What is the deal - Gary, IN (Indianapolis, Portage: crime, house)

[WildWestDude]

found more on Gary here:

Urban exploration: Gary, Indiana, ghost town

[artemis]

There's nothing wrong with Valpo.

[CHICAGOLAND92]

I guess Lt. Dan must be talking about problems with the schools. While they're nice schools, they do have some students who smoke pot and drink. But then again, that's at every public school.

Gary could easily be a tourist destination. Location on the Lake, accessible from I-65/80/94, etc. Remove the unkempt steel mills from along the lake, and either convert the area into a beach on one side with shops, homes, and businesses on the other side, with a street being what separates the two.

Gary has a lot of art deco architecture in certain neighborhoods - think about how nice the areas would look if they weren't so bombed out. A lot of people like to play the race card and say it's the black's fault for moving into the city. That's not the case. While the black population in Gary increased, the steel industry also decreased. Drugs also became a problem. As of today, not many retailers are located in Gary because of crime, and low per capita income. But I tell you, the person who starts to transform Gary will surely reap the benefits.

[WildWestDude]

Originally Posted by CHICAGOLAND92

I guess Lt. Dan must be talking about problems with the schools. While they're nice schools, they do have some students who smoke pot and drink. But then again, that's at every public school.

Gary could easily be a tourist destination. Location on the Lake, accessible from I-65/80/94, etc. Remove the unkempt steel mills from along the lake, and either convert the area into a beach on one side with shops, homes, and businesses on the other side, with a street being what separates the two.

Gary has a lot of art deco architecture in certain neighborhoods - think about how nice the areas would look if they weren't so bombed out. A lot of people like to play the race card and say it's the black's fault for moving into the city. That's not the case. While the black population in Gary increased, the steel industry also decreased. Drugs also became a problem. As of today, not many retailers are located in Gary because of crime, and low per capita income. But I tell you, the person who starts to transform Gary will surely reap the benefits.

You are kidding right?
Or maybe you're smoking something? j/k
Gary is so down and out that there is no turning back.
I fail to understand the reasoning for burning and destroying a city and then after decades wanting to rebuild it.
And don't tell me it wasn't ruined because that is exactly what happened.
Perhaps the best use for the area is to let the old swamps of Lake Michigan reclaim the land. Humans for sure don't deserve another chance.

[WildWestDude]

quote
"A lot of people like to play the race card and say it's the black's fault for moving into the city. That's not the case. While the black population in Gary increased, the steel industry also decreased. Drugs also became a problem. As of today, not many retailers are located in Gary because of crime, and low per capita income"

I am afraid you might have just played the race card yourself without perhaps realizing it.

I guess it was an alien race from out of space that did the damage.
If the economy turned south, buildings did not have to be burned, people killed and raped and the city just destroyed. I believe they came from Mars and smoked dope.

[southwest1230]

portage isn't bad either....I think you may mean suburbanization...but thats not gary.

[CHICAGOLAND92]

Originally Posted by WildWestDude

You are kidding right?
Or maybe you're smoking something? j/k
Gary is so down and out that there is no turning back.
I fail to understand the reasoning for burning and destroying a city and then after decades wanting to rebuild it.
And don't tell me it wasn't ruined because that is exactly what happened.
Perhaps the best use for the area is to let the old swamps of Lake Michigan reclaim the land. Humans for sure don't deserve another chance.

Gary is literally minutes from Chicago. You want to rebuild land that's already in use so you don't have to squander farm land to build suburban style housing and strip malls, you know? Some areas of Gary don't even have but one house on a block...Why not use that land for houses instead? Gary just needs someone to take the city in the right direction. Look at Detroit for example. Detroit's making strides to become what it once was in it's hey day. It won't happen overnight, but it's definitely working. A lot of money has been put into downtown and surrounding areas in recent years. I believe Gary can do the same, especially given it's location.

Originally Posted by WildWestDude

quote
"A lot of people like to play the race card and say it's the black's fault for moving into the city. That's not the case. While the black population in Gary increased, the steel industry also decreased. Drugs also became a problem. As of today, not many retailers are located in Gary because of crime, and low per capita income"

I am afraid you might have just played the race card yourself without perhaps realizing it.

I guess it was an alien race from out of space that did the damage.
If the economy turned south, buildings did not have to be burned, people killed and raped and the city just destroyed. I believe they came from Mars and smoked dope.

Right. Hammond must be a wonderful city all around then, right? I mean, they DO have a smaller percentage of people from Mars then Gary does.

