Page 5 - IAV Digital Magazine #425

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Watching Traffic? Entrepreneur Thinks It Can Be The City's Next Attraction
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - You've probably zoomed by it numerous times and never given it a second thought. Why would you? It's just a big grassy space between the south split - the area where I-65 and I-70 merge.
But a local entrepre- neur sees it as something far greater. He's con- vinced it will be soon become one of the city's newest attrac- tions, a gathering space called "The Idle, A Point of View," a place to sit and watch highway traffic.
That's right, traffic.
Why would anyone want to do that?
"Because we're sit- ting here calmly while (the drivers) are all worried about whether they merge or not. You can hear the horns honking and people are all excited," said Tom Battista. "But we're already where we need to be, which is watching them. Our blood pressure is going down. Theirs is going up."
Battista is the man behind The Idle. Plans call for three rows of seats and a sunshade at the top of the hill.
"It's crazy and I
understand that, but I'm a bit crazy," he laughed.
Crazy, as in the guy who brought Milktooth and Bluebeard, two high- ly acclaimed restau- rants to Virginia Avenue and crazy, as in the guy who's worked as Jimmy Buffett's stage man- ager for 25 years.
Ashley Brooks, co- founder of Milktooth, said of The Idle, "This is very typical of Tom to have a big, bold ideas and bring them to life."
Battista told us his motivation in this case.
"I'm a big advocate for the city and always have been and I think it will be a place where peo- ple will bring friends and out-of-town peo- ple because it's so crazy," he said.
Battista said he got the idea five years ago "while walking along the half-mile stretch where the interstates came through and divided the neighborhood, so it just seemed to me this green space in the middle of the city could be recap- tured and brought back so people could use it and not just the cars."
He said while the
city's movers and shakers were all on board, "the Federal Highway Administration said, 'No way, it's way out of the box, we'll never do that."
But Battista didn't give up and the feds finally signed off on the plan. To satisfy safety concerns, a fence will be built just below the view- ing area to ensure no one can get on the highway. Plus, there will be no other structures or flags permitted.
Paul Smith, who is head of the Southeast Neighborhood Development Corporation (SEND) was among those who loved Battista's idea.
"When Tom came to me with this idea I was, like, 'This is crazy enough to work'," Smith said. "What I really like the most is that there's not another one like it anywhere in the country, it's one-of-a-kind and I think Indy does best
when it does its own thing."
Battista said sitting atop a hill watching highway traffic isn't exactly Margaritaville, but he hopes it's at least a pleasant place to sit in traffic.
"We can't be down in the islands with Jimmy. There are no rivers or oceans but there are all those cars going all over," he said. "You could close your eyes and it could (sound like) the roar of an ocean."
He said the cost of the project is $82,000. While he expects Jimmy will kick in some, most of the money need- ed will come through a crowdfunding site. Battista plans to launch the campaign at Bluebeard Monday.
He's hopeful The Idle will be done and open to the public by the end of September.
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