A Conversation with Fountain Square's Rex Fisher
Over the past ten years, Indianapolis has changed quite a bit. Population growth has increased rapidly and downtown has become a more beautiful place to live. When we look at how Indy is changing, people like Rex Fisher come to mind.
Rex has been doing amazing work in Indy since his arrival in Fountain Square nine years ago. He quickly fell in love with this urban community and saw that there was a need for people to make a difference by being a present and active influence in the city.
In the early 2000’s Rex saw a great opportunity in Fountain Square to start buying property in the neighborhood and redeveloping it to attract new residents. While redeveloping properties, Rex also helped start the Fountain Square Music Festival to make the neighborhood feel more like home.
While speaking with Rex, he showed me a picture of the corner of Meridian and Washington Streets six years ago, taken on a Thursday morning. The streets were reminiscent of a ghost town. He showed me a present day picture of the same spot at the same time--and the corner was alive with activity. Rex’s work is connecting more people to Indy. His work shows that when people are connected and in community, the health of our neighborhood communities improves.
As I wrapped up my time with Rex, he explained, “The city can be a scary place to live if you aren’t familiar with it and if you don’t have a connection with the City Gallery or other people who can help to give you an idea of what it is like to live here. You may hear about these different places but you don’t know the realities of the neighborhoods, both the good and bad.” That is why Rex has a passion for assisting people in finding homes downtown and getting them connected.
In Fisher’s words, “The most exciting thing to me is that I know what Indy has accomplished over the last 10 years. I don’t want to speculate, but there’s a lot more coming to this city. We’ll be sitting here in a decade even more surprised at how far this city has come.”
Thanks for making a difference in our city, Rex.