INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis city-county councilors and residents are reacting to a WRTV Investigation that raised concerns about the condition of some Indianapolis parks.
“I’m embarrassed,” said City-County Councilor Ron Gibson. “I should be able to sit right here on this bench and enjoy seeing my son on the swings.”
Gibson represents District 8 on the east side. He lives close to Roselawn Park— a park that was shown in our investigation because it’s plagued with weeds, trash, outdated equipment and illegal dumping.
Even though he lives close to Roselawn Park, Gibson doesn’t visit with his 6-year-old son.
“My son can’t enjoy the amenities of this park because of the weeds,” said Gibson. “It needs to be cleaned up immediately.”
WRTV Investigates visited about 10% of the city’s 216 parks, including north, south, east, west and central.
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While some parks were in great condition, others look forgotten.
- 50% had issues with high weeds, especially in the mulch areas of playgrounds
- 25% had problems with trash
- 30% had broken or very faded/outdated playground equipment
While Indy Parks can address things like benches, playground equipment and bathrooms, it’s actually another city agency responsible for trash, mowing and weed removal — the Department of Public Works (DPW).
"I'm going to ask DPW to do better here,” said Gibson. “We can do better here. If we can't control the dumping necessarily on a regular basis, we can definitely control the environment of this park."
City-County Councilor Jared Evans is also concerned by our findings.
“This is concerning and rather pathetic of our city to have parks in these conditions considering how much we like to highlight the historic spending,” said Evans. “It’s a reminder that the historic spending is one-time spending, and that we need to be looking at annual spending that can address maintenance of our parks.”
A DPW spokesperson says while DPW handles maintenance at some parks, contractors are responsible for other parks.
“We also need to investigate these contractors and whether they were communicated with about the conditions that needed to be addressed,” said Evans.
WRTV Investigates has requested a list of contractors who are tasked with park maintenance, and we are waiting on the information.
Indianapolis City-County Councilor Jesse Brown brought up our investigation Thursday night at the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting, including his concern about DPW contractors and park maintenance.
“What can change as a result of this story?” asked Brown. “How much of this is inevitable given the scarce resources we are trying to steward appropriately?”
Indy Parks Director Phyllis Boyd responded, “I think we've already been working closely with DPW to coordinate with folks at different levels to try to improve maintenance and really take care of our parks."
In 2025, the city plans to dedicate an additional $300,000 to help DPW maintain parks.
“We are working toward better coordination, better capacities,” said Boyd.
As for Roselawn Park, Boyd told WRTV she’s aware of the issues.
“We are in conversations now with the future developers of the apartment complex next door to see what kind of investment they can make in the park,” said Boyd. “So, it’s coming. We definitely want to improve that.”
Indy Parks' proposed 2025 budget will increase 17% from $46 million to nearly $54 million.
On the WRTV Facebook page, residents told us about several parks in their neighborhoods they say are in rough shape, including Brookside Park.
WRTV Investigates stopped by several of the parks Friday and found two of them in good condition.
Brookside Park is fenced off with tall weeds growing inside. It’s on the city’s list to receive playground renovations.
"We are actually redoing both playgrounds at Brookside," said Alex Cortwright, a spokesperson for Indy Parks. "They will be somewhat weather dependent, if the weather stays warm there’s a chance they’ll be finished this fall. All of the equipment has to be installed before the rubberized surface can be put down."
Cortwright said that surface needs temperatures above 50 degrees consistently to be poured properly.
"If the weather doesn’t work with that, they will be finalized once weather allows in the spring," said Cortwright.
A viewer also told us to check out Paul Ruster Park on the far east side, but we found it in good condition.
In fact, a bunch of moms were out enjoying it, including Michelle Spear.
Spear said she’d like to see more parks that have equipment for older kids.
“There’s always more improvements that could be made,” said Spear. "Everyone goes to Hamilton County for parks because they're upgraded, they're bigger and they're available to all ages of kids."
WRTV Investigates requested an interview with Mayor Joe Hogsett, but the city directed us to Indy Parks instead.
A new initiative will allow your councilor to receive a million dollars for either a DPW or Indy Parks project. The deadline is November 1.
Of the city county councilors who responded to WRTV, most said they had not made up their minds yet.
What you can do about your park
If you see a problem with your park, here’s what you can do.
- Call the Mayor’s Action Center at 317-327-4622
- Call the parks hotline at 317-327-PARK
- Contact your city county councilor
You can search to see if your neighborhood park is on the list of improvements here:
