This blog represents the first in a series of blogs that will attempt to chronicle “what’s wrong & right with the City of Gary, Indiana”. The blog is written with the sole purpose of creating forward thinking dialogue on how to improve, not lambaste, the City that I grew up in.
No, I no longer live there. However, it’s where I was born and raised. My parents raised my family there. Worked and lived there for 30 years. I have a connection there that will and cannot ever be broken. The place has so much to do with who I am today as well as “how I am” as a person.
As I told my wife the other day in a conversation, I believe in laying blame. I know, I know. I’ve been around many a situation in the corporate setting where a “leader” has espoused the type of statement that “placing the blame is useless” when addressing a major issue that needs fixing.
The thing about the topic of Gary that differs from that of say a business setting is that what ails Gary is of a social nature. Yes, business or lack there of, is a major component of what ails Gary. But from a social vantage point, I believe, we first have to solve, or improve, the social environment of Gary before ANY type of viable business structured solution can be brought to the City.
In solving, or improving the social environment, we’ve got to call out those who seek to continue or contribute to the spiraling fall of the city where I was brought into this world.
Yes. Gary is a predominately Black city. I therefore feel that it’s problems are predominantly those of the Black citizens of the city. Essentially, I get the impression that my former neighbors who have decided to stay in Gary and “tough it out”, feel they are powerless at effecting change in Gary. They do vote. They pay their property taxes. They are not the problem. They have aged and contributed to the city and the elected officials there have let them down in return.
Sure, this sounds like the post is going into the direction of, say, a Post-Tribune or a NWI Times editorial written by some outsider person of the White race who, it seems, takes great joy in pointing out the ills of Gary.
However, I am not White. Though I am now an outsider, I still have a connection to that city in which life long friends and neighbors still traverse the mean streets of Chase St, 5th Ave, Grant St., Broadway, Burr St and Taft St., among others.
I understand when a friend who calls me and tells me he just came from Gary, helping his mother purchase a lawn mower and comments on how bad the city looks, or that someone I grew up with just died and how they died, I understand the sorrow in their voices. It’s different then the tone of a editorial written by some White resident who lives in Merrillville or Hobart or Crown Point who harbors a stereotypical mindset towards Blacks due to the history of the existence of Blacks in the Lake County area. Gary in particular.
That tone is one of innuendo and hate filled propaganda. The tone of my friends when they tell me things about the city they still live in, there is a tone of hurt, despair, and love. They dearly wish the place would see better days. The tone of the Post Tribune columnist is one that gives the impression they couldn’t care less if the people in Gary all killed themselves and died a horrible death.
So Fuck Them. (This the only time you will see such an offensive statement in this blog about Gary, I promise)
The emotions that I have on the whole issue of my UNDERSTANDING as to how Gary ultimately arrived where it is today, is fueled by my distaste for those people who essentially have kept a death grip on Gary financially while living outside of it’s boundaries. Those would be the “White Flighters”.
I have purposely, in the recent past, traveled to Gary with my daughters who for the first time were old enough to see Gary and remember it after the visit. I can argue that the place looks nothing like it did when I first took them there when they were very young, that type of thinking is directed towards the neighborhood I grew up in. More importantly, the house I grew up in.
I loved that house. I loved my street. I certainly remember the days, years, that everyone (well most everyone) took pride in how their homes looked. Kept up their quarters. I had a beautiful childhood on 8th and Taney. I would not trade it for any other type of childhood experience. And yes, it was a 100% and viable Black neighborhood!
There are some who think there was no way this was possible in the City of Gary. As far as most Whites in particular are concerned, Gary has been a S-hole since at least the early 70’s. Well I can attest to the wonderful upbringing I had in the city. I take the good memories with the bad.
So I’m driving down Broadway with wife and girls and showing them our sparkling, dynamic downtown. Yes, the first thing they notice is that all, yes every building is boarded up. I ask them to take a CLOSER LOOK at the boards that were on the store fronts. I asked them to take a close scan of the buildings that were dilapidated. I then asked them to identify one sign that informed anyone as to how to purchase or lease any of those buildings.
THEY COULD NOT FIND ONE! Then I explained something to them that I found out when I returned to Gary years ago at a time that I myself was a business owner in Nashville, Tn. I had an interest in how one would go about purchasing one of those buildings. The thing I found out is that for the most part, they are not for lease or for sale!