Buildings are burned in Chicago, New York, DC, Camden, basically any city in the U.S. Are they destroyed? Plenty of people in NWI smoke dope. People won't invest in Gary because of lower income families dominating the city (due to the fact that the manufacturing industry, the city's main employer). If schools, neighborhoods, and infastructure improved in Gary, plenty would move there instead of far out suburbs like CP, Valpo, etc.

[artemis]

Originally Posted by CHICAGOLAND92

I guess Lt. Dan must be talking about problems with the schools. While they're nice schools, they do have some students who smoke pot and drink. But then again, that's at every public school.

Gary could easily be a tourist destination. Location on the Lake, accessible from I-65/80/94, etc. Remove the unkempt steel mills from along the lake, and either convert the area into a beach on one side with shops, homes, and businesses on the other side, with a street being what separates the two.

Gary has a lot of art deco architecture in certain neighborhoods - think about how nice the areas would look if they weren't so bombed out. A lot of people like to play the race card and say it's the black's fault for moving into the city. That's not the case. While the black population in Gary increased, the steel industry also decreased. Drugs also became a problem. As of today, not many retailers are located in Gary because of crime, and low per capita income. But I tell you, the person who starts to transform Gary will surely reap the benefits.

Most kids try pot at least once before graduation. Its become a Rite of Passage for many years. Ditto on the drinking. I'm not saying its ok, I'm saying it doesn't surprise me, and doesn't necessarily make a school bad.

Gary had two Frank Lloyd Wright homes on the near West-side. What a shame that one fell into a severe state of disrepair. One man bought it and tried like crazy to bring it back to its former glory, but he ran out of money and had a hard time raising the funds to finish.

[WildWestDude]

Quote

"Gary is literally minutes from Chicago. You want to rebuild land that's already in use so you don't have to squander farm land to build suburban style housing and strip malls, you know? Some areas of Gary don't even have but one house on a block...Why not use that land for houses instead? Gary just needs someone to take the city in the right direction. Look at Detroit for example. Detroit's making strides to become what it once was in it's hey day. It won't happen overnight, but it's definitely working. A lot of money has been put into downtown and surrounding areas in recent years. I believe Gary can do the same, especially given it's location. "


There are indeed more empty lots in Gary than buildings. In those lots were at one time beautiful homes and neighborhoods that people safely walked along. Those did not go down by themselves, people ruined them. Mayor Richard Hatcher was suppose to make that change to the right direction you talked about.
Sure, industry provided less jobs, but THAT IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE DESTRUCTION THAT HAPPENED IN GARY. (we are talking about Gary here not Hammond)
There are plenty of bedroom communities where people live in them but not work there.
Gary could have stayed that way even when the job market went south. Merriville was developed by those fleeing and thrived. They would have stayed in Gary even though the jobs became fewer. But fearing for their safety they fled. Those same people did not have those jobs when they moved to Merriville. Many that lost the steel jobs, left the region never to come back.
You see some "aliens" were set on destruction and blamed and are still blaming others.

However, I do see that the proximity to the metro area can provide a better future for Gary. If it would also become a safe city first. But, wait, some of these "aliens" were not to blame in the first place. They did not murder, burn, rape, destroy and smoke dope.
First we have to admit the wrongs in the past and then go on. Let's not blame low income and industry alone. Those are more excuses than anything else. They did not provide the gun,dope, matchstick and bulldozer that pushed Gary over the edge.

[domergurl]

I think we can all agree that Gary is a mess, oui? It didn't happen overnight either. The 70's were not kind to the steelbelt, Gary, Cleveland, Erie. Fortunately, Cleveland was a major city to begin with that had other industries going for it. I'm not sure how great Erie is now, but when I went through it in the late 80's, it didn't look too great either.

You can't do anything with the steel mills. Can you imagine the superfund issues involved? Nobody would be able to build a darn thing on that land. So, sorry, those mills are staying put. It would be cheaper to have them idle than to deal with the environmental catastrophe trying to clean it all up and build houses/beaches/shopping ...

It doesn't help either, that Lake County has long been consider the ugly stepchild of this state. Trust me, if Gary were located within spitting distance of Indianapolis, it would never have gotten so bad.

I have to give Gary credit, they try. That baseball stadium is really nice, but it's a major uphill battle trying to convince companies to move their businesses into Gary. I seem to recall an AJ Wright store moved into Gary a few years back. Is it still there?

Solutions? There are no band-aid fixes for Gary. It will take a massive overhaul in order to bring order back to that once great city. I don't think it will happen in our lifetimes.