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I know this much about Black Oak, I hear banjo music each time I go through there. There is a store around Burr street that can sell you Dear meat and maybe some possum if that is to your liking. No kidding, real deal. Rumor had it they got popped last year for selling dog meat but you know how rumors are.
Thats all I know about it. Not very much and not at all flattering.
I was born in Gary, In in 1986. My mom married and moved us to Charleston, SC. I haven't too much luck here and i've been depressed. I want a future and SC is so slow. I was thinking really hard about going back to Gary. I officially moved when i was 5 and i have moved back a few times. I have lived in Charleston a majority of my life though. There is a lot of crime here, but is Gary that bad?? My granny lives there and my father lives in Merriville. I have family all over that area. I do worry about her,because a friend of hers was knocked down her stairs in her home by a perpertrator. There was this guy who pretended to be a cable guy and he targeted elderly and i guess robbed them and beat them. That is sad, Me and my granny are super tight, and i dont wanna hear anything has happened, she lives alone in a big house and is so nice. I don't know, I am thinking about it, because my dad can get me a job in the steel mill.
I was born in Gary, In in 1986. My mom married and moved us to Charleston, SC. I haven't too much luck here and i've been depressed. I want a future and SC is so slow. I was thinking really hard about going back to Gary. I officially moved when i was 5 and i have moved back a few times. I have lived in Charleston a majority of my life though. There is a lot of crime here, but is Gary that bad?? My granny lives there and my father lives in Merriville. I have family all over that area. I do worry about her,because a friend of hers was knocked down her stairs in her home by a perpertrator. There was this guy who pretended to be a cable guy and he targeted elderly and i guess robbed them and beat them. That is sad, Me and my granny are super tight, and i dont wanna hear anything has happened, she lives alone in a big house and is so nice. I don't know, I am thinking about it, because my dad can get me a job in the steel mill.
It's up to you, but if I knew my grandma was being threatened in any way, I'd act.
Ok, I decided I had to reply to this, both to clear up your misconceptions based on a brief pass through the area, and to give the poster who asked about Black Oak a better, more useful answer to the question.
First, to respond to the "Deliverance" comment. Would you denigrate a foreign culture after passing through and finding they eat monkey brains? Some do, you know. Rocky mountain oysters are popular and considered a gourmet item in this country, yet I wouldn't touch them. Do you know what they are? And deer (not dear) meat is frequently called venison (I won't get into the whole background of the word usage, but venison is now mainly used as a synonym for deer meat). Guess what? I can buy venison at my local grocery stores where I now live here in Maryland. Suburban Maryland, not rural. I live in the area that is pretty much one city right after another halfway between between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. They also sell bison - buffalo meat. No possum, I'll admit that is a little more exotic taste, but I did see rabbit at the store last night.
A lot of the families in Black Oak have been there for several generations. Some of the older folks grew up and lived during the Depression. They hunted and ate whatever they could to survive. And the area was a lot less developed back then. How do I know all of this. From my grandparents on both sides of my family, though mostly my dad's mom. She grew up down in Kentucky, and moved up to Indiana when she got married. Possum, rabbit, squirrel - yes, there are people that do eat those sorts of things. It's game, it can be hunted, and it's perfectly good food. We don't tend to eat it now because times have changed, hunting has changed, we are more "civilized". But none of that makes it any more wrong than eating beef. Or makes those who developed a taste for it because they grew up on it (and there are probably younger people who enjoy the taste too, because their parents and grandparents cooked it for them) ignorant, "Deliverance"-type hillbillies.
The ignorance is on the other side here.
________________
Now, for the poster who asked about Black Oak -
It has it's good points and it's bad points. I can't really tell you if it's the place for you. I'll tell you what I know about it, and suggest you take a look around and see if you can find a place that's a match for you there or not.
I grew up there. When I was growing up, it was THE stero-typical American small town. We decorated our bikes for the parade on the Fourth of July, my dad rode the firetruck in the parade and threw candy (he was a volunteer fireman), and there was a big town picnic after the parade. To give you an idea of the timeframe, I graduated from high school in 1984. So this was long after most of these small towns had faded away - at least in a more suburban setting like where Black Oak is.
But the area has definitely changed. As you can see from what I said above, I no longer live there. After college, to get a job in my field, I had no choice but to move away, so I'm in Maryland. But my whole family still lives in the area, and my parents still live in Black Oak. They've lived in the house they are in now for about 45 years, and have both lived in Black Oak their whole lives.
So... the good? It is a pretty quiet, peaceful place. Now despite what I said defending the choice of types of meat above, I probably wouldn't shop in the store where that poster found those meats (I'm pretty sure I know which store he's talking about, though I wouldn't say it's near Burr..then again, maybe someone else opened up another store. But the one I'm thinking of is not too clean, so I wouldn't buy meat, or probably anything else there.) Stores right there in Black Oak aren't really anything you'd want to shop at, but you don't have to go very far at all to get to a store to be able to get anything you need.