Most of those entities who abandoned Gary in the 70’s under the guise of White Flight has retained ownership of the business store fronts they abandoned while relocating their shops and businesses in places like Hobart and Merrillville. They have a vendetta against Black Gary citizens. Yes the Black ones who essentially voted in the nations first Black Mayor of a major city, Richard G. Hatcher.
The way Hatcher ascended to power contributed to the lingering resentment that those former White citizens of Gary have towards Blacks today. I explained to my girls that Hatcher ascended to the position of Mayor of Gary on the coat tails of the Black Power Movement of the late 60’s. I explain to them that even today, any type of black political figure that was or has been associated with the “Black Power” movement of the civil rights era, is a hated figure in the racist part of the White community and is often identified as examples of racist blacks by modern mainstream media and White politicians the like.
I explained to my girls, there is a deep hatred towards Black citizens of Gary by the suburban White citizens of Lake County Indiana who still own those store fronts on Broadway. Essentially, Blacks stood up to what was then a racist City of Gary government that treated black citizens as second class citizens much like the way Blacks were treated throughout the country at that time.
The big thing was that Blacks in Gary chose to use ideology more in line with Malcolm X then that of Martin Luther King to effect change.
You know. The line Bernie Mac used to use to open his shows on Def Comedy Jam.
Well for now, read this article in the Post-Tribune for an example of one our own (Black Men) who clearly has been taking the citizens of Gary for a ride with their tax dollars…
Glen Park group forgets about ‘that’ $100,000
Like I said. The Post Tribune does a good job at making sure the ills of Gary are on display. I’ll use it to make a point. I promise to dig deeper then the sarcastic tone the journalist who wrote the piece clearly has taken.
(to be continued…)
Brotha,
I look forward to reading your views on “what’s wrong & right with the City of Gary, Indiana,” and even contributing my 2 cents worth from time-to-time.
Be forewarned though, as I have acknowledged in an earlier post here, I am one of those you label a “white flighter.” (In that post I told you I was a white honky who was going to vote for Barack Obama; I did.)
I was born in Gary back in 1946. I graduated from the then all white Lew Wallace H.S. in 1964. I put my time in the mills, both before and during college. I left, for good, in 1969. Now, realistically, I do not know that a 23 yr. old kid could accurately be labeled a “white flighter?”
So why did I bail on the Steel City? The truthful answer is twofold: Both my parents had died by 1969, so the family homestead was no more. Secondly, Uncle Sam pulled me out. There was still a thing called the draft back then. I had 2 choices, enlist voluntarily or be drafted. I took what I thought was the lesser of 2 evils and enlisted in the Marine Corps. That I am here, commenting today, instead of a name on a wall in D.C., seems to indicate I may have made the right decsion at the time!
I did in fact return to Indiana after the military, to attend grad school. The harsh truth is, Gary had no grad school, in any field, so off to I.U. Law in Indianapolis I went. By the time I got out of law school, Gary presented little-to-no opportunity.
I also want to state that I do still have family in the Gary area. Yes, I am talking Merrillville and Portage, not Gary per se. I do get back, fairly often. When I do, I check on the ol’ homestead and haunts of my childhood. Consequently, I am attuned to the current state of affairs in Gary.
To see, and appreciate my fondness for Gary, and my degree of awareness for the current state of affairs, you need only visit my web site Dave’s Den. You will find a wealth of info there on the Steel City, admittedly from a white perspective.
I am interested in your comment that all the abandoned buildings in Gary are owned by whites who refuse to sell them, out of spite. I would like to see some substantiation of this claim. If that be true, I have to ask how dumb are these yahoos? Are you saying these individuals, corporations, whatever, are so rich they could afford to let the downtown properties sit vacant for 30 + years, and deteriorate?
The current owner of the W.T. Grant Department Store (a black, I believe) has publicly complained that he was prevented by the city administration from protecting and preserving his property. He claims the reason behind this is the city wants the property to deteriorate to the point of condemnation, enabling it to be purchased by the city at 10 cents on the dollar.
How do you explain the ruins of Memorial Auditorium? It was/is not owned by a business. It is owned by the City of Gary. Yet, it too sits in ruin. The same circumstances apply to Froebel H.S., do they not?
In fact, the city administration has a history of buying downtown properties at foreclosure sales, through straw men. See the RUDY REPORT on Dave’s Den. After the property is purchased, absolutely nothing is done with it. Why?
I am more than interested in your perspective, and await the expression by you of your viewpoints. I hope mine will be welcome here as well.
