A city built on steel tries to reverse the decline

Gary, Ind., was once a symbol of American innovation. Home to US Steel's largest plant, Gary produced the product that built America's bridges, tunnels and skyscrapers. The city reaped the benefits of this, with a prosperous city center and lively neighborhoods.

Gary's chimneys still stand prominently along the sandy shore of Lake Michigan, sharply contrasted between the eroding dunes and the towering silhouette of Chicago to the northwest. But now they represent a city looking for a new start.

More than 10,000 buildings stand abandoned, and the population of 180,000 in the 1960s has fallen by more than half. Poverty, crime and an ignoble name – 'Scary Gary' – deter private investors and potential homeowners.

While US Steel is at a crossroads — a planned takeover would put it under foreign control — so too is the city named after the company's founder who helped build his empire. A new mayor and planned revitalization projects have revived hopes that Gary can forge an economic future beyond steel, the kind of renaissance that many industrial cities in the Midwest have managed to achieve.

In theory, the potential is there. Gary is located in the third largest metropolitan area in the country, near major railroad crossings and next to a shipping port. A national park, Indiana Dunes, is a popular destination for park-loving tourists and curious motorists.

“We have the recipe for success,” said Eddie Melton, the newly elected mayor. “We need to change the narrative and make it clear to the world that Gary is open for business.”

A minor league ballpark and a casino are among the construction projects that city officials consider success stories. But they have failed to generate the kind of lasting economic effects that were hoped for, said James B. Lane, a history professor at Indiana University Northwest and a Gary historian.

“The problem with all these projects is that they have not resulted in a multiplier effect of shops and businesses around them,” said Dr. Lane.

Other attempts have failed. The city agreed to sell its convention center to a tech company that promised thousands of jobs, but later sued the company after the company has defaulted on its contracts. A multibillion-dollar plan to create a theme park that would capitalize on Gary's fame as the birthplace of the Jackson Five was scuttled in the 1990s.

“We certainly missed an opportunity to make it a Dollywood, a Graceland,” said Chuck Hughes, president of the Gary Chamber of Commerce.

US Steel's presence in Gary has been greatly reduced. 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 factory, which remains one of the city's main employers.

One of those businesses is Great Lakes Cafe, a restaurant just outside the gates of Gary Works. Every morning, steelworkers in orange overalls stop at the restaurant, where signs show their support for the United Steelworkers union, to enjoy plates of hash browns and biscuits and gravy before starting their workday.

“We love US Steel,” said Cindy Klidaras, owner of the restaurant, which opened in 1994.

Economic research does not point to one 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.

Mr. Melton's election was celebrated by many as a new step. Kia Smith, a small business owner who has lived in Gary all her life, said the mayor's focus on transparency was a positive sign for the business community in a country with a long history of corruption. Ms Smith, whose grandfather worked in the steel mill, said the city needed to diversify its economy beyond the steel sector.

“No one owns Gary,” said Ms Smith, 43, who owns and operates a health food store and catering business. “We all own Gary.”

Beautification and restoration are underway. Mr. Melton's government has begun demolishing old buildings to attract developers who can put new homes and other buildings on the many 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 the local construction industry for more than 40 years, said his company had begun working with the new administration and recently demolished 15 buildings.

Mr. Wiseman's own childhood home, in the hard-hit Aetna neighborhood, is about to be demolished. “The 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 that connects Chicago to cities in northwestern Indiana, will open a second set of tracks between Gary and Michigan City to the east. The Gary/Chicago International Airport received $6 million in federal funding and added more cargo capacity in 2023, aiming to serve as a logistics hub for tenants like United Parcel Service. In December, Governor Eric Holcomb spoke announced a $127 million grant to improve Interstates 80 and 94, which pass through Gary, with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Yet the challenges are great.

Kamal Minkah grew up in Gary and knew it as a booming city. Things began to change in the late 1960s, when many white residents left, and continued with the first large-scale layoffs at Gary Works in the early 1970s.

Mr. Minkah left in 1980 to join the Air Force and returned in 1991. Gary was unrecognizable.

“It was like a feeling of emptiness,” said Mr Minkah, 60. “It's like the city just collapsed.”

Today, Mr. Minkah is a police officer assigned to Gary's 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 problem. Gary's demographics — the city is more than 80 percent black and heavily Democratic — put it at odds with Indiana's majority Republican legislature. Lawmakers have blocked initiatives that would have allowed Gary to expand its tax base and provide it with 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 in Indiana's tax code had helped his city, but not Gary, recover from the decline in manufacturing. Gary was a smaller, predominantly Democratic city within a larger, more conservative county, which under Indiana law controlled its ability to manage its taxes. The county would not be able to expand its tax base without the county's approval.

“Gary was held captive by what the other cities in his county wanted to do,” Mr. Helmke said.

Other cities offer contrasts and possible lessons.

Some 450 miles to the southeast, Pittsburgh's steel history remains a core part of its identity, even if the city hardly resembles the days of heavy industry. Chic bars, co-working spaces and university hospitals stand where steel mills once lit up the night sky.

Unlike Pittsburgh, Gary does not have a major research university, a major driver of economic transformation. Mr. Melton said his administration had worked closely with Detroit's mayor to understand how that city had worked to revive its economy after losing much of the nation's auto production.

A useful template for Gary might be Erie, Pennsylvania, says 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 the investment of one of the city's largest employers, Erie Insurance Group, led to a significant turnaround.

There, Erie Insurance worked with a group of local entrepreneurs, development organizations and others to revitalize the waterfront, investing $50 million in external partners in 2020. That project was spurred by a federal program that offers tax breaks for developing distressed areas. . The company also added a $147 million building to its campus in 2021.

But more important to Gary, Mr. Lettieri said, is a continued focus on making the city safe and livable. “When you're dealing with a declining population and high crime, those are necessary issues that the public sector needs to address first before the private sector steps in,” he said.

Although Gary has long been associated with decline, the residents who have remained, both white and black, see an opportunity for renewal.

Mr. Wiseman is among the hopeful. His mother worked in the steel mill in the 1940s and 1950s and felt loyal to the city. She stayed there when many other whites left, a migration that occurred around the 1967 election of Richard G. Hatcher, one of the nation's first black mayors. major American city. Before she died, she made her son promise that he would help bring Gary back to where it was: a place where people want to live.

“It is my absolute dream to see Gary blossom in my life again,” Mr Wiseman said.