After decades of economic ups and downs, lost blue-collar jobs, abandoned homes, and economic downturns, Willard Park remains challenged more than almost any other community in the city. This large neighborhood, which includes Willard Park on Washington Street and the Indianapolis Re-entry Educational Facility (referred to as the women’s prison) just South of Michigan Street, runs from Michigan street south to the train tracks and from State Street east to Jefferson Street.
Abandoned houses in this large neighborhood are disappearing monthly, sometimes weekly. The homes that remain inherit unusually big lots to the north, the south, or both. Some of these new combinations in city hands equal an acre in size.
For those willing to put their money where their mouth is, this east-side neighborhood could be the next urban farm community. Willard Park is slowly being reborn as the green capital of Indianapolis, with help from two local residents. The Green Picket Fences initiative, created by Willard Park residents Kay Grimm and Sue Spicer, is a series of programs already under way that are greening and re-imagining what remains.
“Green Picket Fences is an umbrella of several individual initiatives that will help us rebuild our neighborhood from the inside out,” said Grimm. “People with skin in the game, such as homeowners and local landlords, are our stakeholders for the initiative.” Several programs, which Grimm refers to as pickets include Green Art, Green Architecture, Green Shepherd, Green Play, and Green Streets. Two ‘pickets’ in the fence are already in progress.
Green Shepherd uses sheep to mow abandoned lots. Green Shepherd was created to combat trash piling up on empty lots. “When the weeds and grass are tall enough to hide trash, people start dumping on these lots. Our goal is to keep the grass mowed so this doesn’t happen,” Grimm said. One year old now, the Green Shepherd project currently has two sheep that contract with the city, mowing empty lots in Willard Park. “With six sheep we could keep the entire Willard Park mowed, with no outside contractors.”
Another initiative in progress is Green Streets, funded with a grant from the Indy Food Fund. The grant calls for three community gardens to feed fifty people. These community gardens will become farm training for local kids who need an outlet for their energy. “A lot of these kids have nothing to do,” says Grimm.
Excess food grown in these gardens will be sold or donated or both, something Grimm and Spicer have done for years using a golf cart for delivery. Partners in the Green Streets program include iRef, Global Peace Initiative, and the Efroymson Family Fund.
The most likely picket program to appear next is Green Art. “Community gardens usually have some art,” said Grimm, an installation artist who creates large outdoor sculptures. Other picket programs include Green Play — converting empty lots into mini-parks — and Green Architecture, working with volunteer architects to design new homes for abandoned lots.
Like all the pickets, Green Play and Green Architecture are tailored to Willard Park’s faults. “Current challenges in this neighborhood include slum lords, people who move in and don’t care, vacant lots, and crumbling infrastructure, such as sidewalks.” This reporter was shown one example of infrastructure: when homes are torn down, the heavy excavator that rips the house apart often destroys the sidewalk in front. This crumbled concrete is then left unless someone makes a stink. “We managed to get a sidewalk on Jefferson re-poured after the house was torn down.”
The history of Willard Park as a neighborhood? “We used to be part of the Holy Cross parish, but they kicked us out 10 years ago,” relayed Spicer. In 2007, a meeting occurred called the Near East Side Visioning Event when the ‘Willard Park of Holy Cross – Westminster Civic Alliance’ was incorporated to represent Willard Park residents. Spicer is currently president of the alliance. Over 15 ‘stakeholders’ — homeowners and local landlords in the Willard Park area — currently work with Spicer supporting the Green Picket Fences initiative.
“We refer to our 15 stakeholders as ‘Droers’ – Dreamers and doers,” says Grimm. Stakeholders seem to be working together monitoring the neighborhood. Grimm and Spicer are optimistic. “We want to define our neighborhood in a different way,” says Grimm.
Will Green Picket Fences succeed as a urban farming utopia? “In the beginning this was farmland. We are standing on top soil that runs two to three feet deep,” says Grimm. And now that exceptionally large lots exist with some homes selling for less than $10,000, maybe so.
Spicer says “The best way for interested folks to buy in this neighborhood is the tax surplus sale. You only have to wait a month before the title transfers.” Interested parties can also contact the Land Bank or view Land Bank properties at www.indylandbank.com/propertymap.shtml.