Dave Yaros
Dave,
Just breezed over your comments. I do remember your posts. While I feel strongly about my views related to what I actually experienced growing up in Gary in the 70’s through the late 80’s,I am actually curious and eager to correspond with you on this topic.
Like I’ve said in other posts, if I’m wrong about something, I’ll admit it, change my perspective and grow from the moment. I’ll give your post a thorough reading and respond later tonight.
Thanks for responding…
RB,
I look forward to our exchange of views, given our markedly different perspectives, both in terms of culture and time.
Dave
To substantiate the claims, the next time your in Gary, take a drive down Broadway and see for yourself. As for why someone would hold on to building for that long due to a grudge, one only has to think of it from the perspective of the TAX BREAK. There are a myriad of reasons one would hold on to a dilapidated building in Gary while conducting business elsewhere. It’s called a business loss tax write-off. All they have to do is keep paying the property tax, which is in itself a business write off…
While I believe that a vendetta is an overwhelming reason that NONE of those buildings are hardly available; another reason is that some of the owners probably do wish for the day that re-gentrification takes place in Gary. If and when it does, these property owners (or their off spring) will be in a great position to prosper from the ‘revitalization”.
I believe Froebel has been torn down. As far as Memorial Auditorium is concerned, I guess the Genesis Center replaced that and, yes, the City of Gary bears the blame for allowing it’s further decay.
But this does not explain the majority of store fronts that line Broadway or other parts of the City.
I’ve got to say, the purpose of the series is not to devote my entire time blaming it all on the “the man”. However, I felt it important to “qualify” one of the major issues that relate to the deterioration of Gary. White Flight happened in Gary.
And not for the reasons that you left. All you’ve got to do is think of the conversations that you have with your friends and family members who still live in that area as well as those no longer live there.
Will any of them attest to the contributions that White Flight has to the current state of Gary?
It’s easy and cliche to just blame it all on the Black Citizens of Gary.
However, history shows otherwise. There are many of publications out there that discuss the issue of White Flight and the City of Gary. Quite a bit of them are housed right there at IUN.
I’ve got some things to say about the Black citizens of Gary in my future posts. And they won’t be nice. Some are even aimed at myself, the outsider looking within the conundrum that would be G.I. (Oh, in case you didn’t know, that’s what us from the other culture and time call Gary Indiana when we are referring to it with our homey’s)
RB:
I would hope it will not shock you to learn that I am well aware of the meaning and use of the term “GI,” just as I assume that you have some familiarity with the moniker “da Region”?
On the subject of white flight. I do not deny it took place. Nor do I deny that it was a part of the problem. At the same time, we are talking about a phenomenon that happened over 30 years ago; that equals a whole generation. Both Chicago and San Francisco did not require that much time to overcome far worse disasters!
I also do not believe/accept that white flight is the sole/major cause of Gary’s downfall. After all, U.S. Steel did not leave. It not only is still there, it is still paying taxes (along with the casinos) to the city. Until a few months ago USS was producing at record tonnage levels.
Yes, the mills employ no where near the number of people that worked there from the 40’s to the 70’s. However the technological improvement that resulted in reduction of manpower needs has no color. On that, I hope we can agree?
Nor will I argue that one sees no for sale signs on the vacant downtown properties. My explanation for it is different that yours.
Your tax write-off theory would not seem to hold water, after 30 yrs, in 2008. Any tax write-off would/should have been completely consumed by now, shouldn’t it? The theory also seems to fly directly in the face of the cardinal rule that the function of business is to realize a return on investment. Here, not only is no return being realized, valuable corporate capital, in the form of tax dollars, is being thrown at declining assets.
I am no authority or expert, but it seems to me that 30 years of property tax payments may have exceeded the value of the property on which the tax is being paid? If not, eventually it most certainly shall. That not only does not seem to be good business, it doesn’t even rank as a reasonable business practice.
My theory is that the downfall is a product of the graft, greed and corruption in the city administration. Let me state up front, that circumstance also knows no color. All have had a piece of the action over the years. Equally important, all bear the blame, for tolerating it. Hell, residents often talked of the rampant corruption in GI with a sense of pride!
I suspect corrupt government is what caused honest business to depart. Corruption was bearable by business when times where good and everyone was flush. When the economy began to sour it became cheaper and wiser for businesses to move outside the city limits. Yes, some closed their doors permanently, but many simply relocated elsewhere in Lake Co.
