Chicago is worse then Gary. Chicago in 2021 there were 834 murders.

I had a flat tire on the way out of Chicago just inside of Gary probably 5 yrs ago. A man stopped to help and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be murdered or something else. Instead of the worst, he changed my tire for me and we had a nice chat. I offered to pay him, but he refused.

I suddenly got a horrible feeling that this will be what a lot of this country will look like if we continue the way we are going

At 32:08 to 32:18 this video shows what used to be a soft drink bottling company named Superior Beverage.  My father managed that company for the owner for 30 years.  I began working there each summer starting at age 12 and and by the time I was 17 graduated to working summers in the steel mills because my father could not match what the mills paid.  I paid for my entire college education working for US Steel during summer vacation.  I am now a retired Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon looking back to where it all began and can only remember the loving and hard working people who once built Gary and made it a safe and successful place to live.  It breaks my heart to see what has happened here. I could write a fifty page essay about how and why it occurred.  I witnessed the whole process.  Gary is the best example in the USA of the American dream turned into the American nightmare.

Michael Jackson was born in Gary Indiana as we saw and his father Joe worked at US Steel as a crane operator.

It's always surprising to me how fast a house can fall apart because it is not occupied. As if the roof was thinking "Well...there's nobody living in here, I give up!".

A trucking company I used to work for had a terminal in Gary.  I once got lost and made a wrong turn into Gary after dark.  I stopped at a stoplight (still working).  A cop came along and told me that I shouldn't stop at the lights after dark; the prevailing practice was to just run right through, to avoid getting robbed.  Imagine a COP telling you that! 😬

My dad told me Gary was the saddest, bleakest, most necrotized thing he ever saw. He passed through on a road trip from New England all the way to Nevada. He said it couldn't be called a graveyard because graveyards usually have a sense of peace and dignity. Not Gary. Really stuck with him.

This is where they should be building dozens of data centers.

Must admit that I found this video heartbreaking. The architectural beauty alone that is rotting away is enough to bring a person to tears but seeing all those vacant homes that once housed families full of dreams, joy and laughter, well, there are just no words.

I know a girl who grew up in Gary and she said it was really bad. She was constantly bulied for being white, shoes/ backpacks stolen at least once a week if not more and beaten up often. She left in 10th grade with her grandma and moved to florida, leaving her parents behind. Her grandma was a widow of a former steel worker from the 60's and both parents had their own issues....definition of an escape. Very sad...but Im happy to say shes moved and is now happily married with a 2 lovely kids!

I grew up in South Bend, IN. When I was a freshman in high school in 2011 my football team made the playoffs and had to play a team from Gary in Gary. Their school looked like it hadn’t been touched since 1960. We ended up beating them like 49-0. But the kids on the other team were just happy to have something to do. I felt bad for the conditions they had to grow up in though.

I was afraid for your safety in that church!

A few years back, my friend's daughter went to Gary with her friend to hang out with this guy. He wouldn't release them, took her truck, and her friend returned a few days later by herself. My friend's daughter was missing for a year until they found her remains. He was later arrested and charged with her demise. Her name was Jessica Flores. 😢

I grew up in Gary in the 1950's , early 60's.  It was such a great city!  I am filled with such fine memories as I see these buildings and streets again.  As kids, we were outdoors playing all the time.  The parks were nearby with perfect slopes for sledding.  Everything was within walking distance and very safe.   For one brief shining moment there was a great city there!

Currently a Gary resident. This video focused on downtown and the east side of town where there is majority of the abandoned buildings. There are beautiful homes and communities on either sides of Gary and areas where the abandoned homes and businesses are being tore down. Not condoning casinos but Hard rock casino is in the west side of Gary right off of 80/94 that brought in a lot of business and jobs to the area. The casino is hosting concerts and shows with big names celebrities that I never thought would even be named to be in this area. Gary is slowly being rebuilt but it’s being rebuilt from the outside first then working towards the inner city.

I've noticed a real striking difference between urban blight in the Midwest vs in the Northeast. In the Northeast, in places like Philadelphia, Baltimore, Trenton, etc, you see disrepair and crumbling infrastructure, litter and garbage everywhere, but the places are bustling with populations of people and activity. In the Midwest, with places like Gary, Detroit, Flint, St. Louis and such, it's just endless blocks of abandoned emptyness, like a scene from some post apocalyptic nightmare. I guess the contrast lies in the fact that one area has a diverse economy, while the other is a former industrial powerhouse. Once the industry left, the areas died with it.

Could you imagine if those abandoned houses could tell their stories. About the family's that once lived in them

Any town/city built on one company/industry is doomed to failure eventually.

I was born in East Chicago, Indiana in 1942 and raised by my father in Gary in a little neighbourhood called Clark Station which was in NW Gary off the industrial highway.  I went to Gary Edison High School and graduated in 1960. Gary was a fantastic place to live. We used to go to see the movies at the Palace theatre on Broadway and the State theatre on State Street. I met my beloved wife of 56 years ( she passed away in 2019) at Edison and we got married at the Brunswick Presbyterian Church in 1963. After attending Florida State University., I returned to Indiana and taught science at Merillville High School. Alas, I saw the writing on the wall vis-a-vis trouble brewing in the area and left the USA to settle in Australia. Never before was I so saddened as I was when I saw the terrible conditions that exist now in the town of my youth. I'll always be a Hoosier, but with an Australian mysti que. I put the blame where it should be squarely on the political mess that existed in NW Indiana and the money grubbers who offshoredy all the good jobs and industry to cheaper foreign countries.