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Gary, Indiana was once a symbol of American innovation. Home to U.S. Steel’s largest factory, Gary churned out the products that built America’s bridges, tunnels, and skyscrapers. The city benefited from a thriving downtown and vibrant neighborhoods.
Gary’s chimneys still stand out along the sandy shores of Lake Michigan, a stark juxtaposition between the eroding dunes and the silhouette of Chicago rising to the northwest. But now they represent a city looking for a new start.
More than 10,000 buildings have been left abandoned, and the city’s population of 180,000 in the 1960s has fallen by more than half. Poverty, crime, and the degrading nickname “Scary Gary” deter private investors and prospective homeowners.
While U.S. Steel is at a crossroads, and a proposed takeover would put it under foreign control, the city named for its founder and who helped build his empire is also at a crossroads. has been done. A new mayor and planned revitalization projects are reigniting hopes that Gary can build an economic future beyond steel, the kind of renaissance that many industrial cities in the Midwest have achieved. It is.
In theory, it’s possible. Gary is located in her third largest metropolitan area in the country, straddling a major railroad crossing and next to a shipping port. The Indiana Sand Dunes National Park is a popular destination for park-loving tourists and curious motorists.
“We have a recipe for success,” said newly elected Mayor Eddie Melton. “We need to change the narrative and make it clear to the world that Gary is up for business.”
Construction projects that city officials cite as success stories include a minor league ballpark and a casino. But James B. Lane, a history professor at Indiana University Northwest and a Gary historian, said it failed to create the lasting, ripple economic impact that had been hoped.
“The problem with all of these projects is that they didn’t lead to synergies with the surrounding stores and businesses,” Dr. Lane says.
Other efforts also fell short. The city agreed to sell the convention center to a technology company that promised thousands of jobs, but later sued the company after the company breached the contract. A multibillion-dollar plan to build a theme park capitalizing on Gary’s fame as the birthplace of the Jackson Five fell through in the 1990s.
“It’s definitely a missed opportunity to make it a place like Dollywood or Graceland,” said Chuck Hughes, president of the Gary Chamber of Commerce.
U.S. Steel’s presence in Gary has declined significantly. Gehry Works, U.S. Steel’s largest plant, employs about 3,700 people, down from its peak of more than 30,000. However, local businesses still rely on the economic activity the factory generates, and the factory remains one of the city’s top employers.
One such business is Great Lakes Cafe, a diner located just outside the gates of Gary Works. Every morning, steelworkers in orange overalls stop by a restaurant with a sign expressing support for the United Steelworkers Union and enjoy plates of hash browns, biscuits and gravy before going to work.
“We love U.S. Steel,” said Cindy Kridaras, owner of the restaurant, which opened in 1994.
While the economic study does not offer a clear solution to Gary’s revitalization, it suggests key elements such as investing in infrastructure and making the city a physically more livable place.
Melton’s election was celebrated by many as a new step. Kia Smith, a lifelong Gary resident and small business owner, said the mayor’s focus on transparency is a positive sign for businesses in the area, which have long grappled with corruption. Smith, whose grandfather worked in a steel mill, said the city needs to diversify its economy beyond steel.
“Nobody owns Gary’s,” said Smith, 43, who owns a health food store and a catering business. “We all own Gary.”
Beautification and restoration efforts are underway. Mr. Melton’s administration has begun demolishing old buildings to attract developers who can build new homes and other structures on the many vacant lots. One idea is to make Gary a viable alternative to Chicago, where rents are soaring. Jim Wiseman, a lifelong resident who has worked in the local construction industry for more than 40 years, said his company has begun working with the new administration and recently demolished 15 buildings.
Wiseman’s own childhood home in the hard-hit Etna neighborhood is among the homes scheduled to be demolished. “Destruction is one way to change a community forever,” he said. “As we change things for the better, we hope to see new growth and housing return to the community.”
The South Shore Line, a commuter railroad connecting Chicago and cities in northwestern Indiana, plans to open a second set of tracks east between Gary and Michigan City. Gary/Chicago International Airport received $6 million in federal funding to increase cargo capacity in 2023 with the goal of serving as a logistics hub for tenants such as United Parcel Service. In December, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced a $127 million grant to improve Interstates 80 and 94 through Gary with funding from the bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
Still, the challenges are steep.
Growing up in Gary, Kamal Minka knew it was a thriving city. Things began to change in the late 1960s, with many white residents leaving, followed by the first major layoffs at the Gary factory in the early 70s.
Mr. Minka left to join the Air Force in 1980 and returned in 1991. Mr. Gary was unrecognizable.
“It was like a feeling of emptiness,” said Minka, 60. “It’s like the city has collapsed.”
Currently, Mr. Minka is a police officer assigned to Gary’s school and runs a karate instruction school. He cited Gary’s proximity to Chicago and low housing costs as selling points.
Political isolation is also difficult. Gary’s demographics (the city is more than 80% black and heavily Democratic) put it at odds with Indiana’s majority Republican legislature. Lawmakers have blocked Mr. Gary’s efforts to expand the tax base, citing concerns about corruption, and provided little government funding. At the same time, the Illinois government had little incentive to better connect Chicago and Indiana cities.
Former Republican Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke said the idiosyncrasies in Indiana’s tax code helped the city recover from its manufacturing decline, but not Gary. Gary was a small city with a Democratic majority in a larger, more conservative county whose ability to manage its taxes was regulated by Indiana law. The tax base could not be expanded without county approval.
“Gary was caught up in what other cities in the county wanted to do,” Helmke said.
Other cities offer lessons that can be considered contrasting.
About 450 miles to the southeast, Pittsburgh’s steel heritage remains core to its identity, even though it has little trace of its days of heavy industry. Where steel mills once lit up the night sky, there are now chic bars, co-working spaces, and a university hospital.
Unlike Pittsburgh, Gary lacks a major research university, a key driver of economic transformation. Melton said his administration has been working closely with Detroit’s mayor to understand how the city has worked to revitalize its economy after losing most of its domestic auto manufacturing.
A useful template for Gary could be Erie, Pennsylvania, said John Lettieri, co-founder of the Economic Innovation Group, a nonprofit research organization. Like Gary, Erie was heavily dependent on manufacturing and suffered from the loss of those jobs overseas. But a combination of business and political leadership and investment from one of his city’s largest employers, Erie Insurance Group, led to a significant turnaround.
So Erie Insurance worked with local business owners, development organizations and other executives to revitalize the waterfront, and in 2020 invested $50 million with outside partners. The project was promoted by a federal program that provides tax breaks for development in distressed areas. . The company also added a $147 million building to its campus in 2021.
But what’s more important to Gary is a continued focus on making the city safe and livable, Lettieri said. “If you have a declining population and high crime, those are prerequisite issues that the public sector has to address first before the private sector buys in,” he said.
Gary has long been associated with decline, but its remaining residents, white and black alike, see an opportunity for renewal.
Mr. Wiseman is also one of the hopefuls. His mother worked in the steel mills in his 1940s and 50s, and he felt a loyalty to the city, staying there when many other whites left and serving as its first black mayor. The immigration occurred around the time of his 1967 election of one of them, Richard G. Hatcher. American metropolis. Before she died, she made her son promise to help get Gary back to where she was, a place where people wanted to live.
“It is my absolute dream to see Gary flourish again in my lifetime,” Wiseman said.
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