The six towns below all sit within a two-hour drive of downtown Indianapolis, close enough for a quick trip into the city, far enough that housing money goes considerably further. Each one brings something specific to the trade. Frankfort pairs lower-than-state-median home values with a small-town pace and an 18-hole course right next to its top assisted-living campus. Connersville has a working heritage railroad running through downtown and a population where nearly one in five residents is already over 65. Greenville, just over the Ohio line, splits the difference between Indianapolis and Dayton and still keeps a Main Street that earns the name.

Frankfort, IN

About 40 minutes from Indianapolis, Frankfort is one of the best blends of senior resources and affordability around the capital. Rent comes in well below the average inside Indianapolis city limits per Zillow, and home values sit below the state median. Combined with healthcare at IU Health Frankfort Hospital and senior living communities like Wesley Manor, independence in retirement is realistic here.

Things happen at a slower pace, which might be just the speed a senior is looking for in a new community. The historic downtown holds shops and eateries like the locally loved Downtown Diner. For golf, Frankfort Commons Golf Course is a well-maintained 18-hole course right next to the Wesley Manor campus.

Crawfordsville, IN

Crawfordsville sits roughly 55 minutes from downtown Indianapolis and offers an affordable alternative for retirees who want some distance from the city. The proximity keeps seniors connected to a wealth of resources when they’re not using in-town options like emergency and specialty care at Franciscan Health Crawfordsville or social programming at the Crawfordsville Community Center. The cost of living here runs 10% below the national average per the Economic Research Institute, with rent and home values below the state median.

Cultural life is a big draw, much of it tied to Wabash College’s programming. The town was also the home of Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben-Hur, and residents can dig into that history at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum. Outdoor options include Turkey Run State Park’s views and trails or Sugar Creek Nature Park’s nearly 64 acres for birdwatching.

Shelbyville, IN

Shelbyville sits about 35 minutes from downtown Indianapolis. Its centuries-old architecture is a draw, and its commitment to senior living is solid. Ashford Place Health Campus is a top-tier assisted living facility with a life enrichment team on site. Healthcare is conveniently placed via the Indianapolis proximity, with smaller clinics in town for specialty and short-term care. Home values run below the state median per Zillow.

To see the ‘Streets of Old Shelby,’ visit the Grover Center Museum and Historical Society. The free attraction has storefronts from the early 1900s, including a bank, post office, and saloon. The Historic Strand Theatre opened in 1916 and still plays films, hosts concerts, and works as a community gathering spot. A few miles away, Horseshoe Indianapolis offers horse racing and casino games for anyone wanting a livelier change of pace.

Connersville, IN

Connersville has long been a solid option for seniors, which is probably why nearly 20% of the population is over 65. The town sits about an hour and 15 minutes from Indianapolis, a reasonable drive for those commuting regularly. The cost of living offsets the distance, falling below the national average across most categories. If assisted living becomes a need, places like Hickory Creek promote independent living with various levels of assistance.

Standing here since 1813, Connersville blends history and nature for retirees ready for a slower pace. The historic downtown district has a few protected properties, including the Canal House, a museum focused on Fayette County’s history. The Whitewater Valley Railroad runs along the historic Whitewater Canal on diesel locomotives with a direct connection to Metamora. Connersville is also a gateway to Brookville Lake, with 25 miles of shoreline and access for fishing, camping, and hiking.

Greenville, OH

Crossing into Ohio, Greenville sits about an hour and forty-five minutes from Indianapolis and only about 50 minutes from Dayton. The cost of living runs below the national average, including a $650 a month median rent that comes in below what people pay in Indianapolis. Connection is another big draw, starting with Wayne HealthCare’s facilities, which now include a helipad and robotic technology for orthopedic surgeries. For assisted living, Trustwell Senior Living at Oakley Place is a top option.

Greenville works for seniors looking for an American Main Street town. Local history is on display at the Garst Museum & National Annie Oakley Center. The historic downtown has many protected facades and shops including the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe, which has been there since 1934. Greenville also hosts the Great Darke County Fair in August, with entertainment, showcases, rides, and harness racing.

Richmond, IN

About an hour and 15 minutes from downtown Indianapolis, Richmond is one of the most cost-effective and connected options on the entire list. The general cost of living runs below the national average and below Indiana’s average. Reid Health’s campus covers emergency, cardiovascular, orthopedic, and vascular care. The town has multiple senior amenities including Springs of Richmond and the Friends Fellowship Community for retirees who need more attention as they age.

