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I saw this on life after people Life After People — Gary, Indiana — History.com Videos
What is Gary to Indiana? do people still go there for entertainment and stuff? Is the downtown really that bad?
Is it really a ghost town or is that just some parts?
Im asking because it seems as if people have just gave up on Gary.
I know it's never too late to revitalize a city or area, is anyone trying to bring the city back or have all just gave up hope?
I saw this on life after people Life After People — Gary, Indiana — History.com Videos
What is Gary to Indiana? do people still go there for entertainment and stuff? Is the downtown really that bad?
Is it really a ghost town or is that just some parts?
Im asking because it seems as if people have just gave up on Gary.
I know it's never too late to revitalize a city or area, is anyone trying to bring the city back or have all just gave up hope?
some parts resemble detroit but the downtown is fine. Heck the city is trying its hardest to rebound and heck they just built a new stadium for the Gary Railcats that attracts tourism. Also the Gary-Chicago Airport. Unlike Detroit Gary will have other areas to help compared to detroit is the center of the metro area.
All depends on who you ask. Any resident of NWI, the city is a plague. Yes it has its issues, crime, urban blight, etc. but it also has outstanding natural resources. Was just there on labor day with the misses. That was her first time there. Really couldn't stay on the beach as the wind was insane and the surf was coming up pretty deep onto the beach. We drove through the city, Merrillville, Griffith, Highland and into Munster and her response was the same for everywhere, it looks old. Back to the topic though, Downtown is a ghost town after 5. Like any other city it has activity during business hours and with GPTC and South Shore is a main transportation hub downtown at the metro center.
There is entertainment though as there is minor league baseball and basketball in the city and a new ballpark. It's only a few years old. One of the things about downtown is that there is a lot of old architecture, in which no one wants to fix up, but no one wants it torn down either like Memorial Auditorium, Union Station and First Presbyterian on 6th and the old post office which is the piece in Life After People.
One of the things that people automatically associate the city with is how it looks from the expressway which isn't the best to be honest. Just like any urban area, it has its good parts, bad parts and so so parts. Once your're out into Miller, Small Farms Northwest area of Glen Park, South Glen Park and a lot of the West side, Sunnyside etc, you will find well manicured lawns, landscaping, quiet streets and nice looking neighborhoods with good housing stock with all brick/full basement and steel beams instead of the pressed wood you find in homes today esp. in newer subdivisions. Was actually going through midtown as the misses wanted to of course see Michael Jacksons house but by that time had just passed Jackson which is one way, made the right down harrison to 21st st and even I was shocked how well kept the area was even with Dulaney right there on Harrison. Not Dulaney itself, but the houses heading east onto 21st toward broadway.
In a nutshell, it's a city in a very polarized region in which the region tries to not claim Gary all while getting mad as the state tries to not claim the region.
some parts resemble detroit but the downtown is fine. Heck the city is trying its hardest to rebound and heck they just built a new stadium for the Gary Railcats that attracts tourism. Also the Gary-Chicago Airport. Unlike Detroit Gary will have other areas to help compared to detroit is the center of the metro area.
That is very good to know. But does Gary really have Chicago's support?
And what is up with the smell? Does the whole city smell like that?
All depends on who you ask. Any resident of NWI, the city is a plague. Yes it has its issues, crime, urban blight, etc. but it also has outstanding natural resources. Was just there on labor day with the misses. That was her first time there. Really couldn't stay on the beach as the wind was insane and the surf was coming up pretty deep onto the beach. We drove through the city, Merrillville, Griffith, Highland and into Munster and her response was the same for everywhere, it looks old. Back to the topic though, Downtown is a ghost town after 5. Like any other city it has activity during business hours and with GPTC and South Shore is a main transportation hub downtown at the metro center.
There is entertainment though as there is minor league baseball and basketball in the city and a new ballpark. It's only a few years old. One of the things about downtown is that there is a lot of old architecture, in which no one wants to fix up, but no one wants it torn down either like Memorial Auditorium, Union Station and First Presbyterian on 6th and the old post office which is the piece in Life After People.