As far as crime - even though it is actually a part of Gary (I'll explain all that in a minute), there really is a minimum of "real" crime in Black Oak. Not anymore than anywhere else in the region, with the exception of Gary proper, which has a lot more. What do I mean by "real" crime? Some people might point you to some murders that have happened in Black Oak. But really, most things that have happened there other than a house getting broken into once in a while (which happens anywhere, and even then, I think in most of those cases, the theives knew something about the target houses and knew there was something worth getting there), have been between people that knew each other.
Over all the years my parents have been where they live, they have had the garage broken into once (I don't remember what got stolen out of the garage, but I don't think it was much. My parents think it was someone who was looking for something they had seen in my parents' yard that they thought was in the garage, but which was no longer even at the property at all.) To be honest, that's all I can remember happening. Maybe something minor, like lawn chairs or lawn ornaments being stolen, or something like that, but really, that's about it.
My parents do have friends in Black Oak that have had more problems like break-ins and such than they have had. The common factor? Pretty much all of them had kids or grandkids that were either into drugs or hung around friends into drugs. There were three of us kids, and we were welcome to bring home anyone we wanted. But none of us would associate with anyone that would cause us or our family any problems. It's just the way we were. And we never seemed to have problems.
Housing there can be VERY inexpensive. And you can find really nice places at very reasonable prices. You might have to really look around a bit first, but if you decide it's a worthwhile place to live, there are good deal to be had.
Now, the bad... the police and fire service come from Gary. There is no volunteer fire department anymore. This means that police and fire response can be slow. But heck, from things I've seen, that's true a whole lot of places too. Still, not great.
The roads generally suck. Since service is from Gary, that's where the money to fix the roads come from. Gary is happy to take the tax money, but they don't like to spend any of it on Black Oak. I'll come to the politics of this in a bit.
When you look at Black Oak, it generally looks run down. It generally is. It's an old community. The houses are old, and look it. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, but - a lot of people have just let everything go, and so a lot of it really looks bad.
You may have trouble finding a house that has been well-kept enough. People have trouble selling in Black Oak, and so many have rented out, and the renters just trash the places. Or people just abandon them, leave them for sale, or they go up for sale at tax auctions, but they haven't been maintained. You may have to look a while to find a place that is in good enough shape and not surrounded by real messes.
Like any area there are areas that are better than others. I haven't lived there in too long, so I can't tell you where is good and where is not. You'd be better off to just drive around and decide for yourself.
Ambulances - I'm not sure what the response time is for an ambulance, but... when you call one with 911, they are going to want to take you, of course, to the nearest hospital. The problem with that? It's going to be the Gary hospital (I forget the name). That is not where you want someone to go. If you live in Black Oak and need an ambulance - well, obviously, if it's a time-critical emergency, you have to call 911. If that's the case, if they get the person stabilized enough, you might try to convince them to go to East Chicago instead - it really is almost as close, but they will still fight you on it. If you can afford to do it, call a private ambulance instead, so you can go where you want. And research ahead of time which hospitals are good for what, so you know where to tell them to go.
Finally, resale value on property... well, it's non-existant.
Ok, this has been a long post. But I do want to give you the political background so you know what you'd be dealing with. Black Oak is really an unofficial name for the area. It was never an officially incorporated town. A number of years ago (I think I was in junior high at the time) Gary decided to annex Black Oak and make it a part of the city of Gary. The people of Black Oak fought it. As long as they were NOT a part of Gary, they were covered by Lake County police, and were allowed to have their own volunteer Fire Department, which worked quite well. If I remember correctly, they fought off the annexation effort successfully for several years, but Hatcher (the mayor at the time) kept pushing and pushing. Every time it was successfully fought off, he would appeal and try again. And eventually, he won. It's darn near impossible to fight something like that. That's when Black Oak went downhill. Everyone in Black Oak knew that the politicians in Gary wanted the tax money from Black Oak, and that considering how bad service was in Gary, Black Oak would really get the short stick as far as getting anything back in the way of service. And that's exactly what happened. It's been this long, and the fire department STILL gets lost trying to get to a fire in Black Oak.
So, as I said, I really can't advise you whether or not it would be a good place for you to live. For someone young with kids, trying to build up wealth and just starting out, no, I really wouldn't recommend it. But I don't think right now there's much career future there either.
But in your position, where you already have a job, at your stage in life.... I think it depends on how you feel about what I've posted about the good and the bad. It certainly is a good place to get a low-income house, make it a nice place, and be able to save up more money for retirement income instead of spending it on housing. Although, make sure you check out the tax rates on any property too - I remember my parents saying something about tax rates going up recently and I don't know how that would affect things.
