The Journal & Courier has a story about the Wabash River Enhancement Corporation, an organization devoted to planning for the river’s future in the area. The organization is raising money to develop a master plan through a study conducted by an independent firm with public input.
Health, recreation, education, economic development and environmental management will all be part of that master plan.
. . .
Part of that plan will be the approximately 450 acres the city owns along the riverfront from Riehle Plaza to Sagamore Parkway, Dennis said.
“We’re looking at park related ideas,” Carson said. “We’re still in the idea stage.”
Even though it’s long-term, this is still pretty exciting stuff for me. It seems like the river should be a major feature for Lafayette and West Lafayette. To me, it seems largely ignored at the moment. For all I know, though, this could be for good reason. Maybe the Wabash is just too mean and unpredictable for any kind of major development.
Right now, we have Riehle Plaza and the foot bridge over the river to West Lafayette. A fair distance west of the River, in West Lafayette, major development has taken place along what we call the Levy: a hotel, some restaurants, and shops. Closer to the river, there is a playground and a fair amount of park ground. On the west bank, aside from the plaza, there isn’t much to speak of — mainly just old development slapped up seemingly in spite of rather than because of the river. Along the river is a path that varies between paved and dirt and the quality of both varies considerably as well.
With no idea about environmental feasibility or impact, I have visions of open green space with good views of the river backed with restaurants and bars with open air seating. I’d like green spaces where people congregate, watch and get watched; where people exercise and play with music and general commotion in the background. Maybe get the Wabash cleaned up enough for safe swimming and light boating and whatnot. Maybe we could learn a trick or two from the Pearl Street mall area in Boulder, Colorado.
The river is kind of mean and unpredictable. When I was a kid, 43 flooded every year from Wabash Hospital all the way to Happy Hollow Road, and there was also the city golf course that was flooded for an entire summer a couple of years ago. If they put some kind of flood control into the river, that would be one thing, but without that, who wants to put money into developing something that’s going to end up under water every year?
If they could do something like what Cincinnati and Kentucky have around the Ohio River, that would be cool, but I think a lot of that is set back and over the river enough to make it more feasible.
I went to purdue and graduated in 1988. Since then they have done a lot with Wabash Landing since then.
Tapawingo Park is really nice and if it floods it is no biggie. They just come in with snow removal equipment and fix it back up.
We created a website for the Wabash at http://www.WabashRiver.us. We camped out in Tapawingo park when we went through. I rank me going into town for supplies in my brubby state as the highlight of the trip.