In this post-manufacturing era, Ball State University, alongside Ball Memorial Hospital, is one of the two largest employers in the city of Muncie. When school is in session, it increases the population of Muncie by more than 30 percent and therefore wields enormous influence in the community.
In the past decade, Ball State has been beautifying the campus to make it more student- and pedestrian-friendly. McKinley Avenue hasn't always had wide sidewalks and a nice double-lane divided by a median; five years ago, before the reconstruction project began, it was a strip of concrete just like it is now south of Riverside. The cowpath wasn't always a wide avenue connecting LaFollette to Riverside; before the Art and Journalism Building was built Berwyn Road crossed the sidewalk there and teed into McKinley.
At the same time, Muncie has been working fastidiously to improve its downtown. For those students who have been downtown, it wasn't always clean and neat. Time was, the Muncie downtown had a bad case of urban blight. This change has happened in my lifetime; it's gone from being a place where Muncie residents were afraid to set foot to a place where companies do business and people go on dates.
Downtown has been successfully rehabilitated. Though Muncie must continue to care for the area, the city needs to turn its attention to a new challenge: the strip of businesses along McGalliard. As IN 332 enters the city, travelers are greeted with a sign proclaiming, "Welcome to Muncie!" and then drive through heavy traffic along a band of concrete with no human appeal.
This is no downtown, no ailing shell of a district. This is a thriving, bustling area, which must generate generous tax dollars and provide much employment. The challenge, then, is not rehabilitation; it is redirection of the growth. Muncie needs to reinvest in the infrastructure of the area to beautify it-but, more importantly, Muncie needs to make the McGalliard strip pedestrian-friendly.
This is where Ball State comes in. Currently, students who live off campus do business in Muncie. Given Ball State's location, the only option right now open to on-campus residents without a car is to take a MITS bus from campus to the mall or to Wal-Mart. Once there, students stay there because the lack of sidewalks make it inconvenient, even dangerous, to walk along McGalliard as the highway is now configured.
Rejuvenated pedestrianism along McGalliard will make hard-to-reach businesses more accessible to students and Muncie residents, thus bringing more business to those areas. It will decrease local traffic along those streets, making life more convenient and reducing pollution.
The investment in the local economy that this rejuvenation represents will create jobs and stimulate growth. The beautification of this district will give Muncie an excellent image, help with first impressions and make the area more pleasant to be in, which will also spur business growth and consumption. And finally, investment in pedestrian infrastructure will reduce the demand for fuel in Muncie and help prepare the city for the inevitable rise of gasoline prices.
Therefore, Ball State University should apply its overwhelming influence and pressure the Muncie government to begin investigating such restructuring as an option in bettering the city, for it will better the city, and in the process help the university in return.
Write to Neal at necoleman@bsu.edu
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