Monument Circle park already attracting thousands

An experimental park is attracting thousands of people to Monument Circle, raising the odds that the center of downtown will someday be more than a glorified roundabout.

Driving the news: Spark on the Circle, a mini-park, opened in front of the Emmis Communications building July 11, attracting 5,000 visitors over its first weekend.

• Foot traffic on Monument Circle spiked 18% from July 11-22 over the same period a year earlier, per Downtown Indy, which uses Placer.Ai to estimate activity using cellphone data.

Why it matters: Closing Monument Circle to traffic has gone from a relatively fringe idea a few months ago to gaining broad support.

Catch up fast: Spark on the Circle is a green space with food and beverages, games and entertainment.

• The city will keep the park open through October, when it will reopen the circle to traffic, and plans to bring it back next year for an even longer period.
• City officials and Downtown Indy are gathering information to decide whether to permanently close part, or even all, of Monument Circle.

The big picture: The two-year experiment is part of a broader effort by Mayor Joe Hogsett and Downtown Indy to create gathering places for visitors and residents.

What they're saying: The Indianapolis Business Journal, a barometer of the city's corporate pulse, has already seen enough, calling for the park to become a permanent fixture.

• "The Spark park has been filled with people … (who) have brought much-needed energy back to the Circle, and the number of homeless people in the area seems to have decreased," the IBJ wrote in an editorial.