I am a white man who lived in Gary from 1997-2005. I lived in what is considered a"bad" area. I had 3 children (also white) who went to school there. Lew Wallace HS. I worked in downtown, on 5th and Broadway at the Mecca building. I can honestly say, I met some of the best friends in my life there. Most of the people who are there don't like the way things are, but don't have the money, or the ability to earn the money to make things better. Things to note are, NIPSCO (Northern Indiana public service company) charged way higher rates to Gary residents than others. We paid higher taxes than other areas also. All the while, being denied proper representation by our elected officials. Thatcher was bad, King was no better. I knew Karen before she became Mayor. I hope she can turn the city around. It may not be a beautiful place, but it is filled with beautiful people who deserve to be given an opportunity for a better life.
Hatcher. Richard Hatcher. I grew up in Hammond, was in High School when he got elected in '68. Was a big deal. Was also the beginning of its decline. My older brother was a cop there for ten years. It soured him. He eventually packed up and moved to rural Alabama. 🤷♂️
@@johnholliday5874 I grew up in Calumet city, lived on State line for most of my youth. Spent a lot of time hanging out at Goldblatts as a kid. Damn, the trouble I got into back then.
Honestly they should all just move somewhere else that actually has prospects. Without investment into the area you are literally pissing into the wind.
Hatcher wasn’t a bad mayor, he was simply black. When he was elected the opposition started stacking the decks. Businesses started to leave, and the city started to decline. He was one of the first Black mayors in civil rights era America...and the rest is American history.
@Solomon Dario You cared enough to put your rude comment on here. Lemme guess...you live in a better off city and have lived a shallow life and have no compassion or empathy for people in any situation cause you have never suffered and have never been hungry or needed for anything..and not because you did something without help from your family. Shame on you!!
I have refurbished and restored a number of buildings since the 1980's. I have opened businesses with little or no cash and they succeed; yet about 5 years ago when I asked the City of Gary to sell me at token cost some of the former downtown (including the theater and W. T. Grants building, they turned me down as "Having No Experience". That is really news to me and the buildings I refurbished and businesses I've opened and owned. They say they want to revitalize the city, but, when help is offered, they turn it down. All they care about is get their paychecks and doing nothing to earn it.
Luv what you are doing. What you are doing is infastructure work. It saddens me that so many structures that could be refurbished just sit. Yet developers in big cities continuously get large sums of money to build new structures. We need a movement and initiative, something to revitalize the old. Maybe a gofundme Gary, Indiana. Politicians are so out of touch with reality. They posture and advocate for absurdity. They are window dressers.
I mean, I see a lot of comments saying this documentary was depressing but it was so informational and made to relay information. Truthfully, a great “abandoned” place documentary.
I grew up in Gary, Brunswick on west 5th ave to be exact. Watching this move is like a trip back in time. I caught the bus on west 5th ave downtown on Saturday, Visited the Dime Store, Sears and then.. The Prize. I went to the Palace for a " Air Conditioned Treasure " I attended Gary Edison School on West 5th most of my years. I must say, looking back these were the best friends of my life.... I would give anything to go back.. They just don't make friends like that anymore. This is one of the Very BEST Schools and the Best Years of my Life. I almost cry when I see what Gary Edison has Fallen to. This is one of the Very BEST Gary documentary I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Words can't express my gratitude for all of you r hard work to produce this fine film. When I see Gary's end It feels like losing a part of me also. Thank you more than I can find words for making this very Important film All my Very Best...... >
@Mauri Mela Exactly right, and our four worst Presidents, Old man Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama were identical in pursuing the shallow ideas of a new world order leading us to the gates of hell
It hurts my heart to see what has happened to Gary; I was born and raised there. It was a beautiful, thriving city, I lived just a few houses away from Mayor Richard Hatcher. I saw people, working people, black and white, that made Gary a well-oiled machine. I remember the stores, the theatres, the restaurants, the businesses and schools. The neighborhoods were clean and well kept. As kids, we trick-or-treated until the last porch light went off. We knew our neighbors and we looked out for each other. We had gardens. My uncle owned a local record shop and did a radio show on WMPP in East Chicago. It was truly the "good 'ol days". What hurts even more is the ex senator of the state of Indiana now sits in the seat of the Vice President of the United States. He watched Gary rot and the country isn't smelling so good, either. So let's work together for a change. Ignorance comes in ALL colors and those who use this page as a platform to be racist, you wouldn't even begin to know how to be part of the solution. You're excused...NEXT.
Well said. I'd like to say something. "Educate instead of incarcerate". The bottom line is that in restoring cities like Gary "Security" comes first because people can't thrive in fear. Deregulate commercial properties and businesses which means "Jobs" can come easier which is the second step. Then we will have "Nice neighborhoods" which third. In that order. It's really that simple but we can't seem to get past the first step in some places.
I can feel your pain, I know how it hurt to see the home you grew up and grew to love died naturally because of economic issues and bad politics. Let's be honest, anywhere in the world where they religiously followed The West policies of democracy and capitalism are struggling to survive unlike the countries that decided to follow their own way of governance. China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and some of the middle east, they are enjoying good economy and equal opportunities but the Country that decided to follow the West campaign are now struggling despite having vast of wealth. Democracy and capitalism were designed to only favors a few thieves and corrupt politicians and their personal interest. How can the U.S who are capable of waging the war with half of the world and wins, failed to give enough security in its own backyard?! Can any gang be able to infest and the government headquarter in Washington DC and survive a day?
Alex: I generally do not watch documentaries like this, but this one grabbed and held my interest throughout. You have created a good work here and I pray for all of you in Gary. Godspeed!! What you did, Alex, if affecting minds and hearts. Thank you.
As a lifelong resident of Chicago, I enjoyed this immensely and immeasurably and thank the producers for their monumental efforts in the creation of this film. Thank you.
People grow up in these places and are afraid to move. I did about a year ago. Best choice I ever made. So easy to get work, find a place to stay, make new friends. Main regret is not moving sooner I feel like I wasted my life.
Such an excellent documentary. Really sad that 99% of the comments here have nothing to do with the video and come from such a dark place in the hearts of the posters. I was hoping to read about people's personal stories and experiences growing up in or currently living in Gary, or insightful comments from residents who can actually speak to what has happened or provide an update with specifics, but I can barely find them in between the junk comments. ... Loved the part about the man rehabbing houses and teaching/providing jobs to people after they have gotten out of prison. I thought more people would be interested in that. What a great idea and he is actually making it happen. It's the kind of thing we all think we would like to do someday but never make happen. He is giving them the gift of practical knowledge and skills that they can use to rebuild their city and their lives. Really amazing!
Fantastic documentary on Gary! My family came here in around 1915 and my Grandfather graduated from Emmerson in 1933. His old neighborhood is now just a field of grass with the original sidewalks. I started school in 1971 at Daniel Webster. My family was from Glen Park. A lot of great memories!
That what happens when you call yourself the "City of the Century"... The next century comes, and your forgotten. Well done doc. Very professionally put together.
OMG! Thank you for making this! How could they letbthis happen? The Palace Theater was so important to so many of us! The bus used to run from Hobart to Gary... So many memories... And the Walgreens... All of it. Indeed we are a throw away society! I'm 70 this year-2018
This was a very interesting video. It seems to me that private industry established the town of Gary to a provide a place for its workers to live, so it fulfilled a need. The idea of town government building convention centers, museums, and airports to save the town won't work, because these places will not fulfill any specific needs, and the government has no money to build them, due to lack of revenue! Gary really needs to attract private manufacturers that will produce tangible goods, and more importantly, good paying jobs, and then the revitalization will follow. It also seems to me that a museum / concert hall honoring Michael Jackson and his family is an awesome idea, but town government cannot and should not finance it alone. The Jackson family should step up and provide major funding along with private donors. Then the town could offer low tax incentives to help get it established. It will also take a lot of citizen initiative and small businesses, like urban the gardening initiative, which could produce food to be sold at farmers markets, and the guy from PA helping to rehabilitate both prisoners and the community, one house and a few lives at a time. In these kinds of ways, needs would be fulfilled, and the community could exist again.
