When I was a kid there just wasn't much reason to visit. That was a few decades ago, but recently business and family have prompted me to make several visits. I found that Indy, as its fiercely proud residents call their hometown, had reinvented itself.
It is now the nation's 12th largest city, bigger than San Francisco, Boston or Washington. I found wonderful museums, terrific hotels, a new downtown mall with fine shopping, and a steakhouse to rival anything in Chicago or Manhattan.
Now, given that Indy is not just next door, I don't expect you to throw down the newspaper and race off to catch the next plane here. But remember Indiana's state motto: ``Crossroads of America.'' Sooner or later you're going to find yourself near here, and I offer this advice: Plan a couple of extra days for Indy.
* Like a lot of American cities, Indianapolis' downtown went into decline during the 1960s and 1970s. Like a lot of cities, Indy has tried to revitalize its downtown. Unlike a lot of cities, Indy actually appears to be succeeding.
About $3 billion in public and private money has been poured into downtown improvements in the last 20 years. New since any of my childhood visits are the RCA Dome, home to the thriving NFL Colts, and Union Station, the refurbished 1888 structure that was one of the nation's first railway depots and now is brimming with shops and restaurants.
There's the seven-year-old Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, one of the few museums of that sort this side of the Mississippi. Its collection, worth more than $40 million, includes works by such well-known artists as Georgia O'Keeffe and Frederic Remington. And, because benefactor Harrison Eiteljorg, a local industrialist and philanthropist, so respected American Indians, there are no scenes of battles between Indians and white men; he always preferred to stress harmony among people. Which, incidentally, is a Hoosier trait.
