THE FUTURE OF THE EVANSVILLE RIVERFRONT
Second In A Series by Johnny Kincaid
MAY 23, 2024
E-REP has created a 655-page document outlining an ambitious multi-decade plan for Newburgh, Mt. Vernon, and Evansville. This series will convey an overview of the project and what it means for our community’s future.
Under the plan, the Evansville riverfront, from the Evansville Museum to the LST, would undergo a major redesign. The goal is to attract new residents to live downtown with an active, vibrant waterfront featuring outdoor activities, shopping, and dining options.
The walk along the river will provide breathtaking views of the Ohio River from the elevated canopy walk, access for kayaks and jet skis, a riverfront playground, sports fields, and more.
Some familiar sites will remain but may be relocated. The Four Freedoms Monument would be moved two blocks to the intersection of Riverside and Main, and the Rail Road museum will also be moved.
Traffic patterns would change, and Riverside Drive would be reduced from four lanes to two lanes with parking on each side of the street.
Two residential developments are planned on the riverfront, and about a dozen additional buildings are planned along Court and Walnut Streets.
The plan allows for a thirty-year implementation, divided into short-, medium-, and long-term accomplishments. In the first five years, we might see changes to traffic on Riverside Drive and work to begin transforming Dress Plaza into a riverfront park. Over time, there would be a series of upgrades and improvements along the riverfront.
The best way that we can explain the full scope of the project on the Evansville riverfront is to show you. In an upcoming “This Week in Evansville” podcast, we’ll take you on a walk along Riverside to point out what stays, what goes, and what gets moved. That episode will be posted on the City-County Observer.
What will it all cost? Estimates from people who have examined the plan place the final cost of this project at about $600 million. In a future installment, we’ll examine where the money will come from.
Like others, I was eagerly awaiting the release of the E-Rep report outlining a future vision for Evansville’s Riverfront. Unfortunately, there was another glaring discrepancy in the outline presented for implementation in this latest master plan. I am referring to the wished-for removal of the unsightly rockpile known as Mulzer’s stone adjacent to Bally’s property at the bend in the river. There are so many more suitable projects that could replace that eyesore on Evansville’s Riverfront, yet upon the completion of the most recent study…no effort was even given to promote the extinction of that God-awful rock pile that has occupied/stained a prime piece of riverfront property for decades. You would think after all the millions of taxpayers dollars spent on downtown over the past 30 years that someone in a position of power would devise a plan to rid our otherwise beautiful riverfront of that nasty pile of rubbish known as Mulzers. A couple of mid-rise Senior Housing Towers would vastly improve the look of that area. And such a residential development would also bring new life to that section of downtown Evansville. To allow that rock pile to exist is a pathetic example of why downtown Evansville is incapable of realizing its full potential regardless of how much money is spent revitalizing the city center. Come on, Evansville, you deserve better.
The city should use some of this Federal money to replace the crumbling city sidewalks that are over 100 years old .
Recently my adult son with Myotonic Dystrophy had a terrible fall because of the terrible city sidewalks .
New sidewalks in Evansville do not comply with ADA rules also .
E ain’t for Everyone !
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