Mark Kotulich The Jackson Family can't even get themselves together! And, no matter where Michael Jackson was born, his talent still would have made him successful!
Mark Kotulich agreed!!! I can’t understand how/why the jacksons are not all over this, 9 children god knows how many grandchildren, not one of them have stepped up?? It’s odd!!
Oh how i wish i couldve walked down Broadway back in the day in all its glory. Ive heard many stories of it being on par with Chicago, Nyc, etc .Its a goddamn ghost town now and I feel stuck. Its hard to get out with little money. Coming up with a way to make the money to get out of the city is also not easy .
Yep!! Lmmfao.... I had to edit this comment. "That chapter" guy's name is Mike (not Mark) lol sorry... But yeah,, Mike brought me here about tirty minutes ago!!😂😂
I was raised in Gary Indiana. Me and my mom moved to Gary Indiana from Chicago when I was 11. I graduated from Horace Mann High. I'm glad somebody's doing a documentary on this city
I was born in 1953 at Mercy Hospital down town. I went to Lew Wallace High School. It was a big beautiful school. I worked at Sears down town, I would take the bus 2x's a week and mom took me on Saturdays. It was a very safe and beautiful town. This made me sick to my stomach...
Yes it was a beautiful town. I was born at Mercy in 1955. We always went to shop and movies on Broadway and 5th Ave also. I used to get Italian beef at the Tivoli tap on 5th and polk or Fillmore.
I'm from Gary a grown-up and Gary I'm 64 years old with sad eyes and tears to see Gary go down like that I was raised in Delaney project but now I am a minister of the Gospel sadly and prayers for Gary
Not sure if anyone else has picked up on this, but any city that relies on one industry to stay alive (one mill, one factory, etc) usually hasn't stayed afloat. Middletown, Ohio comes to mind with AK Steel. Though that town was largely saved from complete oblivion by it's close-enough proximity to Dayton and Cincinnati.
Gary's steel industry survived the economic downturns. Gary Works remains the largest steel mill in North America and one of the largest in the world. That's not to say the downturn in the industry didn't hurt Gary's steel industry, but we fared better than many other areas. USS actually closed down operations in other areas and consolidated them in Gary, so things could have been much worse. Racial politics, on both sides, is what destroyed Gary.
This is an incredible documentary. While I would've enjoyed it even more had it not been so sad, the production, writing, cinematography, and narration are just fantastic.
Thank you for the content, it was full of information that I was looking for and a whole lot more. It’s a LOT of work to take on a project like this. Just letting you know I really appreciate it.
My history teacher in high school was so favorited with the city of Gary, Indiana but never knew really why. Its steel production was most known, but you did such a wonderful job of explaining how bustling and roaring of a town it was visually and historically, thank you for this. ✌🏼
Facts whites fled Gary and built their cities and town to teach blacks in Gary who was superior whites were to teach Blake folks a real lesson inpower.
Those of you who are reading these comments Don t be offended by the behavior of white flight.this is what actually happened ye shall know the truth and the truth will make u free.
Nicely done history. Driving on the freeway with Gary off to the sides, I used to look at the old neighborhoods and wonder about them. Old houses, many of them empty. Empty streets and just a "ghost town" atmosphere that piqued ones interest on the history of the place. Your documentary covers the situation well. Thanks for doing such a good job.
What's truly pitiful, is the subhuman lowbrows who post hateful, abusive, & racist comments in response to compassionate, insightful documentaries such as this one. My response is this: Thank you, Precision Independent Media, for posting this excellent documentary, and giving me the chance to understand the rise & fall of Gary, IN.
Part of the globalist agenda is to pit race against race, gender against gender, Democrat against Republican, etc., so we don't work together to stop their insane plot to implement the New World Order.
wcfl10 Yes, and it brought tears to my eyes to see a once magnificent city turned into a pile of crumbling decay! Seeing that Church, the Palace Theater, the Schools just wasting away with no hope of ever being restored! It's just one of hundreds more once great AMERICAN CITIES destroyed, never to return to their glorious past!
I moved from Chicago to Merrillville to Gary to Hammond to Griffith to Hammond again then Lake Station. Seeing Gary, you could still see the history in the buildings and various locations. Granted many were dilapidated or burnt out shells. Yeah, I was robbed, family was on welfare, had not one but two different house fires but I wouldn't trade it. I've met some great people along the way. As a follow-up, the Black Oak section of Gary is now essentially being turned into a Casino. Again, such a well done documentary! Amazing to watch.
When I was a kid in the early 1960's we would drive up to Detroit from Peoria and dad would always drive at night going up and I still remember the glow in the sky reflected off the smoke above the steel mills in Gary. On the way back during the day you would see the huge cloud of pollution above Gary miles before you got there.
I was born in Gary in 1971, then moved to Pa a few yrs later. This is so sad. my folks can remember hearing gunshots back in the 70s while thay were in bed. My moms entire family is from the Gary/Hammond area.I still remember the smell from the steel mill in the air in Hammond!! This documentary just breaks my heart!!! they should seize the Clintons money and fix up Gary!!!! lol
I was born in Gary,In in 1960. And lived in 45 states and 3 countries, now in Dallas,Tx. I've have dreams of turning Gary's land scape into golf looking turfs. With streams and brooks with lake front restaurants, athletic courts and water sports. I have many dreams for Gary, but millions are needed to do so. I'm creating a Red carpet clothing line, and i'll make Gary, IN & Las Vegas the head quarters.
I was born in Gary Indiana I'll Always Love Gary Indiana!! I left Gary in the early 80s!! I know Michael Jackson is dead and gone but I wish his family could have helped Gary more!! When he died people all over the world came to Gary to see where he live!! I'm just saying never forget where you come from!!
Great documentary, especially considering that the makers are not professionals from what I could gather. Massive respect for Roger as well, bringing positive energy and change to a city existing in a state of "stagnant hope". EDIT: props to the people choosing to work with and for Roger to improve their own lot and their community too.
PRECISION INDEPENDENT MEDIA: I don't know if this is an amateur video or what, however, I will say that it is one of the very best and well-researched documentaries I've seen in a very long time. There is no doubt that you are a gifted journalist with a solid future in the field, should you decide to pursue it in that direction. You obviously put all your efforts into it and it most definitely shows. Excellent work. In fact, I've even subscribed to your channel and I look forward to seeing more films by you. Good luck in the future.
Very much enjoyed this heartfelt history, thank you! I was born at Gary Methodist and raised in Miller until 10 y.o. when we moved to CP. I attended IUN for a semester. I hope to work with NPS on Dunes National Lakeshore someday soon. Gary still holds my family roots.
The very idea of a city with an abnormally high crime rate focusing on a convention center and the tourism it would bring is absurd. Imagine Disney building a theme park in Compton, or in the heart of Detroit.
You have to wonder how out of touch some of these politicians are. Of course if you're spending other peoples money, they probably figure it's a good idea.
Mark Villano keep in mind racist white people created those black communities. Communities like this all across america, compliments of the white man. Then you got the nerve to complain.
That is just cargo cult mentality copycat of en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilbao . It was also industrial shithole, but got famous because it plainly took action to change. Just affirmation was strong thing. OFC cargo cult - so far no other place on earth managed to copy Bilbao's success by just copying their footsteps - there needs to be understanding of underlying process, not just monkey see monkey do.