Richmond has historical depth from several angles. Wayne County’s evolution gets the full treatment at the Wayne County Historical Museum, housed in an old Quaker house from the 19th century. Richmond was also home to Gennett Records, a recording studio that produced songs for Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke, now honored at the Gennett Records Walk of Fame. The arts side runs through the Civic Hall Performing Arts Center, with a packed performance calendar from Richmond’s own professional symphony.

Towns near Indianapolis can mean greater savings for seniors without giving up the resources of the big city. Each of the six places listed brings something different, whether it’s the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe in Greenville serving loose meat sandwiches since 1934 or riding the rails on refurbished diesel locomotives from downtown Connersville.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A business owner on the city’s south side on Friday morning reported a theft, saying a person stole thousands of dollars’ worth of Pokémon cards from his store.

Security footage captured the suspect breaking into Grandmaster Games and targeting valuable card collections.

The thief gained entry by breaking through a window and immediately went to a display case containing high-value cards.

The suspect bypassed six other display cases, making a direct route to the owner’s private collection, which included a One Piece card alone worth approximately $12,000. Other stolen cards are valued between $5,000 and $6,000 each.

Alex Bradshaw, owner of Grandmaster Games, said many people underestimate the value of such collectibles. “People think ‘cardboard,’ not really worth a lot. Except for these instances where a bunch of stuff gets taken. You can see the suspect trying to break into the display case, but couldn’t get it open.”

Bradshaw described the suspect’s actions inside the store. “He came over here to where our Pokémon cases are, and he smashed one of our cases that had our ungraded cards. Took the top row of those and moved on to graded cards.”

Approximately 60 Pokémon cards were stolen during the break-in, with their total value estimated to be between $10,000 and $15,000. The suspect was inside the store for only about five or six minutes.

Bradshaw thinks the suspect had prior knowledge of the store’s layout due to the targeted nature of the theft. “Because if you aren’t familiar with my store, you wouldn’t necessarily know to go to this display case because this has stuff of value.”

Grandmaster Games has been in business for about a decade, and it’s the first break-in the store has experienced.

Following the theft, Bradshaw is reconsidering how he displays his valuable collection. “I don’t know if I’m going to completely take this display down because there’s a lot of cool nostalgic stuff from the last 20 years — especially the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! items. But the manga collection is definitely going into the safe. I realize having this stuff out makes me a target.”

With the PopCon Indy convention underway during the weekend at the downtown Indiana Convention Center, Bradshaw was concerned the stolen cards could easily be sold or concealed among other merchandise.

Despite the significant loss, Bradshaw has expressed a desire not to press charges. He attributes the theft to potential desperation and indicated he would rather offer assistance than punishment. “Nobody steals because they want to. They steal because they need to. Most of the time, people are at the end of the rope. They want something easy, which you can’t blame them for wanting something easy. If you need some help, most of us are willing to help one way or another.”

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department encouraged anyone with information regarding the theft to contact them.

Bradshaw said he simply wants his cards returned.

INDIANAPOLIS – Just two days stand between the Indiana Pacers and their offseason-defining date. May 10 is the 2026 NBA Draft lottery, and the Pacers have a 52.1% chance of keeping their first-round draft pick.

If the lottery places the Pacers top selection inside the first four slots, Indiana will keep that draft pick. If it falls to fifth or sixth, the only other possible outcomes, it will be sent to the Los Angeles Clippers as a part of the trade that netted the Pacers center Ivica Zubac.

“We were trying to protect our upside at the top of the draft mostly,” Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan said of the trade and draft pick protections in February. The Pacers would also have kept the first rounder if it landed between 10 and 30, but that became irrelevant after the Pacers ended the season poorly.

Now, the team has roughly a coin flip chance to hang on to their high draft selection this season. They have an offseason plan for any draft lottery outcome, but a top pick would be preferred. Any direction the Pacers go this summer will be determined by their lottery fate.

Buchanan had much more to say about the Pacers offseason during a recent interview on The Ride with JMV on 107.5 The Fan in Indianapolis. “When we made the trade, we knew there was risk involved just as there is in any other trade. But with the draft pick involved, you’ve got to look at the finances of the situation and the scenario where you keep the pick, the scenario where we lose the pick. We felt that both scenarios provided opportunities to help our team be better next year,” he said. The Pacers eyes toward championship contention right now made the trade worth it, even with the draft-related risk. “We feel like we have a team [that]… We’re in that [Contention] mix when we’re healthy.”

