My Experience With NWI (Highland) as a minority (Hammond, Portage: rent, new home)

[Miss1985]

This thread is for people who need an outside perspective of NWI. I always check these forums because my husband has a job that requires us to move frequently. So please do not take offense to this thread. It's just my experience.

We currently live in Highland and will more than likely be moving in the near future. Here are some things that I observed while living here for the past 3 years.

1. The people of NWI are extremely friendly. This is actually one of things I'm going to miss about living here when we move. There have been countless times I've been out with my children and strangers offered helping hands. People smile at you and speak to you. I love that about living here.

2. There slight racist undertone. Now, I'm not sure if it's just from the older NWI/Highland population. But if you are a minority here and you get a chance to mingle in the community you get a feeling that you aren't exactly wanted here. Sorry, this is just the feeling that I got. Though I've been embraced with open arms here, you can tell a lot of the NWI/Highland residents aren't used to living in such close proximity to "minorities". Unfortunately, a lot of minorities get a bad rap in the media. I think that's the extent of most Highland residents knowledge of minorities go.

3. There is a lot to do for growing families. Highland has a lot of programs and extracurricular activities for kids. This is another aspect of Highland that I'm going to miss when we move.

4. Close knit community. This place is a place where your neighbors could become like family. Everyone knows everyone. This could be a good or bad thing. However, it's nice to live in a place where you actually feel like you are apart of a community.

5. The cost of living is a bit high. I was very shocked at the cost of living. I've lived in different states and IN/IL has a very high cost of living. For the amount of space you get, to me it's not worth settling down here. We could live in a mansion in another state for what we pay a month in rent.

That summarizes my experience here. Again, this post is just from my perspective so there is no need to take offense. I'm just giving my experience.

I also hopes this helps someone who is a minority think about moving here.

Thank you.

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by Miss1985

This thread is for people who need an outside perspective of NWI. I always check these forums because my husband has a job that requires us to move frequently. So please do not take offense to this thread. It's just my experience.

We currently live in Highland and will more than likely be moving in the near future. Here are some things that I observed while living here for the past 3 years.

1. The people of NWI are extremely friendly. This is actually one of things I'm going to miss about living here when we move. There have been countless times I've been out with my children and strangers offered helping hands. People smile at you and speak to you. I love that about living here.

2. There slight racist undertone. Now, I'm not sure if it's just from the older NWI/Highland population. But if you are a minority here and you get a chance to mingle in the community you get a feeling that you aren't exactly wanted here. Sorry, this is just the feeling that I got. Though I've been embraced with open arms here, you can tell a lot of the NWI/Highland residents aren't used to living in such close proximity to "minorities". Unfortunately, a lot of minorities get a bad rap in the media. I think that's the extent of most Highland residents knowledge of minorities go.

3. There is a lot to do for growing families. Highland has a lot of programs and extracurricular activities for kids. This is another aspect of Highland that I'm going to miss when we move.

4. Close knit community. This place is a place where your neighbors could become like family. Everyone knows everyone. This could be a good or bad thing. However, it's nice to live in a place where you actually feel like you are apart of a community.

5. The cost of living is a bit high. I was very shocked at the cost of living. I've lived in different states and IN/IL has a very high cost of living. For the amount of space you get, to me it's not worth settling down here. We could live in a mansion in another state for what we pay a month in rent.

That summarizes my experience here. Again, this post is just from my perspective so there is no need to take offense. I'm just giving my experience.

I also hopes this helps someone who is a minority think about moving here.

Thank you.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I would say that overall, this mostly resembles what others like you would feel in the area. Regarding the cost of living, while it is lower in NWI than in Illinois, the cost of living in NWI is not really low in and of itself when you compare to the jobs we have here and what they pay. If you work in Illinois and live in NWI, you really do come out so much farther ahead financially than those who work and live in Illinois and Indiana.

Also, the feeling of "not being wanted" could have something to do with you being a minority and also to do with the fact of being a newcomer in an established neighborhood. Being a newcomer especially a younger family in a neighborhood with people whom have lived there 30+ years is difficult and probably more so as a minority. And I fee that this is why (at least for middle class and beyond minorities) they choose to live in the newest neighborhoods possible where they are just as new as everyone else. And when you compare the housing prices of new communities in NWI, this is why you are more likely to see more diversity in the newer home areas of Merrillville, Portage, Hobart, and Crown Point than in places like Munster and St. John where new home costs average higher.