Gary, Cleveland and Detroit all have wayyyy too much in common. Cities that all heavily relied on the steel industry for economic vitality, then failed to adapt once this industry fell. On top of that, the incredible racial tension that built up caused divide in the community and thus people moving out. Then with less people, less money circulated, and therefore more crime. It'd be worthwhile for tech companies to move offices or warehouses out to cities like this to help start a Renaissance. Shoutout to everyone in the Midwest growing up in these areas- much love🙏🏽
Blaming the decline of the steel industry the reason of Gary's troubles is a sorry excuse, Gary Indiana started going downhill when U.S Steel, Inland Steel, Youngstown and Bethlehem Steel were at their peak in steel production. Gary residents just do not want to face the facts, Richard Hatcher's administration destroyed the city of Gary, millions of dollars have been pumped into that city to revive it and all that money has been wasted
24:00... saw all I need to see, "the city also received a $400,000 grant from INDOT". No renovation, no accountability. I say this with all due respect, people of Gary, you get what you vote for.
I lived in Gary in the 1950s and worked in the steel mill. It was a nice town and I felt safe on the streets. But when Hatcher became mayor things changed. For example, there was a bank robbery and the robbers escaped on the interstate because every police pursuit car chasing them, including a paddy wagon, broke down while on the pursuit. No one seemed to know what had happened to the money that was allocated for the cars maintenance. What happened to Gary? The blacks achieved a voting majority and a lot of old seething resentments surfaced. I was there last in 1969 and I never will go back.
The problem isn't black or white. The problem is qualifications and why the person wins. From the documentary it's pretty clear that in Gary existed racism and classism. The question is: Was Hatcher qualified to be a mayor and run it all or was he just an activist against racism and classism. Unfortunately people don't seem to realize that it's the same racism that causes an ideologue activist to win as it is that continues to elect a clearly unqualified and failed politician back into office. Gay was a clear victim of liberal activism to this day and globalism. Hatcher may have been unqualified to run the office but Tarriff free globalism stole any opportunity to recover. On top of this are high taxes to pay for hair brained liberal schemes to bring the city back. I mean seriously! WHO with a 1/2 of a functioning brain cell could be conned into believing that an urban garden will bring the city back? A row of carrots a season sure as shit won't replace 1000s of year round industry jobs and local spinoff manufacturing. However, maybe if they grow enough carrots they'll open their eyes to clearly see how ignorant they are.
This decline has been happening, and is starting to take place in many more American cities now...Rising property values and rents to grossly unaffordable amounts, ultra-high taxes due to predatory single-party political machines and their unending financial feeding frenzies, vital business and key commerce leaving areas or offshoring in search of tax relief and cheaper and often non-union labor, segregation and racial unrest, crumbling infrastructure due to neglect and mismanagement, and high crime and poverty filling the gaps that gainful employment and prosperity once occupied- all are major factors! Nobody seems to care enough to stop any of it! Thanks for making and sharing this documentary... Well done!
Yep, and then you have people like Trump who blame it all on democrats, while he creates his following and stabs them in the back by doing the same thing. Both parties have been doing this for 40 years, ever since Reagan. It's called neoliberalism.
You have done a wonderful job with this. Driving by Gary as a child- it felt as if a cold wind came from that direction. I was scared of Gary- without hearing anything, or ever stepping foot there. Not scared of getting murdered, but there was a true sense of destruction that emanated from that city. Haunting- that would be the best word to use, it was haunting. This doc gives Gary a sense of life that I have never seen. Thank you for sharing it- and when I ever climb out of poverty myself, I will buy a copy : )
+Boo Radley Your right. It was smoky and scary. I drove through there many times when traveling to and from Chicago. It scared the shit out of me. I always made sure I had enough gas and a good spare tire when I passed through that city. Dark Ugly And foreboding..
I remember when I was a kid and my mother used to take the bus from Hammond to downtown Gary to go shopping and department the stores were packed. Yes, NAFTA and Free Trade have ruined many cities in this country.
Let it die. It's not like it was a city with a rich history; it was a boomtown that went bust in less than 100 years. Just level it and let the surrounding communities gradually absorb it as they expand.
As a guy that loves America and American history,I fear for your future. Don't be divided on narrow issues. You are better than that. Elect decent people. Don't swallow the narrative being spoon fed. You're better than that. Wish you nothing but success.
Makes me so sad to see the history of my hometown. Roosevelt High school is closed now as well. If I had the funds I would rebuild the whole city. I literally cried while watching this 😖😢
@@angelb.johnson1485 i assume you had to move to carry on with life :job kids and so on. you made the best move for yourself, which many people have done and the consequence of this is a dead town. love it for what it was, cherish the good memories and enjoy what is left (the beach and so on)
I'm from Duquesne, Pennsylvania....Gary had the largest steel mill in the world...Duquesne was second. After US Steel closed Duquesne, it also turned into another Gary.
The American Dream was sold to China by bribed US politicians > Free Trade with a Communist Nation where people work for less than 5 US Dollars a day . If Trump is unsuccessful accomplishing FAIR Trade agreements with China and other similar ultra low wage Nations , America will have two classes of people . Rich and Poor . Similar to what you see in most Third world Nations.
I remember working at the NIPSCO building just south of the Sheraton back around 1993. My first day there included a car on the sidewalk after a man ran in to avoid being shot by his brother. They just robbed the grocery store down the block. The one brother used the car to get away, leaving his brother behind. The brother emptied a clip at his fleeing brother, reloaded and unloaded that clip before hopping a city bus to escape. The police caught the brother after stopping the bus.... And that was my introduction to Gary. BTW. I did continue to work there for about 18 months.
This is happening in every american city. I live in brooklyn NY and have seen 57,000 companies close in the past 50 years and attended many auctions selling off their assets. Almost all manufacturing has moved to other countries and now even our food production is moving to china.
Yeah, they get rich in politics when they are in for a long time. Someday laws will be made to stop this. A lot of people belong in prison for corruption and theft.
It breaks my heart to see buildings so old with such incredible history left to rot. Here in Scotland we have a place called Bangour Hospital Village, there are lots of buildings there, most of them listed, they've been left to rot so they can be demolished so developers can get their hands on it and build houses no doubt, makes me very angry, I took lots of pictures, got into a couple of the buildings, the place was built in 1906.
Gary Indiana has smelled terrible for over 30 years. Whenever I'm driving in the midwest I make sure to NOT have to stop anywhere near Gary. You know you're getting close to Gary when the smell hits you.
The narrator for some reason didn't mention (and probably a big reason why many left the city) is that when Hatcher got elected the first thing he said was "This is our city now".
That's a huge chunk of it. Take some of those building and restore them (that takes a huge chunk of change to do right). Would be a good place to ooen up and sell to movie production.... sell as in promote.
Crime and corruption - the same old story. Criminals and gangs took over the streets. In the 60s, it was a badge of honor to survive a trip there, with school buses carrying students to play ball often being hit with bricks as they left town. Mayor Hatcher's administration was also very corrupt, so instead of solutions, it became part of the problem. Contracts were awarded to those who paid off government officials. And there is little hope it will ever come back, even though a lot of money was spent over the years to revive it.
Gary use to be such a beautiful place..regardless its still home to many of us..so those of you that trash talk it and put it down bothers us that are still here..trust me when I say we'd do ANYTHING to have Gary back booming ! But our mayor ain't nothing and any mayor leading up to this one ain't nothing.. We need folks who honestly care about Gary..sad..very sad..
Grew up there in the 60's, would love to see it prosperous again. Government can only do so much, need people that care about the city and are willing to invest in it. Sadly I am not sure it is salvageable in the near future. It will be a long difficult road back and i'm not sure there is enough support for that
I know what you mean Kelly A I’m from Bessemer Al and it’s not the nicest place in the world by many standards but it’s home to me and if I won the lotto I’d still call Bessemer home
I was staying in Chicago for a few days recently and I remembered Gary was close to it and since I’ve always been a Michael Jackson fan I took a ride to visit his childhood home. I knew the city was poor but I wasn’t expecting to see so many buildings and houses completely abandoned.