What will the Pacers do to stay contenders?

Buchanan admitted that while long-term thinking is generally prudent, the Pacers have a window right now with Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam on the roster. They want to go for it. Losing the top-four pick would hurt, but there are other opportunities for the team to get better.

“Should we lose the pick, there’s other opportunities to improve our team through free agency. We still have trades. We gain a pick that we can use in the future for a trade. We felt like there’s a way to improve our team either way with whatever the ping pong balls, however they fall for us. We’re not putting all of our eggs into one basket, that ‘Hey, if we don’t keep this pick, it’s doom and gloom,’ [thinking], because it’s not,” Buchanan said. “Because there’s other windows and other doors that open with that opportunity. If we do get the pick, obviously it’s a great opportunity to add a young player to this team. The core of it comes down to, Ivica [Zubac] is a great player. We’ve been a big believer, a big fan of him for a long time. This team has shown that it’s capable of doing some really special things, and we were missing a starting center that we felt could keep us in that mix.”

Buchanan and Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle have discussed the two directions the Pacers offseason could take. One is more draft focused, with the team’s major addition obviously being a top-four pick in that case. The other way Indiana could go is into free agency. That’s far more likely if they lose their first-round selection. They could use various salary cap exceptions to add talent in that reality, though the roster would still be expensive and near the luxury tax or first apron.

But if the team isn’t providing lip service about their belief that they have a contention window right now, they shouldn’t care as much about those spending barriers. Rather, they should be focused on adding to the team, and in particular replacing some key roles they’ve lost in the last few seasons.

While the Pacers core remains intact, some of their better reserves have either taken deals elsewhere or been traded across the last few seasons. Zubac replaced Myles Turner, but since the Pacers first made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023-24, they’ve also lost the likes of Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson, Bennedict Mathurin, Doug McDermott, and Thomas Bryant. Along the way, most of those departures made sense for one reason or another – Jackson and Mathurin were traded as matching salary for Zubac, as an example. But the Pacers depth, a superpower in recent campaigns, has slowly dripped away.

That influences their needs in the offseason. “Can I say health? Does that count as a need?” Buchanan joked when asked about what the Pacers need next season. To his point: The Pacers had the second-most games lost due to injury and the most salary lost in player absences.

In terms of actual roster needs, Buchanan identified a few. The departure of Mathurin created a big hole for the team’s second unit, and they have some other questions to answer.

“I think one thing this season revealed for us is the need for some scoring off our bench… Probably from the wing position. Losing (Mathurin), you lose some of that. But I think this team, we have some depth. We still have some holes to fill,” Buchanan began. Some of the projected top-four picks in the upcoming draft could fill that role, as could a free agent acquired using some of the Mid-Level Exception.

Most of the Pacers rotation seems fairly set. Their starting five from the 2025 NBA Finals – minus Turner, plus Zubac – seems fairly set. T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin have obvious roles off the bench. A draft pick could be in the mix, as could one or both of Ben Sheppard and Jarace Walker.

On the interior, Jay Huff currently projects to be the Pacers backup center. Buchanan did mention that position as a possible spot to look at in the offseason.

“I think you look at maybe the five position, do we have a backup center we feel comfortable with? We had (Huff) and (Micah Potter), both had good moments this year. Do we feel good about that position?” Buchanan wondered. Huff’s production given his contract is solid, and he’s never played with Haliburton. But his first season in Indiana was certainly up and down.

Buchanan also mused about the depth of the wing position on his roster, a natural thought with Johnny Furphy injured and Kobe Brown entering free agency. He also mentioned reserve point guard as a possible need – the Pacers cycled through many players in that role during the 2025-26 campaign.

Some of the team’s needs may be filled by internal candidates. And they won’t have a ton of spending power in the offseason. But they will look to make improvements as contenders, and they’ll explore every avenue to make it happen. Including, yes, trading their first-round pick if the right opportunity appears.

“You’ve got to consider everything. If you have a pick up there, you’re looking at obviously who are the players on the board to pick from,” Buchanan began. “But if we can find another player or multiple assets that help us with this team to try to compete for a championship, we’re going to consider everything on that.”

While there will be top-end stability for the Pacers, the offseason could come with changes to the rotation. How those changes look will be determined at Sunday’s draft lottery.