Help me find my place in Indy

June 11, 2009 6:16 PM

Moving to Indianapolis for 1 year for a dietetic internship. Where should I live? I'll have to drive around to lots of hospitals, but I like living in the city. I am 26 and enjoy live music and brew pub type places. I grew up in a college town, but the campus scene is generally gross to me, as I'm not single. I'm there for 1-year only, so I'll be renting. I'm looking for $500–$700 per month.

Other things I like:
-Riding my bike
-Art and gallery walks
-Delicious food
-Culture

Relevant on ask.mefi, but not perfect:
1
2
3
Moving there in August 2009... Please help!

posted by grieserm to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

Broad Ripple seems like a good fit. It's an artsy area with shops and bookstores and the Monon Trail for riding your bike (and the Major Taylor Velodrome is a short distance away if you'd like to try track cycling). The Indianapolis Museum of Art is fairly close and has some great gardens to walk through. There are lots of pubs and music and such, although it can, apparently, get rather college-scene like on weekend nights due to its proximity to Butler University. There's a pretty broad range of restaurants there, too. It's not a very big neighborhood, but I'd put it on your list of places to consider to hit most of the things on your list.
posted by BlooPen at 7:22 PM on June 11

I was coming in to recommend Broad Ripple as well (this place is pretty delightful for dinner & a beer).

Alternatively, downtown might be a good choice, somewhere around the Massachussetts Ave district. Lots of theaters around there, cute little shops and restaurants.

Both of those are cute little districts. Little is an operative word -- about 5-10 blocks of cuteness in each area. I'm not particularly familiar with the real estate market in Indy (I live in Bloomington), but I think your stated price range is perhaps just a bit optimistic without a roommate. Hopefully you'll find I'm wrong.
posted by amelioration at 7:30 PM on June 11

If you are done with the college scene I'd recommend against Broad Ripple. It is a really nice area but it is completely dominated by transient college students. Downtown or the Near East Side both fit your criteria. Downtown is going to be more expensive unless you end up living near IUPUI students. The Near East Side varies a great deal block to block but in general if you stay within the named neighborhoods things are nice.

Fountain Square, mentioned in the IndyFilter question from 2006, is still on the edge of being nice. Most of the real art scene in Indianapolis is based out of Fountain Square. Fletcher Place neighborhood is close but a bit more upscale. Woodruff Place neighborhood is fantastic, wide promenades and statuary without the pretense of Meridian-Kessler or the other snotty neighborhoods.

Indianapolis is pretty darn cheap, I think $500-700 is completely doable. The two bedroom house down the street for me is going up for rent in July for $450.
posted by Chrishartley at 4:34 AM on June 12

Thanks for the posts so far.

I've been looking at a couple of houses in Woodruff Place online. I'd like to live in a cute old house rather than an apartment complex, if possible. This seems to fit pretty well.

Keep the information coming.

Any other Indianapolis advice?
posted by grieserm at 7:04 AM on June 12

Woodruff Place, while charming, is located smack dab in the middle of one of the less desirable places in the city, IMO. (I went to Middle School as few blocks away.) A couple of miles away is Irvington (roughly bounded by Emerson Avenue on the west and Arlington Avenue on the east , and Prospect Street on the South and 21st Street on the north. It's becoming populated more and more by a younger, more diverse crowd lately. There is also a wide variety of living quarters available.

Come to town and we can set up a meetup and I'll give you the nickel tour.
posted by pjern at 8:59 AM on June 12

woodruff place is pretty nice, though a bit shabby and in disrepair, and as pjern mentions is surrounded by not-the-best area. not the worst, either, mind you. it's nowhere you should feel afraid to walk around at night or anything. at least it wasn't when i lived in indpls. if i were going to buy a house in indy, i'd be looking in woodruff first. but it's a wholly residential area and you're not going to find any of the activity-things on your list there.

"cute old house" makes me think of lockerbie square, which is tucked away nicely downtown, though i think you're going to have a hard time finding anyplace there on your budget, unless you're looking at renting just a room/getting roommates. there are also some charming places to be found off and around meridian street between 16th and 38th, but it's also sort of a dead zone with not a lot going on.

anyway i'll nth the recommendations for broad ripple, or fountain square depending on where you work and your personal tastes. in addition to the monon trail, there's a paved-and-dirt bike path starting along the canal in broad ripple that heads downtown. it runs right behind the art museum, and it's not a terribly long ride to the museum from br. if you are working downtown in one of the hospitals or at butler that might be a nice way to get to work also.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 5:06 PM on June 12

Just a little update:
I took a trip to Indy yesterday to look at some neighborhoods that have had a lot available on craigslist and the Nuvo classifieds.
I looked at 3 or 4 addresses in Fountain Square, and a few in Woodruff Place. The Fountain Square places were pretty sketchy. Maybe my $500-700 budget won't get me what I want there. Maybe there is just not nice stuff on craigslist now. I wouldn't have wanted to walk around at night in the areas I saw.
Woodruff Place seemed much nicer. It seemed that people there were much more into keeping the neighborhood nice by taking care of their lawns and such.
I'll have to check out Irvington on my next trip.
Thanks for all the input!
posted by grieserm at 6:17 AM on June 13

Just to give an update to any interested. I found a place just south of Broad Ripple. Thanks for all the input. It helped a lot!
posted by grieserm at 9:10 PM on July 12