This is so sad. Even sadder, that young photographer dying so young. My heart goes out to his family. I'm also appalled at the people making promises and receiving money and never doing anything. Where'd the money go? Not only that, reading all the comments....where did common decency, respect for one another and basic grammar and punctuation go? 🤦♀️
Bunny Mad I hear you! Bad grammar and punctuation drive me mad, too. However, we must accept the nationwide failure of our public education system which began in the late 60s to explain that. Every once in awhile there's public exposure and cautionary tales that we have become a nation of semiliterate people and public school systems scream more money and we've been letting them get away with it for decades. The problem is the quality of the teachers and administrators. When in the 70s and 80s I started receiving misspelled notes or bulletins or whatever, with bad grammar and punctuation from my children's schools and teachers I pulled them out of public schools. The problem is like Gary, Indiana; too huge to fix. I think the man rehabbing houses and providing training for folks is a good thing. I didn't exactly grasp his extremely vague explanation about how he is financing all that. There was a whiff of snake oil about him. My question is how are the people who will ultimately live in these houses pay the monthly rent or mortgages when there are no jobs to be had? I heard him refer to this investor and reselling to another investor, but investors expect an ultimate pay off and I don't see much hope of that.
Are you joking? You must be. This would be a moderately impressive high school history project. It is, however, lacking in professionalism or any knack for storytelling. Gary deserves a good doc. This isn’t it.
I used to take Ridge Rd home at night, right through Gary. I never once had a problem. As the masses have left and spread into New Chicago, Lake Station, Merrillville and some part of Hobart, those cities are too on the decline. What used to be hard working families who showed pride in ownership of their home and towns has been replaced by low income renters, drug abuse and low grade businesses ie; pawn shops, liquor stores and check cashing. Unfortunately the schools have suffered as well. River Forest High School has been on academic probation for years for not meeting the state standards. I miss what my home use to be but I’m happier knowing where I live now, it’s the people who make my city great. Their is pride and community commitment that has made it flourish in resources, education and infrastructure. I will always hope that someday NWI will rise above what was and focus on what can be.
It's because of drugs nobody wants to work everybody gets stuff off the internet and all big businesses are moving to other countries it's just going to get worse until anarchy in the streets the cops will end up quitting and it's going to be military policing America it will be off the chain
Gary didn't die because of black/brown people. it died because of nearsighted people thinking one industry is going to support a whole city. All of these Rustbelt cities are guilty of this, thinking a industry is going to keep them going....it don't. I'm from Birmingham Alabama and my city is in better shape than Gary but has the same problems on a smaller level, mostly due to divided municipalities working against each other. One guy in this documentary said Gary needs to scale back and concentrate on the living active areas, instead of trying to fix the rotted dead areas. That's actually a GREAT idea, scale back and THEN rebuild outwards. .
I think it has nothing to do with race but it has to do with the mentality of the people. In a changing world, people need to not only change but anticipate change and prepare for it. I've seen many interviews of laid off factory workers from depressed areas of the U.S.. They sound pretty stupid and complacent. They seem to have no transferable skills or at least they don't have the minds to think how they could use their skills in a different job. If a staple food no longer exists, will the people starve?
"How can Gary come back?" he asks. Get rid of the thugs, I say. It wasn't murder capital of the country for nothing. The national guard wasn't called in for nothing. The political and police corruption was beyond none other. People are scared to go there. That is why they would rather drive to Midway airport instead of going to the closer Gary airport. I made some good money boarding up some of those buildings you saw in this video. I know. I lived it. If you want to clean up this city you will first need to put responsibility and pride back into the people that live there. Rather than cowering behind their doors as the thugs run the streets.
I come from a long line of steelworkers. My dad and uncle both worked at Allegheny Ludlum in New Castle, Indiana. I even worked there as a temp in 2005. America has never been kind to its blue collar workers.
What does this even mean? It was unions (and environmentalists) that basically negotiated the blue collar worker’s job overseas or to a right to work state.
I lived in Gary for a total of 17 years. What they aren't telling is the division in the city. Nobody supports anybody. If the vision is not there's then they will either talk against it, withdraw support or don't support it altogether. There are also some policemen I saw in the video that were on the GPD when I was there 17 YEARS AGO that aint doing nothing but collecting a check and are unified with the drug, gang and violent culture of the city. And as far as finances go, the city government has had more than enough money poured into from Washington DC down thru the years to rebuild it. What is happening is there a misappropriation of funds as leadership has pocketed it. Mayor Freeman talks about needing money, but when you don't wanna discipline yourself with the fiances you get, OF COURSE you are going to end up filiing bankruptcy. There is also a lot of lying and crooked people who are behind the scenes sabotaging their own city. You build it up, then they will try to either tear it down or use loopholes in the laws to stop you before you get started. STONEWALLING it is called. The city simply needs to remove ALL the powers that be and put some people of godly moral character in there who have the business savy to not just put a sound vision together, but have the know how to follow thru - even when opposition rises up. Im sorry. but Gary CAN BE HELPED. Things are not as they seem. It's the corrupt leadership that has to be uprooted and new fresh blood needs to be put in. It took time for Gary to get in this state and it will take time for Gary to overcome, but they just need to take what they got and use it wisely and acklnowledge God first that the steps of God become ordered by God. The only problem there really is spiritual. Poverty and fear are spiritual strongholds. And this kind only come out by fasting and prayer after the city repents for there past sins and turns back to God totally FIRST.
*Please turn on the automatic closed captions!* This is useful for many people, _besides the hearing impaired_---if children are playing in the backgroud; outside noise coming through an open window; listening late at night when others are asleep, and other reasons. *_PLEASE TURN ON AUTOMATIC CLOSED CAPTIONS._*
The theatre, houses, schools, and city as a whole were built by and served hundreds of thousands of people in their lifetimes, they weren't wasted. I think what you're really lamenting is the finite nature of mortality. And I get it, but find it all fascinating none-the-less. Back in the real world though, most of the comments below are still shitty and racist.
Some people just use this comment section for a racism paradise. I looked at it for almost an hour. I feel ashamed that a few black people like them in gary, i.e: the ones who murder, or do drugs give us a bad name. But I really dont understand. How does color affect the way we are portrayed? I’m happy my family moved me to a mostly white community where im not judged much by race. Grandma lives in a mostly black area, where I dont hear much harm happening between race. Im glad my family is in such good places where both races get along with eachother. But places, like this comment section, make me sad. I may be wrong on this, but it’s not neither races fault. I am mostly mixed, and I’m trying to be on both sides as good as I can.
I live 45 minutes south of Gary and I'd love to see it restored. I'd definitely go there if they had more to offer. As is, there's not much to attract me there besides an occasional RailCats game. There's no reason to spend a day in Gary when I could drive an extra 30 minutes and be in the heart of Chicago with a million choices of things to do and see. But, if Gary had something unique that nowhere else in NW Indiana had, I promise I'd be there in a heartbeat.
The mayor, Karen, sure likes signs saying she’s the mayor. I suspect public officials have drained and wasted public funds over the years. Anyway, excellent documentary, thank you. I’d love an update! Apparently, “It’s Gary’s Time” is still operating.
Excellent video. I grew up in Lansing, work in Hammond, and have a few friends that grew up in Gary or close to. Sad to see such a once proud and prosperous town looking the way it does. Same with Detroit. I always say Detroit is Gary’s big brother.
It’s a Cesspool of crime, drugs and dead end jobs. It’s not racial to move your children somewhere that has a better influence on them than crime and gangster life. When you get jumped and beat for your hat, it not racist to get your children out. I’m so tired of hearing how it racist to be a good parent and try to give your children a better chance at life.
@@trethatdudeI grew up next to Gary. Everyone that could moved out to get away from the low life obnoxious Blacks that were moving in from Chicago. A huge number abandoned their homes since nobody was interested in owning property in Gary. Gangs took over the abandoned properties to live in and rent out with the city doing nothing about it.
