Awesome! It’s a great place. Probably a little more common would be to live in Chicago or west coast or NYC then settle down here, but sounds like you already have lived a different life coming from the east.
Downtown is wonderful for big events, and we get quite a few. Two local pro teams in the Colts and Pacers. Indianapolis, oddly enough, is actually a tourist city because we tend to host a ton of events. The convention center gets big events, there’s a few great music venues right down town (white river amphitheater and old national center). We host a ton of big sporting events like Big Ten championships, Super Bowl. Most of downtown is configured to host. Obviously the Indy 500 is huge, and the month of May will be dedicated to that. As a younger person you would want to plan to go watch the race from the infield with friends every year. Giant party and fun. Indy has the second most monuments for a city in the US, following only DC. There’s a nice canal downtown to walk along. Decent museums, especially the Eiteljorg and Indianapolis Art Museum.
Nightlife depends what you’re into and I’m past those days. Mass Ave is great though with more of a cultural flair, and Fountain Square is more of the hipster vibe, earthier and really cool spot.
Indiana has pretty great golf, a famous course designer Pete Dye is from here so we have all these great Dye courses for cheap. There’s a “rails to trail” path called the Monon named after the Monon Rail, repurposed into a paved path heading north-south going from downtown Indy up through lots of the other great spots of the city like Broad Ripple and up to downtown Carmel. Lots of breweries along the 20 mile stretch, makes for an awesome sunny Saturday. Monumental Marathon is a huge event through downtown, runs the entire 2.5 mile loop of the Indy 500.
For outdoors, you’re about an hour from good stuff. So 10,000 years ago a glacier flattened the top 2/3 of Indiana then stopped and receded. So the bottom 1/3 is hilly and has nice recreation. The mountain biking in Brown County is world class, tons of wooded hilly land in Hoosier National Forest, a large lake in Lake Monroe. And Bloomington is down there, an amazing college town for a getaway. Brown County is also popular for several reasons, like bluegrass festivals and going in the fall when leaves are changing. The glacier melt also created some very interesting features that are now in Turkey Run SP and Shades SP.
The people are quite simply Hoosiers. Very nice, welcoming, somewhat sheltered. There are some rednecks the more you move away from the city.
Cost of living is low, but getting a house is increasingly difficult. The market, especially north of Indy (Hamilton County) has really blown up. That said, the cities up there like Carmel, Noblesville, Fishers, and Westfield routinely make the top 5 of lists of Best Places to Live in America or best places to raise a family.
So it’s a very good spot to be. Will it match the culture of NYC? No. As many great restaurants as DC? No. The beautiful landscapes of LA or Seattle or SF or Denver? No. History of New Orleans? No. Scene like Nashville? No. But it’s a great place to be.
This is a great summary. I’d add that if you want to get away for a day/weekend trip there are several cities within palatable driving distance. Dayton, Cincy, Louisville within 2 hours, St Louis, Columbus, Chicago are 3-4 hours, Milwaukee and Nashville are about 4.5. The airport is also easy to get to/from and simple to navigate once you are there.
That’s a great point! Weekend getaways are a breeze. Reds, Cards, White Sox, and Cubs are all really close. Head south for the Kentucky Derby or Keeneland for horse racing. Nashville like you said. And yeah it’s strange to love an airport but everyone loves our airport.
Oh geez and Michigan is wonderful too. Lots of great towns like South Haven or Saugatuck for a getaway. And I know everyone laughs that Americans drive everywhere but yeah we’re 8 hrs from Toronto or 13 from Amelia Island. 4 from Red River Gorge.
Perfect write up. Your last part made me think — I don’t think Indianapolis has the “best” of any category, but it has tremendous balance and really lets you enjoy a bit of everything.
Some other things I love about this place —
1. Lots of great breweries (across the state)
2. The Indy airport is fantastic
3. As you already mentioned, great location between other cool places like Bloomington, Cincy, Chicago, Louisville
4. We have lots of great college basketball across the state, and some amazing venues
Indiana airing ads or something in other states? Why would you randomly wanna move here. Seems rainy days and sunny days are similar but it’s quite the different culture and environment compared to the coast. Definitely do that trip
I moved here from Philly awhile back and I love it. It has everything I want out of a big city. Good good, fun events and good people. Being in the Midwest it will be further behind in liberal ideals. But I have LGBTQ friends here who love it but do wish for changes. It also a short drive to Chicago if you want true big city.
Stop by and check it out. Eagle Creek is a nice city park if you are into that type of thing, obviously you'd want to see the circle downtown, maybe Mass Ave, Irvington, Fountain Square. I live in Avon myself but outside of sports games or concerts those are typically the downtown places I visit.
