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KIB seeks funds to upgrade 66 small green spaces and build three larger parks, cites research on crime reduction
Summary
KIB said its 50th-anniversary capital campaign will finance upgrades to 66 neighborhood green spaces and create three larger sites; CEO Jeremy Kranowitz cited University of Michigan research showing a 12% drop in violent crime near converted vacant lots.
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful told the neighborhood group it plans a capital campaign to upgrade dozens of small community green spaces and to develop three substantially larger sites.
"For our 50th anniversary, we're now raising money so that we can go back to that network of 66 green spaces and... do some significant upgrades," Jeremy Kranowitz, KIB's CEO, said. Kranowitz said the campaign's goals include adding playground equipment, shelters and other long-lived amenities at sites that are currently small and neighborhood-managed.
Kranowitz also cited research partnerships, saying that work with the University of Michigan "has determined that when we convert what was a vacant lot into a community green space, violent crime drops by 12%." He described a 0.5-mile radius of measurable safety improvement around such conversions and noted separate research from the University of Louisville on health benefits.
KIB staff explained that green-space projects are application based, may require landowner permission or stewardship agreements, and are intended to be sustained for a long-term period (KIB aims for a 10-year horizon for green-space viability).
