"May I present you downtown Gary" (Indiana)

[phantom power]

A photo-essay. Worth reading the short comments between the photos:

http://www.growingchicago.com/images/other/mypicsVI/

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Looks like the setting for "I Am Legend".

All quiet there, but after dark the vampires come out.

[frogcycle]

2. looks like a great place to resettle middle-class Iraqis

It could become a thriving community, a tourist attraction for quality mideastern cuisine, perhaps crafts like carpets and such

[corkhead]

3. Big chunks of Detroit look like that too.

[tonkatoy57]

4. Very Interesting and Very Sad

It looks as if a neutron bomb has gone off killing all the people but leaving the infrastructure (mostly) intact.

I don't doubt that Gary is in dire straights, but I do wonder when the pictures were taken; at 3PM on Tuesday or 8AM on Sunday? There must be neighborhoods of poor people somewhere. The one thing I noticed immediately and found really creepy was that in most of the photos there is no trash. None. Not a can or paper bag blowing in the wind to be seen. I live in St. Louis. A much more prosperous city than Gary, but we have litter. And Detroit. Detroit is in bad shape too and it's the trash capital of North America.

I went and looked at the City of Gary web site. I think they hired the Bush administration's spin doctors to write the copy for the web site.

"Gary, Indiana is located on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan and on three major Interstate. At the Crossroads of America, Gary provides the perfect location for a weekend getaway, a family vacation, a business trip, or a night on the town. Relax on the beach or rent a jet ski! Take a long walk under the stars with Chicago's beautiful skyline twinkling across the calm water, or spend the day shopping in our Lake Street Shopping District, filled with boutiques and galleries. Night is near, get dressed up, the Jack Pot is waiting for you at Buffington Harbor!

Next time you are in town, stop in and have a good time. There's lots to do, and plenty of time to do it! Get to know us. Anything you need to know is at the click of a button!"

[likesmountains 52]

7. I did the same thing, but noticed one of the links was for "new 2006 projects"

looks like they even gave up on the web site...

[damntexdem]

9. No, a neutron bomb would be less destructive to the infrastructure.

This is a worse, more-destructive bomb: a neglect bomb.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Very sad. It's such a different America than when I grew up.

[tech3149]

6. The last person to leave town please turn out the lights

It's a crushing realzation to see what is happening to a good portion of America. Gary isn't alone, it's only one small section of the destruction that has been caused by the adoption of conservative ideals. From NY to SoCal you could do hundreds of photo essay's that would tell the same story. It breaks my heart to see what's happened to my country.

[damntexdem]

8. Parked cars but no business or housing on the street? No!

There is likely both commerce and living going on in some of those buildings, just not openly, or necessarily with legal rights to exist there.

Doesn't look like a really healthy community, though.

[Bitwit1234]

10. Back in the early 70's it was a bustling town.

Crowded with cars and people. It is a shame. The mills closed and I think everybody left.

[nealmhughes]

11. It is sad to see a dynamic city dying. All I can hope is that all those beautiful

red brick bldgs. can be used for lofts, after all, it is an easy commute into Chicago from Gary. Maybe if people moved into them at least some tax base and movement could be realized for the city.
What is even more sad is the small towns that have one grocery, one gas station, a handful of churches and a plethora of check cashing and title loan shops along with pawn shops and thrift stores. Now that is depressing, and they are all over the US, scant hope of any revitalization for them.

[OneBlueSky]

12. wow . . . I lived in Gary when I was in the 3rd grade . . .

and my dad was stationed in Chicago . . . don't remember all that much, except that it was a normal, bustling city . . . damn shame . . .

[suziedemocrat]

13. All those buildings need to be demolished and they should turn the place into a state park.

If the place is abandoned, let the deers live there happily. That's be better than all those rotting old buildings.

That may sound callous, but so much of the wild-life habitat is being developed; it would be nice to give something back. Wolves, deer, a lot of animals would be happy to live here. And the tree's they could plant would help clean the air.

[Enrique]

14. those are some beautiful photos of Chicago on your site

some of the best I've seen, especially the winter ones. That residential street you have a lot of pics of, is that Paulina St. by any chance?

[shrike]

15. The only life in Gary is near Miller Beach

But that,too, is threatened by the state's brilliant decision to tax any building within a mile of the lakeshore as lakeshore property.

There are plans to rehab Gary, but only for the wealthy -- i.e., Chicagoans who'll want nice condos near the lake. The middle or working class definitely does not fit into these plans.

[Robbien]

16. Thanks. I spent my childhood in Gary in the sixties

but moved to Chicago in the mid seventies.

In the sixties downtown was halfway deserted, so it doesn't surprise me that the streets are so empty of people and trash forty years later.

But it is so sad to see my hometown downtown completely dead.

[Jillian]

17. Didn't Gary, Ind have refiniries around the city?

I used to live in Chicago and my family would take road trips to Michigan.
We had to drive thru Gary Ind and I remember smelling it before ever getting there.

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. Gary's biggest employer was the steel mills...

Specifically the "Gary Works" facility of United States Steel. I tried to find out what the historical peak of employment was at that facility but had no luck. They currently employ about 6400 there. The Gary Works is a HUGE facility, 3000 acres right on Lake Michigan stretching for several miles along the shore.

Seems to me i read somewhere that in its heyday in the 50's and 60's, there were 50,000 plus employed there, all good, high paying union jobs.

[pscot]

18. Wow!

You have to wonder if this is what the future will look like.

[kurth]

19. Stop lights still functional? Mail delivery?

[raccoon]

21. Won't let me view it. I'm getting,

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