RAINBOW unaBRIDGEd ?

Sitting, outside enjoying the view, it's such a simple act & one we all take for granted, it's one of life's real pleasures.

The Rainbow Bridge in the heart of the Broad Ripple village was built in 1906 in a much simpler time and most would agree it has seen better days. Some people walk or drive over it and don't give it a second thought rushing to get to work , home or a tasty snack around the village. I walk back & forth across rainbow bridge several times a day on my trips around broad ripple to the coffee shop or to feed the ducks, but I find the bridge to be one of the more interesting features of broad ripple (an asset that needs to be valued & improved as we go forward). On an very basic level it's just a "bridge" built to allows cars & pedestrians to cross the canal on Guilford street but it has a myriad of other higher uses & benefits & adds to the enjoyment & soul of Broad Ripple that I feel are threatened.

The rainbow bridge has always served as a meeting/gathering place for people to sit & enjoy the canal & the green outdoors (and to be away from the noisy concrete main street) The bridge guard railing are used as sitting places to have lunch & chat with friends. Visitors like to congregate here in the warmer months, it's free & doesn't cost anything (as do the cafes & bars, which discourage people from hanging out if they are not buying anything) People from all walks of life gather here, mum's & dad's with their kids, workers, lovers on a stroll & teenagers on the fringe with no where else to go ! (but hey, that's the broad ripple spirit! a social environment where we all get along)

The colorful look & rainbow name of the bridge even promotes the core Broad Ripple feelings of inclusion & community.

The function of the bridge as a free meeting place also adds a feature to the village that is missing in other parts. (like a mini Artsgarden-style space creating a social space out of nothing!), it's Broad Ripple's equivalent of the "Spanish Steps" in Rome, Italy, or the Montmartre steps in Paris, France, in front of the Basilica of the sacre Cœur/Basilica of the Sacred Heart church. Spaces where people sit, play guitars & just enjoy life! There aren't many open spaces or parks in & around broad ripple that people can walk to & this canal area & bridge allow people to stroll & sit & enjoy just being outside & around Broad Ripple.

The Rainbow Bridge on Guilford Street is scheduled for a much needed repair project starting on March the 1st. The bridge will be open to pedestrians but closed to cars for 70 days while work is completed. The plan is to restore the bridge by repairing the concrete structure, sidewalks & raising the guard railings (the same rails that are now used for sitting).

It is this detail (raising the railings) that will take away the very feature about the bridge that most people enjoy & use, the ability to sit & relax on the bridge to take in the surrounds. The Indianapolis Department of Public Works who are undertaking the project & spending almost $500,000 want to raise the railing up to 18" (one & half feet) to their current standard for other bridges (mostly high speed bridges like Meridian Street bridge) even tho there has been no cases of people or cars falling off the bridge!

I've lived in Broad Ripple for 18 years & worked as a designer for consumer electronics on 3 continents (Philips in Australia & Holland & GE & RCA in the USA) One thing I learned was for any design project to be "successful" you need to take into account the current needs & usage of its users. (I feel this hasn't been taken into consideration for the current development). If the bridge is to continue to be a functional place & space for people in broad ripple to enjoy the canal area, raising the railings another 1 1/2 feet above where they are now will only change the bridge forever, for the worse, it just won't be a place to sit & eat or enjoy the view. Just a bridge to walk or quickly drive over, without any sitting. Progress ?

Raising the railing isn't sitting well with me !

Regards Brett Rathmell

Broad Ripple business owner & concerned resident.