If you haven’t hit a local trail or been to a pool in a while, there’s a chance your favorite park has gotten a facelift since your last visit.
Why it matters: A multiyear, multimillion-dollar plan to strengthen Indy’s parks is bearing fruit across the Circle City this summer as new and improved facilities debut.
State of play: Last month’s grand opening of the Grassy Creek Environmental Community Center on the east side marks the end of the $45 million Circle City Forward initiative announced in 2021 to improve our parks.
- It also included the Riverside Adventure Park, which opened May 1; the Frederick Douglass Park Family Center, which opened in May 2024; the renovated Krannert Park Family Center, which opened in January 2024; and the Riverside Promenade, which opened in October 2023.
Yes, but: Circle City Forward was just one piece of a more than $140 million parks investment puzzle that also includes the city’s $16 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and an $80 million Lilly Endowment grant to pay for improvements across 42 parks…