![ไลฟ์สุ่ม iPhone 295 บาท... โกงมั้ย?[ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.97 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gdstHEE4UUE/mqdefault.jpg)
I am a white man who lived in Gary from 1997-2005. I lived in what is considered a"bad" area. I had 3 children (also white) who went to school there. Lew Wallace HS. I worked in downtown, on 5th and Broadway at the Mecca building. I can honestly say, I met some of the best friends in my life there. Most of the people who are there don't like the way things are, but don't have the money, or the ability to earn the money to make things better. Things to note are, NIPSCO (Northern Indiana public service company) charged way higher rates to Gary residents than others. We paid higher taxes than other areas also. All the while, being denied proper representation by our elected officials. Thatcher was bad, King was no better. I knew Karen before she became Mayor. I hope she can turn the city around. It may not be a beautiful place, but it is filled with beautiful people who deserve to be given an opportunity for a better life.
The need to vote Republican
Hatcher. Richard Hatcher.
I grew up in Hammond, was in High School when he got elected in '68. Was a big deal. Was also the beginning of its decline.
My older brother was a cop there for ten years. It soured him. He eventually packed up and moved to rural Alabama. 🤷♂️
@@johnholliday5874 I grew up in Calumet city, lived on State line for most of my youth. Spent a lot of time hanging out at Goldblatts as a kid. Damn, the trouble I got into back then.
Honestly they should all just move somewhere else that actually has prospects. Without investment into the area you are literally pissing into the wind.
Hatcher wasn’t a bad mayor, he was simply black. When he was elected the opposition started stacking the decks. Businesses started to leave, and the city started to decline. He was one of the first Black mayors in civil rights era America...and the rest is American history.
Very well done. As a Gary resident I thank you for a fair and honest documentary that was very well put together.
@Solomon Dario we could care less
IF YOU CAN CARE LESS THAT MEANS YOU CARE! I swear SO many people get that wrong -.- the phrase is "I couldn't care less".
@@dalley3124 thank you!
@@dalley3124 I could care more.
@Solomon Dario You cared enough to put your rude comment on here. Lemme guess...you live in a better off city and have lived a shallow life and have no compassion or empathy for people in any situation cause you have never suffered and have never been hungry or needed for anything..and not because you did something without help from your family. Shame on you!!
I have refurbished and restored a number of buildings since the 1980's. I have opened businesses with little or no cash and they succeed; yet about 5 years ago when I asked the City of Gary to sell me at token cost some of the former downtown (including the theater and W. T. Grants building, they turned me down as "Having No Experience". That is really news to me and the buildings I refurbished and businesses I've opened and owned. They say they want to revitalize the city, but, when help is offered, they turn it down. All they care about is get their paychecks and doing nothing to earn it.
Don’t give up man
You probably came off as a conman doing some scam.
Luv what you are doing. What you are doing is infastructure work. It saddens me that so many structures that could be refurbished just sit. Yet developers in big cities continuously get large sums of money to build new structures. We need a movement and initiative, something to revitalize the old. Maybe a gofundme Gary, Indiana. Politicians are so out of touch with reality. They posture and advocate for absurdity. They are window dressers.
@@Belrivers Literally. They literally window dressed the city for the Miss America Pageant. Laughable.
I mean, I see a lot of comments saying this documentary was depressing but it was so informational and made to relay information. Truthfully, a great “abandoned” place documentary.
I grew up in Gary, Brunswick on west 5th ave to be exact. Watching this move is like a trip back in time. I caught the bus on west 5th ave downtown on Saturday, Visited the Dime Store, Sears and then.. The Prize. I went to the Palace for a " Air Conditioned Treasure " I attended Gary Edison School on West 5th most of my years. I must say, looking back these were the best friends of my life.... I would give anything to go back.. They just don't make friends like that anymore. This is one of the Very BEST Schools and the Best Years of my Life. I almost cry when I see what Gary Edison has Fallen to. This is one of the Very BEST Gary documentary I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Words can't express my gratitude for all of you r hard work to produce this fine film. When I see Gary's end It feels like losing a part of me also. Thank you more than I can find words for making this very Important film
All my Very Best...... >
@Mauri Mela Exactly right, and our four worst Presidents, Old man Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama were identical in pursuing the shallow ideas of a new world order leading us to the gates of hell
My Mom Mrs Alberta Collins taught ,7th and 8th grader at Edison
It hurts my heart to see what has happened to Gary; I was born and raised there. It was a beautiful, thriving city, I lived just a few houses away from Mayor Richard Hatcher. I saw people, working people, black and white, that made Gary a well-oiled machine. I remember the stores, the theatres, the restaurants, the businesses and schools. The neighborhoods were clean and well kept. As kids, we trick-or-treated until the last porch light went off. We knew our neighbors and we looked out for each other. We had gardens. My uncle owned a local record shop and did a radio show on WMPP in East Chicago. It was truly the "good 'ol days". What hurts even more is the ex senator of the state of Indiana now sits in the seat of the Vice President of the United States. He watched Gary rot and the country isn't smelling so good, either. So let's work together for a change. Ignorance comes in ALL colors and those who use this page as a platform to be racist, you wouldn't even begin to know how to be part of the solution. You're excused...NEXT.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE your comment. People are way too ignorant. All thqt tells me about them is they are afraid.
Well said. I'd like to say something. "Educate instead of incarcerate". The bottom line is that in restoring cities like Gary "Security" comes first because people can't thrive in fear. Deregulate commercial properties and businesses which means "Jobs" can come easier which is the second step. Then we will have "Nice neighborhoods" which third. In that order. It's really that simple but we can't seem to get past the first step in some places.
👏👏👏❤💯💫
I can feel your pain, I know how it hurt to see the home you grew up and grew to love died naturally because of economic issues and bad politics. Let's be honest, anywhere in the world where they religiously followed The West policies of democracy and capitalism are struggling to survive unlike the countries that decided to follow their own way of governance. China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and some of the middle east, they are enjoying good economy and equal opportunities but the Country that decided to follow the West campaign are now struggling despite having vast of wealth. Democracy and capitalism were designed to only favors a few thieves and corrupt politicians and their personal interest.
How can the U.S who are capable of waging the war with half of the world and wins, failed to give enough security in its own backyard?! Can any gang be able to infest and the government headquarter in Washington DC and survive a day?
Alex: I generally do not watch documentaries like this, but this one grabbed and held my interest throughout. You have created a good work here and I pray for all of you in Gary. Godspeed!! What you did, Alex, if affecting minds and hearts. Thank you.
As a lifelong resident of Chicago, I enjoyed this immensely and immeasurably and thank the producers for their monumental efforts in the creation of this film. Thank you.
People grow up in these places and are afraid to move. I did about a year ago. Best choice I ever made. So easy to get work, find a place to stay, make new friends. Main regret is not moving sooner I feel like I wasted my life.
Such an excellent documentary. Really sad that 99% of the comments here have nothing to do with the video and come from such a dark place in the hearts of the posters. I was hoping to read about people's personal stories and experiences growing up in or currently living in Gary, or insightful comments from residents who can actually speak to what has happened or provide an update with specifics, but I can barely find them in between the junk comments. ... Loved the part about the man rehabbing houses and teaching/providing jobs to people after they have gotten out of prison. I thought more people would be interested in that. What a great idea and he is actually making it happen. It's the kind of thing we all think we would like to do someday but never make happen. He is giving them the gift of practical knowledge and skills that they can use to rebuild their city and their lives. Really amazing!
Fantastic documentary on Gary! My family came here in around 1915 and my Grandfather graduated from Emmerson in 1933. His old neighborhood is now just a field of grass with the original sidewalks. I started school in 1971 at Daniel Webster. My family was from Glen Park. A lot of great memories!