[Miss1985]

Yes I agree. My husband actually works in Chicago. The commute is tough for him. However, what we save in rent each month makes it worth it.

[ranosb]

Welcome to Indiana, what minority are you speaking of, race? We are Asian and will be traveling to NWI in a few months and hope there's not a big problem with prejudice/racism.

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by ranosb

Welcome to Indiana, what minority are you speaking of, race? We are Asian and will be traveling to NWI in a few months and hope there's not a big problem with prejudice/racism.

To be honest with you, most of the issues with prejudice/racism is primarily against Blacks and some non-White Hispanics.

As far as Asian and Indian, there is very little incidents. However, Middle Easterners of all faiths as well as Muslims and Sikhs have had some issues in NWI. Asians of all religions as well as individuals of Muslim, Sikh, and Jewish faith (minority faiths in NWI) are mostly in Munster followed by Dyer and Schererville (mostly in the Briar Ridge area). Merrillville used to have a very small Asian/Indian population (mostly Islamic) in the early 90s which had been expected to grow (which is why there is the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center and Avicenna Academy there); however, the population actually declined with those groups as Blacks became a larger faster growing minority in the area. Most Asian/Indian moved from there to the Schererville or Munster area and some others moved to Crown Point, although not many. This all includes Pacific Islanders as well.

In general, I think everyone would be fine most anywhere in NWI. As far as Lake County, I really think the main place where the highest probability of encountering racism and ignorance would be Lowell, Cedar Lake, some parts of Crown Point. But there has also been many incidents in more heavily populated predominantly White areas such as the neighborhoods in south Hammond including Hessville and Forest-Ivanhoe and Lake Station. Interestingly enough, in north Hammond and East Chicago, most of the conflict is between Blacks and non-White Hispanics.

[Miss1985]

Originally Posted by ranosb

Welcome to Indiana, what minority are you speaking of, race? We are Asian and will be traveling to NWI in a few months and hope there's not a big problem with prejudice/racism.

Hello I don't think you will have an issue here. I was talking about African American (Black) minority race. There is a large Asian population here so I don't think that you will have any problems. However, I'm not entirely sure since I can only speak from a black persons perspective.

[artemis]

Originally Posted by Northwest Indiana

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I would say that overall, this mostly resembles what others like you would feel in the area. Regarding the cost of living, while it is lower in NWI than in Illinois, the cost of living in NWI is not really low in and of itself when you compare to the jobs we have here and what they pay. If you work in Illinois and live in NWI, you really do come out so much farther ahead financially than those who work and live in Illinois and Indiana.

Also, the feeling of "not being wanted" could have something to do with you being a minority and also to do with the fact of being a newcomer in an established neighborhood. Being a newcomer especially a younger family in a neighborhood with people whom have lived there 30+ years is difficult and probably more so as a minority. And I fee that this is why (at least for middle class and beyond minorities) they choose to live in the newest neighborhoods possible where they are just as new as everyone else. And when you compare the housing prices of new communities in NWI, this is why you are more likely to see more diversity in the newer home areas of Merrillville, Portage, Hobart, and Crown Point than in places like Munster and St. John where new home costs average higher.

Most of the Dutch people in Highland aren't really accepting of others. They tend to be very clannish.

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by artemis

Most of the Dutch people in Highland aren't really accepting of others. They tend to be very clannish.

I know Highland originally had some dutch folk (mainly from Dolton and South Holland and some Lansing) with Highland Christian School being there but I thought that the majority of the Dutch families have been living and moving moreso into the Hanover Township areas of St. John and Dyer for some time now (which is part of their justification for building the new Iliana Christian High School in that area). It seems like the neighborhoods of Gates of St. John as well as Silverleaf and Saddle Creek have literally been neighborhoods of Dutch folks from Lansing, Lynwood, Crete, and Chicago Heights moving there. I didn't think that Highland would have much of any significant population of Dutch (at least younger ones) to be able to form any type of clan to have clannish behavior lol. But I find that many of the Dutch in Indiana appear to be somewhat clannish as well especially given the fact that these are 3 to 4+ generations removed from The Netherlands. Many Eastern Europeans in NWI are more clannish but I find it may be out of necessity given some of the language barriers that many face as there are many more first generation immigrants here.

[artemis]

A lot moved out to Demotte & Roselawn as well. But I know many who are still there.

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by artemis

A lot moved out to Demotte & Roselawn as well. But I know many who are still there.

Yes, forgot about DeMotte and Roselawn as well.