About 18,000 students are enrolled in tuition-free charter schools sponsored by the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation and Indianapolis Charter School Board. In 2015, the district began contracting with charter organizations and nonprofit managers to operate failing schools. Beech Grove City Schools and Speedway School Town only include sections of excluded cities. Law enforcement has blamed increased violence on a combination of root causes, including poverty, substance abuse, and mental illness. With 159 criminal homicides, 2018 stands as the most violent year on record in the city.
Festivals and events
Newer establishments reflect the city’s growing religious diversity, including Masjid Al Mu’mineen (2001), the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana (2006), and the Indianapolis Indiana Temple (2015), located in Carmel. Religion has played a central role in shaping the city’s healthcare, political, and social service systems. About 78% of the city’s homeless population was sheltered, with 64% living in emergency shelters and 14% in transitional housing.
American Civil War
The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields is the city’s primary art museum, with a permanent collection of approximately 54,000 works. Allison Transmission and Rolls-Royce North America operate major headquarters and production facilities in the city, supporting thousands of jobs in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and propulsion systems. The city is commonly identified as part of the Rust Belt, reflecting broader patterns of industrial decline in the Midwestern United States.Despite these shifts, Indianapolis remains a significant manufacturing center.
Keystone at the Crossing & West
Part hotel, part art gallery, Conrad Indy’s walls are decorated with household-name creatives like Warhol, Picasso, and Dalí. The adjacent Garage Food Hall and numerous restaurants make this location ideal for exploring downtown. Original Art Deco details have been carefully restored, including a stunning rotunda with a spiral staircase and soda bottle cap-inspired ceiling plaster. This Michelin Key Award recipient occupies the top two floors of a historic 1930s Coca-Cola bottling plant on Mass Ave. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the Indianapolis International Airport is consistently voted one of the best airports in the United States. Indianapolis also has a strong coffee culture with local roasters and cafes such as Coat Check, Quills, and Calvin Fletcher’s.
- The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (1926) is the largest museum of its kind in the world and is one of the most frequently visited museums in the country.
- The Marion county cities of Beech Grove, Lawrence, Speedway, and Southport remained autonomous under the arrangement, as did the county’s several school systems.
- In the 2020 census, Indianapolis was among the 20 largest cities in the U.S. by both population and land area.
- For his presidential inauguration, marking the first visit from a president-elect in the city’s history.
- Indianapolis Public Schools is the largest district in the city, enrolling about 23,000 students across 60 schools.
- It is home to 17 degree-granting schools, including the main campus of the IU School of Medicine, the largest medical school by enrollment in the U.S.
The Madam Walker Legacy Center opened in 1927 on Indiana Avenue as a cultural center for the city’s African American community. It includes Old National Centre, the city’s oldest stagehouse, which opened in 1910 and contains the Murat Theatre, Egyptian Room, and Corinthian Hall. Founded in 1902, the Herron School of Art and Design is one of the city’s most prominent art institutions. The museum occupies a 152-acre (62 ha) campus which also includes Oldfields–Lilly House & Gardens and the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. The metropolitan area supports roughly 28,500 information technology–related jobs, with major employers including Infosys, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Genesys.
Although it’s known for hosting the world’s largest single-day sporting event, Indianapolis is far more than just the home of the Indianapolis 500. Her work has appeared in Afar, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and Business Insider, among other publications. President Benjamin Harrison (1875) and poet James Whitcomb Riley (1872) have been preserved as museums. The Indiana State Fairgrounds, with more than 55 permanent buildings, including the Art Deco-style Pepsi Coliseum (1939), is a focus of trade and social activities.
Several invasive species are also common in Indianapolis, including tree of heaven, wintercreeper, Amur honeysuckle, and Callery pear. Native trees most common to the area include varieties of ash, maple, and oak. The cemetery’s 555 acres (225 ha) represents the largest green space in Center Township, home to an abundance of wildlife and some 130 species of trees. A rare example of old-growth forest in the city can be found on 15 acres (6.1 ha) of Crown Hill Cemetery’s North Woods in the Butler–Tarkington neighborhood. Environmental Protection Agency’s alternative classification system, the city is located in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains, an area of the country known for its fertile soil.
Two land trusts are active in the city managing several sites for nature conservation throughout the region. White River’s 250 acres (100 ha) are home to several attractions, including the Indianapolis Zoo and White River Gardens. Established in 1996, Fort Harrison State Park covers 1,744 acres (706 ha) that are overseen by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Cityscape
Located in the Mississippi Flyway, the city sees more than 400 migratory bird species throughout the year. Urban wildlife common to the Indianapolis area include mammals such as the white-tailed deer, eastern chipmunk, eastern cottontail, and the eastern grey and American red squirrels. A 2016 bioblitz along https://www.royalspiniacasino.org/ three of the city’s riparian corridors found 590 taxa.
Some 22% of residents identified as religiously «unaffiliated», consistent with the national average of 22.7%. Other predominant denominations include Baptists (15%), Methodists (8%), Disciples of Christ (5%), Pentecostals (5%), Jehovah’s Witnesses (3%), and Lutherans (2%). The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007–2011 American Community Survey indicated the median household income for Indianapolis city was $42,704, and the median family income was $53,161.
- Religion has played a central role in shaping the city’s healthcare, political, and social service systems.
- Amid the changes in government and growth, the city pursued an aggressive economic development strategy to raise the city’s stature as a sports tourism destination, known as the Indianapolis Project.
- As of 2019, Indianapolis has been home to two major league sports teams, three Fortune 500 companies, eight university campuses, and numerous cultural institutions, including the world’s largest children’s museum.
- The city’s largest contribution to popular culture, the Indianapolis 500, has influenced entertainment for decades, referenced in film, television, video games, and other media.
- Founded in 1821 as the city’s public market, the Indianapolis City Market has served the community from its current building since 1886.
Its theater hosted vaudeville performances and anchored the local jazz scene from the 1920s through the 1960s. The Mass Ave Cultural Arts District is a central hub for live performance and theater. Ganggang has emerged since 2020 as a prominent supporter of Black artists in Indianapolis.
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About 5,000 federal employees work for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, headquartered near the former base. Most federal field offices are located in the Minton-Capehart Federal Building. Most state departments and agencies are headquartered in the neighboring Indiana Government Center complex. The Indiana Statehouse houses the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government, including the office of the Governor of Indiana, the Indiana General Assembly, and the Indiana Supreme Court. Each of the county’s nine civil townships elects its own township trustee, three-member board, assessor, and a constable and small claims court judge, all of whom serve four-year terms.