One of the things that people automatically associate the city with is how it looks from the expressway which isn't the best to be honest. Just like any urban area, it has its good parts, bad parts and so so parts. Once your're out into Miller, Small Farms Northwest area of Glen Park, South Glen Park and a lot of the West side, Sunnyside etc, you will find well manicured lawns, landscaping, quiet streets and nice looking neighborhoods with good housing stock with all brick/full basement and steel beams instead of the pressed wood you find in homes today esp. in newer subdivisions. Was actually going through midtown as the misses wanted to of course see Michael Jacksons house but by that time had just passed Jackson which is one way, made the right down harrison to 21st st and even I was shocked how well kept the area was even with Dulaney right there on Harrison. Not Dulaney itself, but the houses heading east onto 21st toward broadway.
In a nutshell, it's a city in a very polarized region in which the region tries to not claim Gary all while getting mad as the state tries to not claim the region.
Maybe because it's more known as being part of the Chicago area instead of it's own place? idk, the entire region doesn't have a bad rep just because of Gary does it?
idk, the entire region doesn't have a bad rep just because of Gary does it?
Yes and no. I feel as though most people in the Chicago metro area are well-aware of the fact that Gary is not representative of Northwest Indiana as a whole. But ironically, and somewhat sadly, many Hoosiers outside NWI actually do extrapolate Gary to all of NWI. I know from my own personal experience and from that of many other NWI natives that there is a cognizable stereotype against "The Region" (NWI) in the rest of the state, which is largely based on generalization and misinformation (i.e. "It's all just one big swath of poverty, crime, and heavy industry.") Now I've met plenty of Hoosiers elsewhere in the state who do not share that view of the region, but it continues to persist in many parts of the state.
No, the city doesn't always smell like that. Depends on which way the wind is blowing whether or not the smog from the mills blows south. Notwithstanding, the smell in the region isn't always Gary. US Steel is in the city, the others aren't. BP is in Whiting, the Tin Mill is in East Chicago. Bethlehem is on the other side of the dunes, all of them contributes to the odor that is sometimes there in northern Lake County/Porter County, Gary as usual just gets the blame for all of it.
The state doesn't like Lake county because of Gary, Lake County is in every sense of the word a$$ backwards and self destructive from within. Do not get me wrong, the state has screwed Gary royally by doing illegal things such as allowing Merriillville to annex right up to the border with Gary where there is supposed to be a buffer between incorporated areas per state law. Or how they forced all billboards down off the expressways in Gary after Hatcher was elected mayor. But Lake County not being liked is well because of Lake County and their corrupt politicians who are just as corrupt as Chicago but just flies under the radar because it's not Chicago.
As far as NWI being associated with Gary, well yes. I've said it on here, I've said it in both the Times and the PT, a region is only as strong as its core city. No one cares about a suburb until they've chosen their core city because they are a dime a dozen. In every way shape or form, Chicago isn't their core city. There's a reason why tv commercials says Chicagoland AND Northwest Indiana (completely forgetting about Wisconsin by the way). Technically according to OMB, It's one big area (only a few) with designated metropolitan divisions, (Chicago, Gary, Kenosha). The Indiana side falls under Gary. It's on the same scale as NY-Newark or Dallas-Fort Worth. Fort Worth is not a suburb of Dallas, it's a core city with it's own suburbs combined with Dallas and its suburbs to form the Metroplex. This is just the Greater Chicago Area. I actually posted the divisions on the Illinois forum.
As long as the area stays as divisive as it is, it will always be the red headed step child the rest of the state would love to put up for adoption. It's the area with the most natural resources but least amount of cooperation.
The state doesn't like Lake county because of Gary, Lake County is in every sense of the word a$$ backwards and self destructive from within. Do not get me wrong, the state has screwed Gary royally by doing illegal things such as allowing Merriillville to annex right up to the border with Gary where there is supposed to be a buffer between incorporated areas per state law. Or how they forced all billboards down off the expressways in Gary after Hatcher was elected mayor. But Lake County not being liked is well because of Lake County and their corrupt politicians who are just as corrupt as Chicago but just flies under the radar because it's not Chicago.
As far as NWI being associated with Gary, well yes. I've said it on here, I've said it in both the Times and the PT, a region is only as strong as its core city. No one cares about a suburb until they've chosen their core city because they are a dime a dozen. In every way shape or form, Chicago isn't their core city. There's a reason why tv commercials says Chicagoland AND Northwest Indiana (completely forgetting about Wisconsin by the way). Technically according to OMB, It's one big area (only a few) with designated metropolitan divisions, (Chicago, Gary, Kenosha). The Indiana side falls under Gary. It's on the same scale as NY-Newark or Dallas-Fort Worth. Fort Worth is not a suburb of Dallas, it's a core city with it's own suburbs combined with Dallas and its suburbs to form the Metroplex. This is just the Greater Chicago Area. I actually posted the divisions on the Illinois forum.