I went to high school in the South Bend area and would sometimes take trips with my friends to Chicago. To get there, you drive right by Gary. My mother made me swear on my life that I would not exit the highway near Gary for ANY reason when passing. It IS that bad.
That being said...I have no doubt that there are intelligent, friendly people there who are sadly caught in the cycle of poverty. Instead of judging the residents and blaming them for all of the problems, maybe the government could actually DO something to help people get out of that cycle and bring more stable business back into the city (besides the steel mills). Or maybe hire some more cops.
Ok, I decided I had to reply to this, both to clear up your misconceptions based on a brief pass through the area, and to give the poster who asked about Black Oak a better, more useful answer to the question.
First, to respond to the "Deliverance" comment. Would you denigrate a foreign culture after passing through and finding they eat monkey brains? Some do, you know. Rocky mountain oysters are popular and considered a gourmet item in this country, yet I wouldn't touch them. Do you know what they are? And deer (not dear) meat is frequently called venison (I won't get into the whole background of the word usage, but venison is now mainly used as a synonym for deer meat). Guess what? I can buy venison at my local grocery stores where I now live here in Maryland. Suburban Maryland, not rural. I live in the area that is pretty much one city right after another halfway between between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. They also sell bison - buffalo meat. No possum, I'll admit that is a little more exotic taste, but I did see rabbit at the store last night.
A lot of the families in Black Oak have been there for several generations. Some of the older folks grew up and lived during the Depression. They hunted and ate whatever they could to survive. And the area was a lot less developed back then. How do I know all of this. From my grandparents on both sides of my family, though mostly my dad's mom. She grew up down in Kentucky, and moved up to Indiana when she got married. Possum, rabbit, squirrel - yes, there are people that do eat those sorts of things. It's game, it can be hunted, and it's perfectly good food. We don't tend to eat it now because times have changed, hunting has changed, we are more "civilized". But none of that makes it any more wrong than eating beef. Or makes those who developed a taste for it because they grew up on it (and there are probably younger people who enjoy the taste too, because their parents and grandparents cooked it for them) ignorant, "Deliverance"-type hillbillies.
The ignorance is on the other side here.
________________
Now, for the poster who asked about Black Oak -
It has it's good points and it's bad points. I can't really tell you if it's the place for you. I'll tell you what I know about it, and suggest you take a look around and see if you can find a place that's a match for you there or not.
I grew up there. When I was growing up, it was THE stero-typical American small town. We decorated our bikes for the parade on the Fourth of July, my dad rode the firetruck in the parade and threw candy (he was a volunteer fireman), and there was a big town picnic after the parade. To give you an idea of the timeframe, I graduated from high school in 1984. So this was long after most of these small towns had faded away - at least in a more suburban setting like where Black Oak is.
But the area has definitely changed. As you can see from what I said above, I no longer live there. After college, to get a job in my field, I had no choice but to move away, so I'm in Maryland. But my whole family still lives in the area, and my parents still live in Black Oak. They've lived in the house they are in now for about 45 years, and have both lived in Black Oak their whole lives.
So... the good? It is a pretty quiet, peaceful place. Now despite what I said defending the choice of types of meat above, I probably wouldn't shop in the store where that poster found those meats (I'm pretty sure I know which store he's talking about, though I wouldn't say it's near Burr..then again, maybe someone else opened up another store. But the one I'm thinking of is not too clean, so I wouldn't buy meat, or probably anything else there.) Stores right there in Black Oak aren't really anything you'd want to shop at, but you don't have to go very far at all to get to a store to be able to get anything you need.
As far as crime - even though it is actually a part of Gary (I'll explain all that in a minute), there really is a minimum of "real" crime in Black Oak. Not anymore than anywhere else in the region, with the exception of Gary proper, which has a lot more. What do I mean by "real" crime? Some people might point you to some murders that have happened in Black Oak. But really, most things that have happened there other than a house getting broken into once in a while (which happens anywhere, and even then, I think in most of those cases, the theives knew something about the target houses and knew there was something worth getting there), have been between people that knew each other.
Over all the years my parents have been where they live, they have had the garage broken into once (I don't remember what got stolen out of the garage, but I don't think it was much. My parents think it was someone who was looking for something they had seen in my parents' yard that they thought was in the garage, but which was no longer even at the property at all.) To be honest, that's all I can remember happening. Maybe something minor, like lawn chairs or lawn ornaments being stolen, or something like that, but really, that's about it.
My parents do have friends in Black Oak that have had more problems like break-ins and such than they have had. The common factor? Pretty much all of them had kids or grandkids that were either into drugs or hung around friends into drugs. There were three of us kids, and we were welcome to bring home anyone we wanted. But none of us would associate with anyone that would cause us or our family any problems. It's just the way we were. And we never seemed to have problems.