That what happens when you call yourself the "City of the Century"... The next century comes, and your forgotten.
Well done doc. Very professionally put together.
OMG! Thank you for making this! How could they letbthis happen? The Palace Theater was so important to so many of us! The bus used to run from Hobart to Gary... So many memories... And the Walgreens... All of it. Indeed we are a throw away society! I'm 70 this year-2018
Maybe Gary would stand a chance if politicians would quit proposing "renewal projects," getting the funding, and then pocketing the money.
This was a very interesting video. It seems to me that private industry established the town of Gary to a provide a place for its workers to live, so it fulfilled a need. The idea of town government building convention centers, museums, and airports to save the town won't work, because these places will not fulfill any specific needs, and the government has no money to build them, due to lack of revenue! Gary really needs to attract private manufacturers that will produce tangible goods, and more importantly, good paying jobs, and then the revitalization will follow. It also seems to me that a museum / concert hall honoring Michael Jackson and his family is an awesome idea, but town government cannot and should not finance it alone. The Jackson family should step up and provide major funding along with private donors. Then the town could offer low tax incentives to help get it established. It will also take a lot of citizen initiative and small businesses, like urban the gardening initiative, which could produce food to be sold at farmers markets, and the guy from PA helping to rehabilitate both prisoners and the community, one house and a few lives at a time. In these kinds of ways, needs would be fulfilled, and the community could exist again.
Exactly the problem
Yes, I agree, but that won't happen. They will decide for us and pick the winners. Gary doesn't have a chance. 😞
Mark Kotulich The Jackson Family can't even get themselves together! And, no matter where Michael Jackson was born, his talent still would have made him successful!
Mark Kotulich agreed!!! I can’t understand how/why the jacksons are not all over this, 9 children god knows how many grandchildren, not one of them have stepped up?? It’s odd!!
As long as we continue to outsource for cheap labor, America will continue to decline in the manufacturing industry.
And as long as Americans continue to consume shit they dont need that's manufacturered over seas...It will never change
Nationalize your critical industries and let both the working man and society get a fair share of profits.
Amen
Excellent documentary. I grew up on the far south side of Chicago and it breaks my heart that Gary still has not made a come back.
Oh how i wish i couldve walked down Broadway back in the day in all its glory. Ive heard many stories of it being on par with Chicago, Nyc, etc .Its a goddamn ghost town now and I feel stuck. Its hard to get out with little money. Coming up with a way to make the money to get out of the city is also not easy .
Hey, you. That Chapter brought you here, didn't he?
Yep!! Lmmfao.... I had to edit this comment. "That chapter" guy's name is Mike (not Mark) lol sorry... But yeah,, Mike brought me here about tirty minutes ago!!😂😂
I think so ive been going on such a deep rabit hole its hard to keep track
Yep. I stopped "kickin the tires and got into it." And by into it, I mean a Gary Indiana rabbit hole.
@thebirdee hell yeah!! Mike ROCKS!!😁👍👍
Yeah! Mike just hit 1 million subscribers! So happy for him 👍
I was raised in Gary Indiana. Me and my mom moved to Gary Indiana from Chicago when I was 11. I graduated from Horace Mann High. I'm glad somebody's doing a documentary on this city
How was life?
I was born in 1953 at Mercy Hospital down town. I went to Lew Wallace High School. It was a big beautiful school. I worked at Sears down town, I would take the bus 2x's a week and mom took me on Saturdays. It was a very safe and beautiful town. This made me sick to my stomach...
Urban sprawl (white flight )left Gary Indiana in Ruins! Now called the Rust Belt.
Yes it was a beautiful town. I was born at Mercy in 1955. We always went to shop and movies on Broadway and 5th Ave also. I used to get Italian beef at the Tivoli tap on 5th and polk or Fillmore.
I'm from Gary a grown-up and Gary I'm 64 years old with sad eyes and tears to see Gary go down like that I was raised in Delaney project but now I am a minister of the Gospel sadly and prayers for Gary
Not sure if anyone else has picked up on this, but any city that relies on one industry to stay alive (one mill, one factory, etc) usually hasn't stayed afloat. Middletown, Ohio comes to mind with AK Steel. Though that town was largely saved from complete oblivion by it's close-enough proximity to Dayton and Cincinnati.
I hate Middletown, always a dreary place!
Gary's steel industry survived the economic downturns. Gary Works remains the largest steel mill in North America and one of the largest in the world. That's not to say the downturn in the industry didn't hurt Gary's steel industry, but we fared better than many other areas. USS actually closed down operations in other areas and consolidated them in Gary, so things could have been much worse.
Racial politics, on both sides, is what destroyed Gary.
Yup monopsonies are very dangerous to communities.
Thank you for your video, I was born in Mercy hospital Gary Indiana 1961 and still live here today.😎😀
This is an incredible documentary. While I would've enjoyed it even more had it not been so sad, the production, writing, cinematography, and narration are just fantastic.
"So the TH-cam bus dropped you off here too?"
Stfu
Thank you for the content, it was full of information that I was looking for and a whole lot more. It’s a LOT of work to take on a project like this. Just letting you know I really appreciate it.
My history teacher in high school was so favorited with the city of Gary, Indiana but never knew really why. Its steel production was most known, but you did such a wonderful job of explaining how bustling and roaring of a town it was visually and historically, thank you for this. ✌🏼
Facts whites fled Gary and built their cities and town to teach blacks in Gary who was superior whites were to teach Blake folks a real lesson inpower.
Those of you who are reading these comments Don t be offended by the behavior of white flight.this is what actually happened ye shall know the truth and the truth will make u free.
I worked there for 14 months and it was truly depressing. I can't see Gary ever going back to how it was in its heyday
xX OldSchoolJules Xx i was a truck driver and i passed through the city and it was so desolate
It will NEVER come back! This video was 7 year's ago, it's only continuing to DECLINE! believe me I live in the area!
In the late 70's I drove from Chicago to Cincinnati and I could smell Gary long before we passed through it.
@@hellno6386 what the fuck
Nicely done history. Driving on the freeway with Gary off to the sides, I used to look at the old neighborhoods and wonder about them. Old houses, many of them empty. Empty streets and just a "ghost town" atmosphere that piqued ones interest on the history of the place. Your documentary covers the situation well. Thanks for doing such a good job.
There should be criminal charges for City Officials who destroyed the drinking water.
He’s black. Who is going to stop them
Definitely Democrats
@@tomaslopez2940 For sure
Democrats destroy anything they try to manage ! Just look at Vietnam
@@billa7565 And Afghanistan.
Thank you for all your hard work to bring us this video.
Of the few things not touched, destroyed, or looted...educational books. They will remain forgotten or ignored.
Those books and trophies 🏆 tho such a sad waste 😔
What's truly pitiful, is the subhuman lowbrows who post hateful, abusive, & racist comments in response to compassionate, insightful documentaries such as this one. My response is this: Thank you, Precision Independent Media, for posting this excellent documentary, and giving me the chance to understand the rise & fall of Gary, IN.
Part of the globalist agenda is to pit race against race, gender against gender, Democrat against Republican, etc., so we don't work together to stop their insane plot to implement the New World Order.
Only one word describes this man's production: BRILLIANT!
wcfl10 Yes, and it brought tears to my eyes to see a once magnificent city turned into a pile of crumbling decay! Seeing that Church, the Palace Theater, the Schools just wasting away with no hope of ever being restored! It's just one of hundreds more once great AMERICAN CITIES destroyed, never to return to their glorious past!
I moved from Chicago to Merrillville to Gary to Hammond to Griffith to Hammond again then Lake Station. Seeing Gary, you could still see the history in the buildings and various locations. Granted many were dilapidated or burnt out shells. Yeah, I was robbed, family was on welfare, had not one but two different house fires but I wouldn't trade it. I've met some great people along the way.
