I enjoy columnist Erika Smith of The Indianapolis Star. She writes commentary and makes you think. On May 3rd, two days after major rain and flooding occurred, she wrote. . . .. "Not long after a city zoning board denied a variance needed to build a parking garage below the flood plain in Broad Ripple, the sky opened and buried the neighborhood in water. Some people would - and indeed did - call that a sign that Keystone Group should scrap its plans to build the $15 million garage at College Avenue and Westfield Boulevard." Parking is always a controversy in Broad Ripple. Garages and meters are the talk of the day. So it is no wonder that the controversy is working its way down to South Broad Ripple, now known as Sobro. Much has happened at the corner of 54th and College. Sam's Gyros has expanded and Twenty Tap has opened and is tapping away. The facades of the buildings are much improved. The corner has popped since Fresh Market arrived but parking concerns prompted them to place a guard in their parking lot (reminiscent of Kroger on Guilford). At 52nd and College it looks a little like a bomb exploded in a war zone. There is so much going on down there. The new Sobro Café is finished with its build out and is lovely. Taste has taken its neighboring unit and put up brown paper in the windows hinting of things to come. Jean Easter Conservation is moving to 54th Street shops at the Monon leaving her space to be filled by a newcomer. The Broad Ripple Cottage Condos on the east side of College are undergoing major renovation complete with dumpsters, trucks and port-a-lets. Next to them is the former Movie Gallery which has been fenced on two sides for a year and a half. It is a pending bar/restaurant that at hearings was stated to seat 165 with a staff of 35-40. Remonstrators have challenged the zoning because of-you guessed it-parking. The Aristocrat, the corner anchor since 1987, is rebuilding from nearly the ground up since a devastating fire last August. The only thing left was the cinderblock walls. It has been gutted on the interior down to dirt floors. The community is eagerly waiting a grand reopening this summer after following their Facebook updates, the latest being that they recently received 2000 pounds of amber and green glass from beer and wine bottles to use for their bar floor. So when they reopen they will be back to hogging all the street parking which they have done always and when Taste opens their expansion they will hog all the street parking at their end of the corner, which they have done always which will leave no more room in a residential neighborhood for parking for a new restaurant with 165 seats and large staff thus the neighbors and businesses show concern. They have phrases and new lingo. They call it "Bar Ripple" and the encroachment of it moving south "Broad Ripplization". At 49th and College The Sinking Ship is sailing nicely but Just Wingin' it has flown the coop leaving that open for new prospects. Upland brewery is attracting evening food trucks out in front which must make it difficult for Paw Patch Place Animal Hospital because clients pick up their ill pets at the end of the day. 60 Minute cleaners, next to Upland, there since the 70's must also have a hard time with their patrons who pick up their cleaning at the end of the day. The west side of 49th and College remains a mystery as that drama that has been playing for years remains to be resolved. Demolition has happened.

Many feel that enough bars have now been met in Sobro which is effectively Meridian-Kessler. Others say bring it on, the more that is here the more vibrant it is and the less likely people are to move away. They probably are not affected by the parking issues and are not stakeholders. The residential neighbors of Broadway and Carrollton and the side streets in Sobro are feeling the same concerns of the north Broad Ripple residents of those same streets. They do not want to lose the parking in front of their homes or have disorderly conduct and crime associated with the creeping in of more bars. One prominent business owner at a different corner said to me that if Meridian-Kessler feels it needs bars to keep residents from moving away then Meridian-Kessler should get shuttles to take them to Broad Ripple. Well now, there's another form of mass transit. And that's another hot topic that Erica Smith often comments on in her column.