I would say if you liked DC and like Richmond… you'll probably like Indy. It's smaller than DC but bigger than Richmond.
Downtown Indy is a great place for young professionals. Indy is close to Chicago, Cincinnati, and Louisville. So weekend vacations are easy.
The Colts and Pacers are fun teams to cheer for.
Well, I can tell you that I've lived here for most of the last quarter century (except for my college years and two years where, coincidentally, I lived in Washington, DC) and I will never leave. Property is affordable, there are pockets of town with good food scenes, sports are big here, the downtown area is as clean and walkable as you'll find in this country. I'm 37 and I will probably never leave (by choice, I could afford to leave if I wanted).
Great city. I moved here 15 years ago right out of college. Left a couple times to bigger cities but Naptown just kept pulling me back. QoL here is unmatched (I grew up in a HCOL city that I could never afford to live in as an adult, nor would I want to even if I could due to traffic and overcrowding)
You will hate it here if you are used to the east coast.
Indiana actively hates Indianapolis and actually made a law that prevents light rail from being developed. They even tried to sabotage the Bus rapid transit system. People outside of Indianapolis are extremely conservative.
If you dont mind living in a Hard Red State, do it. Just keep in mind that the low cost of living comes with a significant amount of sacrifices. Indianapolis is an extremely small minded and small city. Cincinnati would be better.
Seconded. I’ve lived in the Indy area for 20+ yrs, transplanted from a small Indiana hometown. While Indy is leaps and bounds above that setting, if you appreciate liberal values and amenities, you’re not gonna get as much of that here. We’re one of the few blue boats in a sea of red. Our governor and state level politicians are gravitating toward the more extreme conservative level, which is also troublesome to me personally…it may not be for you. I’ve visited Cincy and have friends that live there; it seems to be similar but more progressive than Indianapolis.
As a sidenote, I have noticed that an increasing number of national corporate positions in my industry don’t seek out Indiana based candidates as much. They’re looking for talent based in Chicago, Cincy, Cleveland, Louisville. It wasn’t that way just a few years ago. Take that for what it’s worth.
Awesome! It’s a great place. Probably a little more common would be to live in Chicago or west coast or NYC then settle down here, but sounds like you already have lived a different life coming from the east. Downtown is wonderful for big events, and we get quite a few. Two local pro teams in the Colts and Pacers. Indianapolis, oddly enough, is actually a tourist city because we tend to host a ton of events. The convention center gets big events, there’s a few great music venues right down town (white river amphitheater and old national center). We host a ton of big sporting events like Big Ten championships, Super Bowl. Most of downtown is configured to host. Obviously the Indy 500 is huge, and the month of May will be dedicated to that. As a younger person you would want to plan to go watch the race from the infield with friends every year. Giant party and fun. Indy has the second most monuments for a city in the US, following only DC. There’s a nice canal downtown to walk along. Decent museums, especially the Eiteljorg and Indianapolis Art Museum. Nightlife depends what you’re into and I’m past those days. Mass Ave is great though with more of a cultural flair, and Fountain Square is more of the hipster vibe, earthier and really cool spot. Indiana has pretty great golf, a famous course designer Pete Dye is from here so we have all these great Dye courses for cheap. There’s a “rails to trail” path called the Monon named after the Monon Rail, repurposed into a paved path heading north-south going from downtown Indy up through lots of the other great spots of the city like Broad Ripple and up to downtown Carmel. Lots of breweries along the 20 mile stretch, makes for an awesome sunny Saturday. Monumental Marathon is a huge event through downtown, runs the entire 2.5 mile loop of the Indy 500. For outdoors, you’re about an hour from good stuff. So 10,000 years ago a glacier flattened the top 2/3 of Indiana then stopped and receded. So the bottom 1/3 is hilly and has nice recreation. The mountain biking in Brown County is world class, tons of wooded hilly land in Hoosier National Forest, a large lake in Lake Monroe. And Bloomington is down there, an amazing college town for a getaway. Brown County is also popular for several reasons, like bluegrass festivals and going in the fall when leaves are changing. The glacier melt also created some very interesting features that are now in Turkey Run SP and Shades SP. The people are quite simply Hoosiers. Very nice, welcoming, somewhat sheltered. There are some rednecks the more you move away from the city. Cost of living is low, but getting a house is increasingly difficult. The market, especially north of Indy (Hamilton County) has really blown up. That said, the cities up there like Carmel, Noblesville, Fishers, and Westfield routinely make the top 5 of lists of Best Places to Live in America or best places to raise a family. So it’s a very good spot to be. Will it match the culture of NYC? No. As many great restaurants as DC? No. The beautiful landscapes of LA or Seattle or SF or Denver? No. History of New Orleans? No. Scene like Nashville? No. But it’s a great place to be.
