The 'Big Read' — a book club for the whole city

The worst part about reading a good book is finishing it and having no one around with whom you can discuss it. The Indianapolis Public Library hopes to remedy that with its "Big Read" program, now underway.

Sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts, the program encourages everyone in the city to read the same book, Dinaw Mengestu's "The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears" and then participate in a series of formal – and presumably informal – discussions in the coming month.

The book whose protagonist moved to the United States from Ethiopia 17 years ago, deals with a number of themes, such as the immigrant experience in the United States. Another central theme focuses on questions of urban gentrification; the hero of the book operates a store in Washington's Logan Circle, a neighborhood on the brink of coming up.

To help get readers thinking about similar issues in Indianapolis, here's a list of how gentrification or in some cases demographic shifts have impacted some neighborhoods in our city:

1. The area known as Holy Rosary was once home to Indianapolis's Italian community, many of whom worked at the City Market. In 1909, a Catholic church for those of Italian heritage was built in the region bordered by Virginia Avenue to the northeast, what is now I-65/70 to the east and south and South East Street to the west. By the 1950s, however, the spread of Eli Lilly and the new highway diminished the neighborhood's Italian population. By the mid-1990s, church membership had shrunk to about 400. Today church membership has swelled to about 1,300, but few are of Italian descent. And the neighborhood, adjacent to the trendy Fletcher Place.

2. Fall Creek Place: About 15 years ago, the city poured millions in federal and local aid to the neighborhood to spruce up more than 300 homes, beautify streets and more. The idea was to transform the area that had earned the nickname "Dodge City" because of all the crime that happened there. The recession slowed movement a bit but by 2007, when Goose the Market opened, it was clear the upscaling of the neighborhood had taken hold.

3. Ransom Place: Just to the northeast of IUPUI's campus, Ransom Place was once home to many local wealthy African-Americans. It was named for the man who served as the corporate attorney for the Madame C. J. Walker Company. In the 1960s, IUPUI expanded, demolishing many homes as it did so. About two decades later, revitalization efforts for the homes that remained began. Today, the area is popular because of its proximity to the IUPUI campus, and the Downtown canal.

4. Mass Ave: One of four original diagonal streets in Indianapolis that led to Downtown, Mass Ave. rapidly grew into a commercial district from 1870 to 1930. By the middle of the century, it was losing its popularity. The construction of I-65 at its northern tip in the 1960s threatened to be the death knell for the area. In the 1980s, O'Malia's opened a grocery store in the former Sears Roebuck Building near the avenue's southern tip and within the following decade, chic businesses and eateries began opening along Mass Ave. As early as 2002, city officials were talking about creating a Cultural Trail for walkers and cyclists along Mass Ave. Today that has come to fruition, along with multiple boutiques, yogurt shops and other places to stop as you head down the trail.

5. SoBro first emerged as a term about 20 years ago in reference to the neighborhood around 54th and College. In the past decade, the boundary rapidly moved south. At first the term appears to have referred to anything south of Kessler and north of either 38th or 46th St. Meridian Street borders the neighborhood on the western boundary and Keystone to the East. When Recess, with its $50 prix fix dinners, opened five years ago in the 4900 block of College Avenue, it was clear the gentrification was here to stay. In case, there's any doubt, the area is now home to Agrarian, a store that stocks chicken coops and bee-keeping supplies.

6. What could be better proof of an area's gentrifying than its reverting to its original name? East 16th Street, aka Tinker Street, is clearly an up- and coming neighborhood. Just five years ago, 16th Street was little more than an automobile thorough-fare. But efforts to redevelop and revitalize the area date back more than 15 years. New home construction along the street and a revamping of the neighborhood grocery, once dubbed the Kroghetto, led the way. Then came the opening of coffee shops such as the Foundry and Thirsty Scholar and more recently the foodie favorite restaurant Tinker Street. Now, there's talk of a brewery opening up.

7. Some neighborhoods gentrify sooner than others. The old Northside, one of Indianapolis's oldest neighborhoods, was also among the first to regain former glory. As the city of Indianapolis grew and prospered in the 19th century, the Northside was THE place to live, as poorer people gravitated south of the city. After the turn of the century, though, people started building mansions farther north and by the start of World War I, the area had reached its peak. After World War II and the following decades, its Victorian homes fell into further disrepair. By the mid-1970s, many of the original homes had been razed. In an effort to stop the destruction, the area was placed on the federal National Register of Historic Places. Now, homes in the neighborhood can fetch upward of $500,000.

8. One of the first suburbs of Indianapolis, Irvington was developed, starting in the mid-1870s. The neighborhood was the first site of Butler University, which opened there in 1875 and stayed until it moved to its present location in 1928. Like many of the surrounding neighborhoods on the Eastside, Irvington experienced a slow decline. By the 1970s, movie theaters in the areas started showing X-rated movies. More than 10 years ago, the Irvington Development Organization formed to coordinate beautification efforts and bring new local businesses to the area. Now places like Jockamo Pizza and Black Acre Brewing are proud to call the neighborhood home.

9. Just to the east of Downtown, the Holy Cross neighborhood was one of the first areas settled in Indianapolis, when George Pogue built a cabin in 1819 or 1820. About 1832, Noah Noble, the governor of the state, bought the land and started farming on it. His descendants lived on the land until 1898 when they sold it to the city to use as a park, what is now Highland Park. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of working-class Irish, Italian and German Catholics were moving into the area, leading the Catholic Diocese to form the parish of the Holy Cross in 1895. From the 1950s on, however, the area experienced much of the same decline as other parts of Downtown; houses fell into disrepair. Starting in the 1990s, the area began to bounce back as new buyers started to rehab the homes. Today, the area is home to Angie's List as well as Flat 12 Bierwerks.

10. Created in 1926, 17 years after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the town of Speedway likes to call itself "the racing capital of the world." Town planners wanted their city to be the nation's first "horseless city." The town triples in population in the first four years of existence as the track and associated industry took off. Speedway continued to expand, especially after World War II. New housing construction in the area remained brisk through the 1950s and 1960s. But by the 1980s and 1990s, demographic changes started to affect the town. Recently, however, the town has undergone a modernization. In 2012, Dallara opened a gleaming factory on Main Street, which included an Italian coffee shop, Lino's. A new health pavilion followed and in recent years the town spent about $8 million to update six blocks of Main Street with new light poles, benches and a bike path.

Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.

The Big Read

The Indianapolis Library's Big Read Program is encouraging everyone in the city to read Dinaw Mengestu's "The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears" and participate in one of many discussions being held at local libraries about the book. The author will appear at the Central Library on April 25 at 2 p.m.

For more information, visit www.imcpl.org.