You are aware that the city is buying up downtown property every chance it gets, by whatever means it can, are you not? Why? Is it vengance in the sense that, also hoping for gentrification at some distant time, it does not want whitey to be a part of it?
Richard Gordon was not a saviour or a martyr, as folk would like everyone to believe. The guy was from Michigan City, to whence he has returned. His interest in Gary was in what Gary could do for him. Just like his white predecessors, he milked his position for all it was worth.
Yes, he brought tons of federal money into Gary. There is no doubt about that, but at what cost? I do not know about you, but I am more than hard pressed to point to one thing Richard G did while in office that had a long-term benefit to the city, or citizens, of GI.
The cost of his administration was both economic and psychological. Rather than have citizens, be they individuals or corporate, take responsbility for their city, everyone looked to the feds. Everything was fine, so long as the federal gravy train kept seving up its largess. When the funds dried up, Gary began its descent into hell. At that critical point people would not, or could not as they where no longer capable financially or psychologically, take responsibility for their own fate.
On my site, on the Rudy Report page, I have a mildly long treatise on the problems facing Gary. In it, I express the hope that Gary can survive and revive. It certainly is full of potential. Transport wise, no city is better located. Ample numbers of industrial property sit begging to be developed. What Gary needs is a work force and schools that educate.
When you stop and think about it, these same needs were present in 1906. U.S. Steel solved the problem by importing workers from Europe, as well as Wm. A. Wirt to build a school system.
What is to prevent that from happening all over again? Is that pure niavete on my part? Granted, back then, there was a big drawing card, the world’s largest integrated steel production facility; the “build it and they will come” scenario.
What Gary needs again is a drawing card. It does not have to be a giant one. Many substantial small ones will do just fine. I do not define the Miss USA pageant as a substantial drawing card. I have seen no effort by any administration, be it Rudy or King, or anyone earlier, to develop such a drawing card.
Therein lies the/a problem, in my opinion.
I have rambled on enough for one sitting, and shall await your response after disgesting this discourse.
Peace, good blog–
I want the city to come back and thrive, but I’m frustrated with the means of how it can be executed.. Even by the time I got out of high school the situation was rough and there were plenty abandoned structures throughout. I moved away immediately after high school. Coming back roughly every other year (unfortunately usually for funerals, but sometimes weddings), I see what’s still there: “The Village” (sort of), the Genesis Center.. the short-lived Sheraton structure.. on west 5th, the rusted structure of a long-abandoned “Lure” fast food place that went out of business when I was still in elementary school.. and what’s not there.. A McDonald’s sits where a couple of apartment buildings used to be.. Apparently St. Mary Mercy Hospital where I was born was turned into a police headquarters (?!?!)..
As a kid I ended up going to the parochial high school in Merrillville (unnamed, though anyone can figure it out); I had previously gone to one of the catholic elementary schools in Gary (are there any left now? Possibly a topic for another day..), so I wanted to be where I knew at least a handful of my friends were going.. You had kids coming to this school from all parts of the county (and beyond), at least 50% of whom were in the comfortably middle-class/affluent category, and whose parents were likely in the “Reagan Democrats” demographic if not solidly GOP-supporting (I can remember a mock-election during the election year of ’88, about 88% of kids voted for George Bush Sr.. ‘no new taxes!’ heh-heh..) The culture shock was rather glaring (the fundraising was non-stop, my mother openly blanched at all the different flyers that were sent home with me), and the race relations of the greater region got to play out on the micro scale at our school, the least of which were ethnocentric sitting patterns in the cafeteria.. I remember the Paula Cooper death-row case (and Pope John Paul II’s plea for clemency) was still fresh in people’s minds.. racism even became a topic of a class assembly lecture.. I suppose racism was officially classified as a sin by the Catholic Church by then.. hip-hop was the “new disco” to the white kids hostile to it (in middle America back then it was all about hard-rock & metal bands).. Even by then (late 80s), Gary had been cemented as the ‘uh-oh place’ where nobody wanted to go for an away sports game.. I can remember one Caucasian upper classman, whose parents were reputedly aging leftists or just really tolerant (he was known for wearing clothing outside of school hours emblazoned with the Soviet flag), openly admonishing the away-game apathy during a student council session.. I don’t know if anybody really listened, but it was nice to hear.. Merrillville Police Dept. was definitely 100% white then, don’t know about now.. Heck, the “main” reason Merrillville exists because like-minded whites wanted legal separation from the core of Gary—cutting off a major stretch of land that ostensibly was part of the city,
From Hatcher’s election to now, Gary’s had to deal with political hostility from surrounding municipalities, including at the state legislature level. As far as redevelopment goes, Is Miller Beach considered Gary property or Lake County property? Issues like that definitely complicate matters.