As a follow-up, the Black Oak section of Gary is now essentially being turned into a Casino.
Again, such a well done documentary! Amazing to watch.
When I was a kid in the early 1960's we would drive up to Detroit from Peoria and dad would always drive at night going up and I still remember the glow in the sky reflected off the smoke above the steel mills in Gary. On the way back during the day you would see the huge cloud of pollution above Gary miles before you got there.
I was born in Gary in 1971, then moved to Pa a few yrs later. This is so sad. my folks can remember hearing gunshots back in the 70s while thay were in bed. My moms entire family is from the Gary/Hammond area.I still remember the smell from the steel mill in the air in Hammond!! This documentary just breaks my heart!!! they should seize the Clintons money and fix up Gary!!!! lol
We are truly becoming a third-world country.
Thanks for the documentary.
I'm going to cry myself to sleep tonight.
As person that lives in Gary this is a good documentary
I was born in Gary,In in 1960. And lived in 45 states and 3 countries, now in Dallas,Tx. I've have dreams of turning Gary's land scape into golf looking turfs. With streams and brooks with lake front restaurants, athletic courts and water sports. I have many dreams for Gary, but millions are needed to do so. I'm creating a Red carpet clothing line, and i'll make Gary, IN & Las Vegas the head quarters.
I was born in Gary Indiana I'll Always Love Gary Indiana!! I left Gary in the early 80s!! I know Michael Jackson is dead and gone but I wish his family could have helped Gary more!! When he died people all over the world came to Gary to see where he live!! I'm just saying never forget where you come from!!
Wow I’d never brag about it yuck
Great documentary, especially considering that the makers are not professionals from what I could gather. Massive respect for Roger as well, bringing positive energy and change to a city existing in a state of "stagnant hope".
EDIT: props to the people choosing to work with and for Roger to improve their own lot and their community too.
PRECISION INDEPENDENT MEDIA: I don't know if this is an amateur video or what, however, I will say that it is one of the very best and well-researched documentaries I've seen in a very long time. There is no doubt that you are a gifted journalist with a solid future in the field, should you decide to pursue it in that direction. You obviously put all your efforts into it and it most definitely shows. Excellent work. In fact, I've even subscribed to your channel and I look forward to seeing more films by you. Good luck in the future.
Very much enjoyed this heartfelt history, thank you! I was born at Gary Methodist and raised in Miller until 10 y.o. when we moved to CP. I attended IUN for a semester. I hope to work with NPS on Dunes National Lakeshore someday soon. Gary still holds my family roots.
A magnificent piece of work, poignant, understated. I congratulate you.
The very idea of a city with an abnormally high crime rate focusing on a convention center and the tourism it would bring is absurd. Imagine Disney building a theme park in Compton, or in the heart of Detroit.
The convention center is a good front for Democrat machine graft.
You have to wonder how out of touch some of these politicians are. Of course if you're spending other peoples money, they probably figure it's a good idea.
Mark Villano keep in mind racist white people created those black communities. Communities like this all across america, compliments of the white man. Then you got the nerve to complain.
That is just cargo cult mentality copycat of en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilbao . It was also industrial shithole, but got famous because it plainly took action to change. Just affirmation was strong thing. OFC cargo cult - so far no other place on earth managed to copy Bilbao's success by just copying their footsteps - there needs to be understanding of underlying process, not just monkey see monkey do.
Great Watch! You and your team did very well with this.
Thank you so much!!! Gary is now and will always be home no matter it's decline.
Yuck
Gary, Cleveland and Detroit all have wayyyy too much in common.
Cities that all heavily relied on the steel industry for economic vitality, then failed to adapt once this industry fell. On top of that, the incredible racial tension that built up caused divide in the community and thus people moving out. Then with less people, less money circulated, and therefore more crime. It'd be worthwhile for tech companies to move offices or warehouses out to cities like this to help start a Renaissance. Shoutout to everyone in the Midwest growing up in these areas- much love🙏🏽
Blaming the decline of the steel industry the reason of Gary's troubles is a sorry excuse, Gary Indiana started going downhill when U.S Steel, Inland Steel, Youngstown and Bethlehem Steel were at their peak in steel production. Gary residents just do not want to face the facts, Richard Hatcher's administration destroyed the city of Gary, millions of dollars have been pumped into that city to revive it and all that money has been wasted
Security first. Jobs second. Nice neighborhood third. In that order.
Its because blacks became an issue due to the civil rights act, the fact that Gary became desegregated drove whites out in droves
24:00... saw all I need to see, "the city also received a $400,000 grant from INDOT". No renovation, no accountability. I say this with all due respect, people of Gary, you get what you vote for.
I lived in Gary in the 1950s and worked in the steel mill. It was a nice town and I felt safe on the streets. But when Hatcher became mayor things changed.
For example, there was a bank robbery and the robbers escaped on the interstate because every police pursuit car chasing them, including a paddy wagon, broke down while on the pursuit. No one seemed to know what had happened to the money that was allocated for the cars maintenance.
What happened to Gary? The blacks achieved a voting majority and a lot of old seething resentments surfaced. I was there last in 1969 and I never will go back.
The problem isn't black or white. The problem is qualifications and why the person wins. From the documentary it's pretty clear that in Gary existed racism and classism. The question is: Was Hatcher qualified to be a mayor and run it all or was he just an activist against racism and classism. Unfortunately people don't seem to realize that it's the same racism that causes an ideologue activist to win as it is that continues to elect a clearly unqualified and failed politician back into office. Gay was a clear victim of liberal activism to this day and globalism. Hatcher may have been unqualified to run the office but Tarriff free globalism stole any opportunity to recover. On top of this are high taxes to pay for hair brained liberal schemes to bring the city back. I mean seriously! WHO with a 1/2 of a functioning brain cell could be conned into believing that an urban garden will bring the city back? A row of carrots a season sure as shit won't replace 1000s of year round industry jobs and local spinoff manufacturing. However, maybe if they grow enough carrots they'll open their eyes to clearly see how ignorant they are.
Such a well done film. Your work is very important and appreciated now as it will be for future generations.
“Gary has had a really rough time for the last forty years.” …me too, Gary. Me too.
Lol, right 😂
This decline has been happening, and is starting to take place in many more American cities now...Rising property values and rents to grossly unaffordable amounts, ultra-high taxes due to predatory single-party political machines and their unending financial feeding frenzies, vital business and key commerce leaving areas or offshoring in search of tax relief and cheaper and often non-union labor, segregation and racial unrest, crumbling infrastructure due to neglect and mismanagement, and high crime and poverty filling the gaps that gainful employment and prosperity once occupied- all are major factors! Nobody seems to care enough to stop any of it! Thanks for making and sharing this documentary... Well done!
Yep, and then you have people like Trump who blame it all on democrats, while he creates his following and stabs them in the back by doing the same thing. Both parties have been doing this for 40 years, ever since Reagan. It's called neoliberalism.
I know the city shows tragic decline, but it's really quite gorgeous to see how the buildings have decayed and been reclaimed by nature.
@@woodliceworm4565 I just call it mother earth.
the narration of this program is amazing, love the history!! keep up the good work!!
You have done a wonderful job with this. Driving by Gary as a child- it felt as if a cold wind came from that direction. I was scared of Gary- without hearing anything, or ever stepping foot there. Not scared of getting murdered, but there was a true sense of destruction that emanated from that city. Haunting- that would be the best word to use, it was haunting. This doc gives Gary a sense of life that I have never seen. Thank you for sharing it- and when I ever climb out of poverty myself, I will buy a copy : )
+Boo Radley Your right. It was smoky and scary. I drove through there many times when traveling to and from Chicago. It scared the shit out of me. I always made sure I had enough gas and a good spare tire when I passed through that city. Dark Ugly And foreboding..
