Come help us save Rocky Ripple!
Recently the Army Corp of Engineers and the City of Indianapolis drafted a proposal to finish the Indy Levee Project by walling the town of Rocky Ripple off from the rest of the City of Indianapolis. Instead of including Rocky Ripple in the Levee Project, as Rocky Ripple and surrounding communities have requested, the Army Corp and the City of Indianapolis have decided that the best course of action is to leave Rocky Ripple dangling unprotected in a flood way and merely sandbag their outgoing streets in the event of a flood, essentially keeping the water that will surely drown Rocky Ripple from getting out.
This is especially disturbing given the fact that the Army Corp of Engineers has declared that Rocky Ripple is in a 7-year flood plain. Essentially, what the Army Corp of Engineers and the City of Indianapolis are saying is that Rocky Ripple will likely flood in a 7-year time period and very possibly may be destroyed. It’s hard to imagine that an organization like the Army Corp of Engineers, one of whose primary functions is “emergency response to natural disasters,” has created a proposal that will likely create one. What’s more, the City of Indianapolis, the city we all pay taxes too, is riding shotgun on this proposal.
Well, we in Rocky Ripple and surrounding communities don’t agree with this illogic. If the City of Indianapolis and the Army Corp of Engineers has the opportunity to save a vibrant community with over 330 homes and over 700 people, then they should do so. Period. Anyone who has ever visited Rocky Ripple will immediately notice the quaint feel of the town and that it is a very special place, one that has no equal in Indianapolis. It’s a place where everyone DOES know their neighbors and everyone does look out for one another. Rocky Ripple is a community in every sense of the word and has a right to be protected.
So in that vein we invite everyone to come out and join Rocky Ripple and its neighboring communities for a flash mob event. Yes, that’s right, we’re going to get together and give the Army Corp of Engineers and the City of Indianapolis a visual of what they are proposing to do. If they want to see 700 people as good as dead with no homes and no place to go, then so be it. We’ll get together and sandbag our own streets and we’re going to all lay down, just once, for a group photo. We’ll even have a plane flying overhead taking pictures, just in case the cameras at ground level can’t capture all of us. This should be a fun and social event. We’ll even have food trucks available just in case anyone is hungry. Invite your friends too. Our motto is the more the merrier. If you haven’t been to a good protest lately, this is one you won’t want to miss.
When is this going to happen? Saturday August 18th and we will start meeting together at 11:30 AM. We will begin sandbagging at noon and will have a photo op at 1:00 PM.
Where is this going to happen? At the 53rd Street bridge (at the intersection of 53rd and Westfield Blvd) just as you come into the town of Rocky Ripple. We will actually congregate at Holt Park just down 53rd street as you cross the bridge into Rocky Ripple and will move to the bridge from there.