YOU have been in the belly of the beast. That school is Andrean. I had a couple of friends who went there (Tim Boudreaux and and a girl named Kim (don’t remember her last name but she probably graduated in 87 or 88). I’m sure I knew others, there names just don’t come to mind.
Anyway, it’s amazing to hear from NWI members of the white race who always resort to the “it’s all in your mind black people” when one of us points out their indiscretions in matters that involve racism.
As i’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize how frustrating it is for someone to tell you your wrong about things that WE KNOW WE GO THROUGH. Makes a person want to get violent sometimes.
But then you fall into the sterotype of the angry, violent black man. However, whenever you see a story about a violent white guy, like the guy who in Covina Ca. who dressed up in a Santa suit and shoot and killed 9 people who were relatives and friends of his ex-wife, the article tends to try to explain his chaos.
He recently lost his job. He was upset that his ex was asking for spousal support though he had no job and she was still going on shopping sprees and eating out a quality restaurants, and that he was denied uemployment benefits.
In other words, he snapped. There is an underlying tone in the AP articles that suggest that if, say, you were in the same predicament, you could do the same.
When it’s a story about a black individual who conducts an heineous crime (killings, multiple), there is no attempt in the articles that seek to find what drove the person to such levels of violence. No. He’s just one of those “animals” from the black race.
No they don’t write that. But by not providing the same perspective that the Santa nut’s case was provided, the black person/race is not seen by the readers as someone who just snapped. The “It can happen to anyone” mindset does not present itself.
We’ve got a black president. But the news editors are still white. They will still approve the most unflattering frames of film/pics that show Serena Williams hitting the ball with a grimace in her face that makes her look unappealing while finding the frames of the Russian white female tennis player that shows her power…but without the grimace.
Though Serena IS built, truly there are frames that provide the same. This is where this country has to change. Sure, Obama helps. But in NWI, you think those people in southern Merriville, Crown Point or Hobart would like if you or I moved into their neighborhoods today? In 2009 (almost)?
NO! We can be as accomplished or more then the entire neighborhood and they still will have the mindsets that their parents had when they fled Gary in droves in the late 60’s and 70’s.
Screw em.
You said: But in NWI, you think those people in southern Merriville, Crown Point or Hobart would like if you or I moved into their neighborhoods today? In 2009 (almost)?
NO! We can be as accomplished or more then the entire neighborhood and they still will have the mindsets that their parents had when they fled Gary in droves in the late 60’s and 70’s.
Screw em.
That sort of strikes me as you doing exactly what you say the white folk are doing; writing off an entire group, simply on the (what you claim is totally irrelevant) basis of race. If I am misreading your statement, by all means point out where/why I am wrong.
It is hard to put a finger on just what age group you are referring to as present-day occupants of southern Lake County, but for purposes of discussion I shall assume it is mine, the baby boomer generation. If so, I would have to agree with your statement as to their racial attitudes.
I would also say, their children exhibit a far different attitude, more racially neutral. Their children, in turn, do not see/think in terms of race. Those facts do provide a modicum of hope for the future for all of us, be we black, brown or white.
D. Yaros
no doubt, when situations like the “santa killer” happen, there’s usually a bunch of hand-wringing in most press outlets, people trying to “get to the bottom” of why an otherwise mild-mannered middle-class WASP could flip out like that. Though if a murder/mass-murder case involves someone of color, it is rarely given such in-depth coverage, it’s just assumed as further proof of black/latino/arab criminality (especially if their religion was Islam), and it’s left at that.. I can remember in high school, my senior year, there was a “shotgun killer” crime wave in Gary and nearby areas; an early eyewitness description/police sketch described a white male, early-mid-30’s, with a salt & pepper beard.. a few months later, a black male was arrested for the killings.. he was allegedly AWOL from the Navy, and was reputed to “hate white people”.. I found a link here-
http://ccadp.org/obadyahben-yisrayl.htm
Looks like the guy is still on Death Row..
Stumbled on your post because I mentioned White Flight in mine.. I wanted to let you know how much I like your writing. really well done piece. I’ve never been to Gary, but seems her issues are identical to my own home town.
Well written, nice work!