in the flatlands, some snow would still be fun. Summers are simply unbearable to us Northern tribes. Oppressive heat, jungle-style humidity, no rain. Grass has usually turned into a depressing prairie brown by July and water supply issues are becoming more and more frequent. Central Indiana also has violent storms and destructive tornadoes, so you constantly have to pay attention to weather warnings. In addition, more liberal-minded personalities will find it hard to be happy here because most Hoosiers aren’t liberal. To put that into perspective, a German conservative, loyal CDU-voter, could easily be considered a left-wing radical here in Indiana. It should therefore come as no surprise that bigotry is still present in and around Indianapolis and that most people inhale Fox News as if it was purest oxygen. I am sure native Hoosiers have better things to say about this area, so I do apologize for the negative sentiment. But if it wasn’t for specific family-related factors, we would have long moved elsewhere.

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Living in Indianapolis.. a great city - 7/9/2013

This is the fourth time I've lived in the Indianapolis area in my life and I thoroughly enjoy it. Indy offers so much to it's citizens, top sports, fun nightlife, great variety of things to do for all ages, excellent cost of living, friendly people and four seasons. People here are a lot more friendly, display a more caring attitude, and are more polite than in many larger cities. Home prices and property taxes are very reasonable, and the majority of neighborhoods take great pride in keeping up their homes and properties. One of the great things is that Indy and the surrounding suburbs has something to offer for all age groups, and all income levels. It's a city where most people will smile as you walk by, talk to you when you are standing around or waiting for something, at intersections they'll tell you to "go ahead", and hold the door for you when entering a store. And all at one of the best costs of living in a major city in the U.S.

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90degrees today below 30degres tommorrow - 6/30/2013

Never know what to expect with Indiana weather.

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Sports - 6/30/2013

If you are a sports fan, this is a great place to live! The city seems to revolve around sports, becoming more alive during events. The city is very spread out, making a car a necessity, reminding me of Los Angeles. This is not necessarily true if you live and work in the downtown area. There are old/refurbished neighborhoods alongside the modern and chic. There are decent family values being a good place for raising children. All this being said, there are many reasons why this city is not for me: It is not easy for transplanted adults (female, straight, single parent) to fit in. Not into sports or the bars? There isn't much more to do unless it something involving your children. ( My child being a young adult enjoys life here.) I would just say that the 40ish singles have a less than perfect time. This being said, I am relocating!

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Indianapolis - 2/16/2013

Indianapolis is becoming more and more crime filled. public schools are not good at all. It is cheap to live here but, not worth it.

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Indianapolis=Pet Friendly - 4/2/2012

Indianapolis is not only the "Amateur Sports Capital of the World" but also the most pet friendly. Highly recommend exploring White River and the Canal, Broad Ripple, Mass. Ave, or any of the numerous pet parks with your furry friend.

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IPS Schools - 2/15/2012

I am really disappointed with the public school system here. My son is special needs and has an IEP (Individual Education Plan) put in place by the state to help make sure he gets an opportunity to succeed. The teachers Simply do not follow it like they are supposed to.

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Indianapolis is wonderful! - 1/16/2012

I was born here in 1955 and have lived here all my life. I have read what some have written and I am shocked. Indy is wonderful,lots to do. We have a great zoo,museums,great places to eat from cheap to YIPES,we have plays,etc. If you can't find something to do it's your own fault,not Indy's. Yes,the eastside is not where most want to live BUT,it has ALWAYS been that way. I lived on the Southside till I married,lived on the Eastside then,(never again),and now live on the westside near Eagle Creek and I love it here. Housing is cheap. As far as the people being stuck up,are you crazy?? Indy is and has always been very friendly regardless of race. My ex husband is from California and we went there a few times to see his family,now,talk about snotty and stuck up,California people are all that and worse. I was treated like trash at the malls there and at restaurants. I'd live in a box in Indy before I would live in a mansion in California. I have traveled ALOT and Arizonia,Florida,California are the least friendly. Please,come to Indy and find out how nice people are and how much there is too do.

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