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Broad Ripple merchant Nancy Fels is a victim of bad timing.
Fels bought the Red Tulip shop along the Indianapolis Water Co. canal on July 1, and promptly ordered new carpeting and fixtures to spuce up the place.
Five days later, the city announced its plan to close the parking deck that straddles the canal, and provides access to her business.
"It's absolutely devastating. I bought Red Tulip for its! name and the location," Fels said of her silk flower store at 804 Laverock Road. "I'm literally landlocked. Unless you have a life jacket, you're going to have a hard time getting to me."
Fels believes she will have to relocate if the bridge is not repaired or replaced. Even if she moved to another Broad Ripple location, parking still would be a problem, she said, noting that the neighborhood has only one other sizable parking lot. That lot, behind the Vogue Nightclub, fills up quickly with Vogue patrons, she said.
Fels considers the city's decision surprising, given the economic impact of the taxes paid by the more than 500 businesses in Broad Ripple.
The Broad Ripple Village Association hopes to collect several thousand signatures on a petition to protest the closing of the deck.
However, replacement of the 30-year-old canal deck does not appear likely, said George Lynch, executive assistant to the city' s executive director of transportation. Replacing the deck would cost about $2 million, and repair is impossible because of the deterioration of the deck's understructure, he added.
The deck is a victim of...