by Gary, Indiana, was once a symbol of American innovation. Home to US Steel’s largest factory, Gary churned out the product that built America’s bridges, tunnels and skyscrapers. The city reaped the rewards, with a thriving downtown and vibrant neighborhoods.
The Gary Chimneys still stand out along the sandy shore of Lake Michigan, clearly juxtaposed between the eroded dunes and the imposing Chicago skyline to the northwest. But now they represent a city seeking a new beginning.
More than 10,000 buildings remain abandoned and the population of 180,000 in the 1960s has more than halved. Poverty, crime and an ignoble nickname – “Scary Gary” – deter private investors and would-be homeowners.
As US Steel finds itself at a crossroads — a planned acquisition would put it under foreign control — so does the city that is named after the company’s founder and helped build his empire. A new mayor and planned revitalization projects have revived hope that Gary can forge an economic future beyond steel, the kind of renaissance many Midwest industrial cities have achieved.
In theory, the potential is there. Gary is located in the third largest metropolitan area in the country, along major railroad junctions and adjacent to a seaport. A national park, Indiana Dunes, is a popular destination for park-loving tourists and curious drivers.
“We have the recipe for success,” said Eddie Melton, the newly elected mayor. “We have to change the narrative and make it clear to the world that Gary is open for business.”
A minor league baseball stadium and a casino are among the construction projects city officials point to as success stories. But they have failed to generate the kind of lasting economic effects that were hoped, said James B. Lane, a history professor at Indiana University Northwest and a Gary historian.
“The problem with all of these projects is that they didn’t create a multiplier effect on the shops and businesses around them,” Dr Lane said.
Other efforts have fallen short. The city agreed to the sale of its convention center to a technology company that promised thousands of jobs, but then sued the company after the company breached their contracts. A multimillion-dollar plan to create a theme park that would capitalize on Gary’s renown as the birthplace of the Jackson Five was scuttled in the 1990s.
“We certainly missed the opportunity to turn it into a Dollywood, a Graceland,” said Chuck Hughes, president of the Gary Chamber of Commerce.
US Steel’s presence in Gary has diminished considerably. Gary Works, US Steel’s largest plant, employs about 3,700 people, down from more than 30,000 at its peak. But local businesses still depend on the economic activity generated by the plant, which remains one of the city’s largest employers.
One of those businesses is Great Lakes Cafe, a restaurant just outside the doors of Gary Works. Every morning, steelworkers dressed in orange overalls stop by the restaurant, which has signs expressing support for the United Steelworkers union, to enjoy plates of hash browns and biscuits and gravy before beginning their work day.
“We love US Steel,” said Cindy Klidaras, owner of the restaurant, which opened in 1994.
The economic research does not point to a clear solution for Gary’s renewal, but suggests crucial elements such as investing in infrastructure and making the city a more physically attractive place to live.
Melton’s election was celebrated by many as a new step. Kia Smith, a small business owner who has lived in Gary her entire life, said the mayor’s focus on transparency was a positive sign for businesses in a place that has long dealt with corruption. Smith, whose grandfather worked in the steel mill, said the city needed to diversify its economy beyond steel.
“No one owns Gary,” said Smith, 43, who owns and operates a health food store and catering business. “We all own Gary.”
Beautification and restoration efforts are underway. Melton’s administration has begun demolishing old buildings to attract developers who can place new housing and other structures on the numerous vacant lots. One idea is to make Gary a viable alternative to Chicago, where rents have skyrocketed. Jim Wiseman, a lifelong resident who has worked in local construction for more than 40 years, said his company had begun working with the new management and recently demolished 15 buildings.
Wiseman’s childhood home, in the hard-hit Aetna neighborhood, is among those to be demolished. “Demolition is a way to change the community forever,” he said. “I hope to see a renaissance of new growth and housing for the community as we change things for the better.”
The South Shore Line, a commuter rail line connecting Chicago to cities in northwest Indiana, will open a second set of tracks between Gary and Michigan City to the east. Gary/Chicago International Airport received $6 million in federal funding and added more cargo capacity in 2023, with the goal of serving as a logistics hub for tenants like United Parcel Service. In December, Governor Eric Holcomb announced a grant of 127 million dollars to improve Interstates 80 and 94, which pass through Gary, with funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
Still, the challenges are enormous.
Growing up in Gary, Kamal Minkah knew it as a thriving city. Things began to change in the late 1960s, when many white residents left, and continued with the first widespread layoffs at Gary Works in the early 1970s.
Minkah left to join the Air Force in 1980 and returned in 1991. Gary was unrecognizable.
“It was like an empty feeling,” said Minkah, 60. “It’s like the city has collapsed.”
Today, Mr. Minkah is a police officer assigned to the Gary school system and runs a karate instruction school. He cited Gary’s proximity to Chicago and low housing costs as selling points.
Political isolation is another difficulty. Gary’s demographics (the city is more than 80 percent black and heavily Democratic) put it at odds with Indiana’s largely Republican legislature. Lawmakers have blocked initiatives that would have allowed Gary to expand his tax base and offered him little state funding, citing concerns about corruption. At the same time, the Illinois government has had little incentive to better connect Chicago to an Indiana city.
Paul Helmke, the former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, said a quirk of Indiana state tax law had helped his city, but not Gary, recover from the decline of the manufacturing industry. Gary was a smaller, Democratic-majority city within its larger, more conservative county, which Indiana law controlled its ability to manage its taxes. He couldn’t increase his tax base without county approval.
“Gary was captive to what the other cities in his county wanted to do,” Helmke said.
Other cities offer contrasts and possible lessons.
About 450 miles to the southeast, Pittsburgh’s steel legacy remains a central part of its identity, even as the city bears little resemblance to its heavy industry days. Stylish bars, coworking spaces and teaching hospitals stand where steel mills once lit up the night sky.
Unlike Pittsburgh, Gary does not have a major research university, a key driver of economic transformation. Melton said his administration had worked closely with Detroit’s mayor to understand how that city had worked to revitalize its economy after losing much of the country’s auto manufacturing.
A useful model for Gary may be Erie, Pennsylvania, said John Lettieri, co-founder of the Economic Innovation Group, a nonprofit research organization. Like Gary, Erie relied heavily on manufacturing and suffered when those jobs were shipped overseas. But a combination of business and political leadership and investment from one of the city’s largest employers, Erie Insurance Group, led to significant change.
There, Erie Insurance worked with a group of local business owners, development organizations and others to revitalize the waterfront, investing $50 million with outside partners in 2020. That project was fueled by a federal program that offers tax breaks for development of areas in difficulties. . The company also added a $147 million building to its campus in 2021.
But the most important thing for Gary, Lettieri said, is to continually focus on making the city safe and livable. “When you have a declining population and high crime, those are prerequisite issues that the public sector must address first before the private sector accepts,” he said.
Although Gary has long been associated with decay, the residents who remained, both white and black, see an opportunity for renewal.
Wiseman is among the hopeful. His mother worked in the steel mill in the 1940s and 1950s and felt loyal to the city, remaining there when many other whites left, a migration that occurred around the 1967 election of Richard G. Hatcher, one of the first black mayors of a large American city. Before he died, he made his son promise that he would help Gary get back to where he was: a place where people want to live.
“My dream is to see Gary thrive again in my lifetime,” Wiseman said.