As long as the area stays as divisive as it is, it will always be the red headed step child the rest of the state would love to put up for adoption. It's the area with the most natural resources but least amount of cooperation.
I 100% agree that most of the NWI cities did develop as suburbs of Gary and Hammond, and NOT Chicago. I disagree that their fate today is so strongly tied to those core cities as you are suggesting. Southern Lake County, and nearly all of Porter County, has IMO become its own social and economic entity in many ways. It's the only way they were able to survive given the swift decline of the "steel cities", which fell victim to the same industrial homogeneity that led to their initial explosion in population.
With the decline of heavy industry in the area, the rest of the Region has been forced to rely increasingly less on the center cities for jobs. New industries developed elsewhere in the Region such healthcare and retail trade. Interestingly, the medical device industry is very strong in NWI (and Northern IN in general). These industries are more diverse and durable than the heavy industry that preceded them, which I think is a very good sign for the future of NWI. Nonetheless, I would additionally argue there actually is increased reliance on Chicago for jobs than there was when cities like Gary and Hammond were in their "golden age". On the flipside, given the current economic situation we are likely to see even more Chicago companies moving across the state line like we have already seen.
Either way, I think Indianapolis still continues to have a misconception about the area, and unless it can appreciate the vast strategic potential NWI has, and how truly diverse it actually is, there is likely to be very little cooperation.
Last edited by Bluefox; 09-14-2011 at 02:49 AM..
Reason: Typos
No, the city doesn't always smell like that. Depends on which way the wind is blowing whether or not the smog from the mills blows south. Notwithstanding, the smell in the region isn't always Gary. US Steel is in the city, the others aren't. BP is in Whiting, the Tin Mill is in East Chicago. Bethlehem is on the other side of the dunes, all of them contributes to the odor that is sometimes there in northern Lake County/Porter County, Gary as usual just gets the blame for all of it.
The state doesn't like Lake county because of Gary, Lake County is in every sense of the word a$$ backwards and self destructive from within. Do not get me wrong, the state has screwed Gary royally by doing illegal things such as allowing Merriillville to annex right up to the border with Gary where there is supposed to be a buffer between incorporated areas per state law. Or how they forced all billboards down off the expressways in Gary after Hatcher was elected mayor. But Lake County not being liked is well because of Lake County and their corrupt politicians who are just as corrupt as Chicago but just flies under the radar because it's not Chicago.
As far as NWI being associated with Gary, well yes. I've said it on here, I've said it in both the Times and the PT, a region is only as strong as its core city. No one cares about a suburb until they've chosen their core city because they are a dime a dozen. In every way shape or form, Chicago isn't their core city. There's a reason why tv commercials says Chicagoland AND Northwest Indiana (completely forgetting about Wisconsin by the way). Technically according to OMB, It's one big area (only a few) with designated metropolitan divisions, (Chicago, Gary, Kenosha). The Indiana side falls under Gary. It's on the same scale as NY-Newark or Dallas-Fort Worth. Fort Worth is not a suburb of Dallas, it's a core city with it's own suburbs combined with Dallas and its suburbs to form the Metroplex. This is just the Greater Chicago Area. I actually posted the divisions on the Illinois forum.
As long as the area stays as divisive as it is, it will always be the red headed step child the rest of the state would love to put up for adoption. It's the area with the most natural resources but least amount of cooperation.
Do you have the link for the divisions? I would like to look at the lines and see what the designated areas are in the illustration.
Do you have the link for the divisions? I would like to look at the lines and see what the designated areas are in the illustration.
The Gary-Hammond Metropolitan division is according OMB is
Lake (Indiana)
Porter
Newton
Jasper
The Chicago Metropolitan Division is
Cook
Dekalb
DuPage
Grundy
Kane
Kendall
McHenry
Will
Kenosha's is
Lake County (Illinois)
Kenosha County, WI
It's separated like the other large areas (SF/Oakland, Philly/Camden, DFW, NYC/Newark). The entire area has one FIPS code, so all three areas that combine to form Greater Chicago has one FIPS code, The three areas have their own Metropolitan Division code.
Granted Jasper county is a big stretch for Gary-Hammond; OK Gary but Kenosha is a stretch being the midpoint between Milwaukee and Chicago.
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but Kenosha is a stretch being the midpoint between Milwaukee and Chicago.
