For Riverside residents De’Amon Harges and Wildstyle Paschall, it started back in 2017 with a question as simple as it was unlikely: “What if we bought a city block?”
Increasingly, their historic near-westside neighborhood, Riverside, was in danger of losing itself to gentrification. A century after prejudicial housing practices like redlining had set off an era of disinvestment and declining values, Riverside was suddenly experiencing new investment with the planning and eventual construction of the 16 Tech Innovation District as well as massive upgrades at Riverside Regional Park.
From 2010 to 2020, Riverside’s homeownership decreased by a third while its property taxes climbed faster than any other Indianapolis neighborhood. Longtime residents watched as houses went straight from uninhabitable to unaffordable.
De’Amon and Wildstyle brought their community together to see how this familiar pattern could be disrupted.
The two are well known to residents of Riverside. De’Amon is founder and executive director of area non-profit, Roots International, known for asset-based community development. Wildstyle is an artist, educator and cultural ambassador, as familiar to local hip hop artists as he is to city officials.
In 2018, the two joined Central Indiana Community Foundation and Indianapolis Foundation’s Community Ambassadors program, with Wildstyle representing Riverside and De’Amon serving as the program’s overall advisor. Community Ambassadors are trusted neighbors who help connect a community’s biggest dreams with the Collaborative’s biggest resources.
One of those resources is IMPACT Central Indiana, a multi-member LLC created by Central Indiana Community Foundation, The Indianapolis Foundation, and Hamilton County Community Foundation. It provides low-interest loans to community-serving organizations.
In this case, the Indianapolis Foundation and other Collaborative funders utilized IMPACT Central Indiana as a vehicle to secure $325,000 for Roots International to purchase several parcels of land and two historic buildings at the intersection of Harding and Roche streets in Riverside.
In short: De’Amon and Wildstyle had bought their city block.
Along with several empty lots ready for infill, the purchase included reclamation of both the Ritz Lounge and the Hartmann building.
Years ago, the Ritz was one of Indiana Avenue’s notorious small jazz rooms—Black-owned venues that gave audiences a chance to share intimate space with some of the greatest musicians of the day. Though since closed, the Ritz was one of only a few clubs from the Avenue’s golden age to operate well into the 21st century.
The current plan would restore the use of that building as a bar and lounge with future plans to purchase two added properties directly to the south.
Meanwhile, across Roche Street to the north, the Hartmann building still holds traces of its former occupants, including handwritten customer phone numbers and a painted sign on the walls of the French Connection convenience store. Current plans would restore not only a grocery store space but also a credit union, a multi-use arts space, and a new residential addition with 39 units of affordable housing.
“The ultimate idea is to reimagine Black Wall Street in Indianapolis,” De’Amon says. “All along Indiana Avenue, including up Harding Street, you had Black-owned businesses of every kind. We want to recreate that economic landscape in a way that honors and preserves Riverside’s history.”
IMPACT Central Indiana extends large financial tools to communities that are often denied them. It allows for loan repayments at 1% interest over extended time horizons while also combining the financial, social and civic expertise of the Collaborative to get complicated deals done.
“This is a better method of community development that gets around the typical ‘gentrify and displace,’” said Wildstyle. “The Ritz goes back about 80 years as a venue and community gathering place. It’s a legacy.”
Thanks to resources like IMPACT Central Indiana and the Community Ambassadors program, Riverside will be keeping more of its legacy.
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