Urban decay

On the way up to Merrillville last night, since I-65 was closed, we drove through downtown Gary, Indiana.

Shane and I just shook our heads in disbelief. While Shane says there are other areas of the city that are becoming revitalized, the part we drove through was a landscape of boarded-up buildings and urban decay. We could see that at one time, it had been a thriving downtown area, but there were more closed businesses than there were open ones. The marquee of the Palace Theater proclaimed"Jackson Five Tonight" in tumbling letters. (I suppose someone put that up as a joke, although they probably really did play there back in the day.)

The only other place I've driven through that seemed as bad or worse than Gary was East St. Louis, Missouri. Similarly, many large buildings were boarded up and sitting vacant. Driving through Gary made me want to find out a little bit more about the city.

Anyone who has driven by Gary, seen the smokestacks belching, and smelled the "unique" aroma, knows that Gary is a manufacturing town. Its biggest industry was once steel-making, and the city itself was founded by U.S. Steel in 1906 to provide a place for its workers to live. With the demise of the steel industry in the 70's and 80's, the city went into a rapid decline. Crime soared, and for several years, Gary was known as the murder capital of the country. In the 2000 census, the family median income was $32,205. 22% of the families lived below the poverty level, including 38% of those under 18. From the 1990 to the 2000 census, the population dropped 11.9%.

But the city seems to be making some progress, with some revitalization going on, especially considering the tourism possible with the Lake Michigan shore and casino boats. There are many vacant buildings slated for demolition, and they've worked hard to reduce the crime rate. In 2006, the homicide rate was down 13.5%, and Gary happily lost its title as murder capital. I hope they can continue the progress and bring the city back from its slow decay. There are some fine examples of architecture there, including buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

As we were driving along, and as I looked around me with somewhat of a sense of shock, I wondered if urban centers like these are the future ghost towns. When you travel the back roads, especially decommissioned highways like Route 66, you see many abandoned and crumbling buildings. Shane's friend Adam in San Diego is getting into "ghost towning," and there are plenty of them in the west, towns that sprang up around silver, gold, or copper mines and then faded away when the mine was tapped out. Gary still has a population of around 100,000, so it's probably not going to fade away like those small towns, but the area we drove through certainly seemed to be gasping its last breath. I found it very sad and eerie.

I hope Gary can keep going with a refocus on industries other than manufacturing, and that they can keep working on structural improvement. As we looked down side streets, there were some pretty homes. It seems that it's a city that has potential, its demise isn't inevitable, and that it doesn't have to become a ghost town.