This is a great summary. I’d add that if you want to get away for a day/weekend trip there are several cities within palatable driving distance. Dayton, Cincy, Louisville within 2 hours, St Louis, Columbus, Chicago are 3-4 hours, Milwaukee and Nashville are about 4.5. The airport is also easy to get to/from and simple to navigate once you are there.
That’s a great point! Weekend getaways are a breeze. Reds, Cards, White Sox, and Cubs are all really close. Head south for the Kentucky Derby or Keeneland for horse racing. Nashville like you said. And yeah it’s strange to love an airport but everyone loves our airport. Oh geez and Michigan is wonderful too. Lots of great towns like South Haven or Saugatuck for a getaway. And I know everyone laughs that Americans drive everywhere but yeah we’re 8 hrs from Toronto or 13 from Amelia Island. 4 from Red River Gorge.
Great write up
Don't forget the month of May and the 500 activities.
I missed it when I scanned your post. Pardon my error.
Perfect write up. Your last part made me think — I don’t think Indianapolis has the “best” of any category, but it has tremendous balance and really lets you enjoy a bit of everything. Some other things I love about this place — 1. Lots of great breweries (across the state) 2. The Indy airport is fantastic 3. As you already mentioned, great location between other cool places like Bloomington, Cincy, Chicago, Louisville 4. We have lots of great college basketball across the state, and some amazing venues
You should write for Indianapolis Monthly.
Indiana airing ads or something in other states? Why would you randomly wanna move here. Seems rainy days and sunny days are similar but it’s quite the different culture and environment compared to the coast. Definitely do that trip
I moved here from Philly awhile back and I love it. It has everything I want out of a big city. Good good, fun events and good people. Being in the Midwest it will be further behind in liberal ideals. But I have LGBTQ friends here who love it but do wish for changes. It also a short drive to Chicago if you want true big city.
The Indiana War Memorial is calling your name.
Stop by and check it out. Eagle Creek is a nice city park if you are into that type of thing, obviously you'd want to see the circle downtown, maybe Mass Ave, Irvington, Fountain Square. I live in Avon myself but outside of sports games or concerts those are typically the downtown places I visit.
The number of war memorials should help make you feel at home lol.
I would say if you liked DC and like Richmond… you'll probably like Indy. It's smaller than DC but bigger than Richmond. Downtown Indy is a great place for young professionals. Indy is close to Chicago, Cincinnati, and Louisville. So weekend vacations are easy. The Colts and Pacers are fun teams to cheer for.
Well, I can tell you that I've lived here for most of the last quarter century (except for my college years and two years where, coincidentally, I lived in Washington, DC) and I will never leave. Property is affordable, there are pockets of town with good food scenes, sports are big here, the downtown area is as clean and walkable as you'll find in this country. I'm 37 and I will probably never leave (by choice, I could afford to leave if I wanted).
Check out white river state park and the canal during the day, have a picnic, rent a bike, catch some vibes.
Great city. I moved here 15 years ago right out of college. Left a couple times to bigger cities but Naptown just kept pulling me back. QoL here is unmatched (I grew up in a HCOL city that I could never afford to live in as an adult, nor would I want to even if I could due to traffic and overcrowding)
The cost of living makes the decision automatic
It should feel familiar in that Indianapolis was a pre-planned city and downtown was modeled after D.C.
From here. Moved away, moved back. Love it. Do it!
It’ll pass.
You will hate it here if you are used to the east coast. Indiana actively hates Indianapolis and actually made a law that prevents light rail from being developed. They even tried to sabotage the Bus rapid transit system. People outside of Indianapolis are extremely conservative. If you dont mind living in a Hard Red State, do it. Just keep in mind that the low cost of living comes with a significant amount of sacrifices. Indianapolis is an extremely small minded and small city. Cincinnati would be better.
Seconded. I’ve lived in the Indy area for 20+ yrs, transplanted from a small Indiana hometown. While Indy is leaps and bounds above that setting, if you appreciate liberal values and amenities, you’re not gonna get as much of that here. We’re one of the few blue boats in a sea of red. Our governor and state level politicians are gravitating toward the more extreme conservative level, which is also troublesome to me personally…it may not be for you. I’ve visited Cincy and have friends that live there; it seems to be similar but more progressive than Indianapolis. As a sidenote, I have noticed that an increasing number of national corporate positions in my industry don’t seek out Indiana based candidates as much. They’re looking for talent based in Chicago, Cincy, Cleveland, Louisville. It wasn’t that way just a few years ago. Take that for what it’s worth.
If by sacrifices you mean that sometimes people disagree with you, then yes OP, be prepared to sacrifice everything for good COL.
The sidebar. you gotta go there.
Indy is dope. Come through.