Housing there can be VERY inexpensive. And you can find really nice places at very reasonable prices. You might have to really look around a bit first, but if you decide it's a worthwhile place to live, there are good deal to be had.
Now, the bad... the police and fire service come from Gary. There is no volunteer fire department anymore. This means that police and fire response can be slow. But heck, from things I've seen, that's true a whole lot of places too. Still, not great.
The roads generally suck. Since service is from Gary, that's where the money to fix the roads come from. Gary is happy to take the tax money, but they don't like to spend any of it on Black Oak. I'll come to the politics of this in a bit.
When you look at Black Oak, it generally looks run down. It generally is. It's an old community. The houses are old, and look it. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, but - a lot of people have just let everything go, and so a lot of it really looks bad.
You may have trouble finding a house that has been well-kept enough. People have trouble selling in Black Oak, and so many have rented out, and the renters just trash the places. Or people just abandon them, leave them for sale, or they go up for sale at tax auctions, but they haven't been maintained. You may have to look a while to find a place that is in good enough shape and not surrounded by real messes.
Like any area there are areas that are better than others. I haven't lived there in too long, so I can't tell you where is good and where is not. You'd be better off to just drive around and decide for yourself.
Ambulances - I'm not sure what the response time is for an ambulance, but... when you call one with 911, they are going to want to take you, of course, to the nearest hospital. The problem with that? It's going to be the Gary hospital (I forget the name). That is not where you want someone to go. If you live in Black Oak and need an ambulance - well, obviously, if it's a time-critical emergency, you have to call 911. If that's the case, if they get the person stabilized enough, you might try to convince them to go to East Chicago instead - it really is almost as close, but they will still fight you on it. If you can afford to do it, call a private ambulance instead, so you can go where you want. And research ahead of time which hospitals are good for what, so you know where to tell them to go.
Finally, resale value on property... well, it's non-existant.
Ok, this has been a long post. But I do want to give you the political background so you know what you'd be dealing with. Black Oak is really an unofficial name for the area. It was never an officially incorporated town. A number of years ago (I think I was in junior high at the time) Gary decided to annex Black Oak and make it a part of the city of Gary. The people of Black Oak fought it. As long as they were NOT a part of Gary, they were covered by Lake County police, and were allowed to have their own volunteer Fire Department, which worked quite well. If I remember correctly, they fought off the annexation effort successfully for several years, but Hatcher (the mayor at the time) kept pushing and pushing. Every time it was successfully fought off, he would appeal and try again. And eventually, he won. It's darn near impossible to fight something like that. That's when Black Oak went downhill. Everyone in Black Oak knew that the politicians in Gary wanted the tax money from Black Oak, and that considering how bad service was in Gary, Black Oak would really get the short stick as far as getting anything back in the way of service. And that's exactly what happened. It's been this long, and the fire department STILL gets lost trying to get to a fire in Black Oak.
So, as I said, I really can't advise you whether or not it would be a good place for you to live. For someone young with kids, trying to build up wealth and just starting out, no, I really wouldn't recommend it. But I don't think right now there's much career future there either.
But in your position, where you already have a job, at your stage in life.... I think it depends on how you feel about what I've posted about the good and the bad. It certainly is a good place to get a low-income house, make it a nice place, and be able to save up more money for retirement income instead of spending it on housing. Although, make sure you check out the tax rates on any property too - I remember my parents saying something about tax rates going up recently and I don't know how that would affect things.
...uh, the cities you mention all have significant African-American populations!! Once a city starts to crumble, the rule of law gets abandoned and hapless governments try to use SMEs and corporations to compensate for moral and social decay, those firms levae and with them the tax money to support a city government. A hundred years ago, Gary would have already become a ghost town. Today....cities like Gary are effectively ghost towns, with living ghosts who don;t know that they are already dead.
Solution: (1) stop all welfare payments in the city; (2) invite a major coporation to set up on unincorporated land next to Gary with major tax incentives; (3) Let this major corporation hire from Gary with few restrictions.
Those in Gary who really want to work an honest job will self-select to work for the firm. Those who cannot be bothered, will soon run out of cash and drift somewhere else until death or a hunger so bad they join the adult world of work.
But let me tell you, the incentives of setting up a business in Gary are so horrible that it will take a mayor with brass balls willing to air out lots of ditry laundry before the city gets turned around organically. But that won;t happen...insted what we will see is the area deyaing further and further easy year. Very, very sad..especially when the answers are so darn obvious...
it could be done
it would be great for tourism of NWI
with the dunes not being so far
it would be a nice asset to indiana otherwise i heard many call it the armpit of america.
Granted, while it's not always been viewed the best place to live, due to recent events it's still one of the dryest.
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Black oak huh?
I don't know
