Social Commentary on the Wall
Topic: Hoosier Oddities
Posted: Fri, Jul 15, 2005 
For years some Indianapolis citizen with a social conscience has been painting the low retaining wall at the edge of a parking lot on College, near 38th Street. Typically, the messages have been pleas for tolerance, education and positive change. After Indianapolis had local race riots in the late 90's, the wall carried a quote from Rodney King: "Why can't we all just get along?" Lately the messages have become more overtly political in nature.
I get the impression the wall's message isn't shared by everyone; for the last several years, a car has been regularly parked in front of the wall during the day, blocking the writing from being seen by passing cars.
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Comments
1. Jul 15, 05 09:19 PM | j c klee said:
I know the wall well. It's not that far from my house.
One of my favorite quotes was "Don't Fall, Prey."
The College Ave "mini-riot" you refer to occurred duing the summer of '95. I remember the date because it was the same year a disturbance broke out at Deer Creek when deadheads stormed the fences at the concert facility when they couldn't get tickets. Jerry Garcia died about a month later.
The whole deal was weird. The Spring before the riot, I remember reading about the agressive tactics of the Indianapolis Police Department in the New York Times. Not a word of this program was mentioned in the Star. Once the disturbance happened the intense police presence was brought to light here locally.
so much for zero tolerance policies...
2. Jul 27, 05 10:20 AM | stAllio! said:
i live about one block from that wall. i'm not a big fan of this particular message, not because i don't agree with it (which i do), but because i don't really like the rebus-like way it's phrased. sure, rebuses (sp?) are fun, and i used to have a great time trying to solve them in games magazine, but when you're driving north on college, in the middle of the god-awful stew of 38th street construction, there just isn't enough time to read and decipher the whole sign (the parked car doesn't really help either). in fact, despite living so extremely close, this is the first time i've even seen the "kids first" part of the message.
3. Sep 17, 05 10:02 PM | Danny Chavez Jr. said:
I live in the neighborhood a couple of blocks away on Park Ave, and I think that this slogan is the worst I've seen in the last decade I've been aware of the wall. I agree with the message, but the way it is written betrays the meaning. The quality and originality of the artwork and slogans on the wall has decreased somewhat in the past few years overall. At lest we still have 'dancing man' on 38th and College during the warm months.