I remember when I was a kid and my mother used to take the bus from Hammond to downtown Gary to go shopping and department the stores were packed. Yes, NAFTA and Free Trade have ruined many cities in this country.
Let it die. It's not like it was a city with a rich history; it was a boomtown that went bust in less than 100 years. Just level it and let the surrounding communities gradually absorb it as they expand.
Interesting point...
As a guy that loves America and American history,I fear for your future. Don't be divided on narrow issues. You are better than that. Elect decent people. Don't swallow the narrative being spoon fed. You're better than that. Wish you nothing but success.
hello everyone. I'm from Korea. Nice documentary
Makes me so sad to see the history of my hometown. Roosevelt High school is closed now as well. If I had the funds I would rebuild the whole city. I literally cried while watching this 😖😢
i feel you, are you still living in Gary?
@@philspaces7213 no but I visit the beach and family from time to time
@@angelb.johnson1485 i assume you had to move to carry on with life :job kids and so on. you made the best move for yourself, which many people have done and the consequence of this is a dead town. love it for what it was, cherish the good memories and enjoy what is left (the beach and so on)
@@philspaces7213 yea my mom moved us when I was like 12 so before high school we left and went to Indy. But I agree it's just sad tho.
❤️❤️❤️
I'm from Duquesne, Pennsylvania....Gary had the largest steel mill in the world...Duquesne was second.
After US Steel closed Duquesne, it also turned into another Gary.
The American Dream was sold to China by bribed US politicians > Free Trade with a Communist Nation where people work for less than 5 US Dollars a day . If Trump is unsuccessful accomplishing FAIR Trade agreements with China and other similar ultra low wage Nations , America will have two classes of people . Rich and Poor . Similar to what you see in most Third world Nations.
Excellent documentary. Just stumbled on it and watched the entire video. Well done. Hope Gary turns around
I remember working at the NIPSCO building just south of the Sheraton back around 1993. My first day there included a car on the sidewalk after a man ran in to avoid being shot by his brother. They just robbed the grocery store down the block. The one brother used the car to get away, leaving his brother behind. The brother emptied a clip at his fleeing brother, reloaded and unloaded that clip before hopping a city bus to escape. The police caught the brother after stopping the bus....
And that was my introduction to Gary.
BTW. I did continue to work there for about 18 months.
That sounds like the Gary i knew !
This is happening in every american city. I live in brooklyn NY and have seen 57,000 companies close in the past 50 years and attended many auctions selling off their assets. Almost all manufacturing has moved to other countries and now even our food production is moving to china.
Hatcher served 5 terms as Gary's mayor. He died last week a millionaire.
Yeah, they get rich in politics when they are in for a long time. Someday laws will be made to stop this. A lot of people belong in prison for corruption and theft.
sam jones if you stop putting blacks in power we can all benefit
good riddance. Gary wouldve been alot better off with that racist, corrupt piece of trash.
@@garyoakham9723 thats a little over the top racist there buddy
Great job. I appreciate the balance in this doc especially from 6 years ago.
It breaks my heart to see buildings so old with such incredible history left to rot.
Here in Scotland we have a place called Bangour Hospital Village, there are lots of buildings there, most of them listed, they've been left to rot so they can be demolished so developers can get their hands on it and build houses no doubt, makes me very angry, I took lots of pictures, got into a couple of the buildings, the place was built in 1906.
Who's here because of Walter?
Every. Single. Time, Detroit, Baltimore, Bronx...
@amanda miller I forgot south Chicago and south Los Angeles... also St. Louis.
Thanks for adding the part where you weren’t attacked or made uncomfortable. I love well rounded history. The whole story. The bad and the good. ❤️✌️
Gary Indiana has smelled terrible for over 30 years. Whenever I'm driving in the midwest I make sure to NOT have to stop anywhere near Gary. You know you're getting close to Gary when the smell hits you.
Youngstown Ohio Is JUST LIKE GARY And NO BETTER.....
I moved away from "the Region" many years ago. When I go up that way it all smells like crap.
Gary, Indiana. Just when you thought Detroit was bad lol
FUCK YOU emerson. Detroit is bad...ENOUGH TO DESTROY YOUR BITCH ASS!!!
@@callmemonkh9020 who tf are you?
@@hoodlum6776 Harder than your punkass, TFS! Clueless bitch.
@@callmemonkh9020 ok bum. It’s ok to be a pussy.
@@hoodlum6776 So said the punk. Pussy got more substance.
The narrator for some reason didn't mention (and probably a big reason why many left the city) is that when Hatcher got elected the first thing he said was "This is our city now".
Frozen Godzilla Colman Young told the people of Detroit the same thing and all the whites immediately split in the late 1970s.
@@jakesmith3230 Yup, racism at its finest
Yes, black people can be and are racist. They had a vision of Gary becoming a black "utopia". Guess it didnt work out
Hugs Gary. I love the new Goodwill outlet. I know now why I found antiques from Eastern Europe.
Also what a damn shame, some of those buildings were AMAZING at 1 TIME !!!!!!!
That's a huge chunk of it. Take some of those building and restore them (that takes a huge chunk of change to do right).
Would be a good place to ooen up and sell to movie production.... sell as in promote.
Crime and corruption - the same old story. Criminals and gangs took over the streets. In the 60s, it was a badge of honor to survive a trip there, with school buses carrying students to play ball often being hit with bricks as they left town. Mayor Hatcher's administration was also very corrupt, so instead of solutions, it became part of the problem. Contracts were awarded to those who paid off government officials. And there is little hope it will ever come back, even though a lot of money was spent over the years to revive it.
Gary use to be such a beautiful place..regardless its still home to many of us..so those of you that trash talk it and put it down bothers us that are still here..trust me when I say we'd do ANYTHING to have Gary back booming ! But our mayor ain't nothing and any mayor leading up to this one ain't nothing.. We need folks who honestly care about Gary..sad..very sad..
Grew up there in the 60's, would love to see it prosperous again. Government can only do so much, need people that care about the city and are willing to invest in it. Sadly I am not sure it is salvageable in the near future. It will be a long difficult road back and i'm not sure there is enough support for that
I know what you mean Kelly A
I’m from Bessemer Al and it’s not the nicest place in the world by many standards but it’s home to me and if I won the lotto I’d still call Bessemer home
Why don't you run for mayor?
Right. I miss West Side High. Remember the parades? Broadway was lit. Remember Goldblatts? Remember The Village? Those were good days.
@@ajaye1005 yes.. If only others loved it as much as we do..
I was staying in Chicago for a few days recently and I remembered Gary was close to it and since I’ve always been a Michael Jackson fan I took a ride to visit his childhood home. I knew the city was poor but I wasn’t expecting to see so many buildings and houses completely abandoned.
Gary died years ago.
"civil rights hall of fame". clear reason why the city is this way
@Jonas Pell if you're a meth monster, yes
my grandfather used to live up stairs in the palace theater (he also ran the place)
This is so sad. Even sadder, that young photographer dying so young. My heart goes out to his family. I'm also appalled at the people making promises and receiving money and never doing anything. Where'd the money go? Not only that, reading all the comments....where did common decency, respect for one another and basic grammar and punctuation go? 🤦♀️
Bunny Mad I hear you! Bad grammar and punctuation drive me mad, too. However, we must accept the nationwide failure of our public education system which began in the late 60s to explain that. Every once in awhile there's public exposure and cautionary tales that we have become a nation of semiliterate people and public school systems scream more money and we've been letting them get away with it for decades. The problem is the quality of the teachers and administrators. When in the 70s and 80s I started receiving misspelled notes or bulletins or whatever, with bad grammar and punctuation from my children's schools and teachers I pulled them out of public schools. The problem is like Gary, Indiana; too huge to fix. I think the man rehabbing houses and providing training for folks is a good thing. I didn't exactly grasp his extremely vague explanation about how he is financing all that. There was a whiff of snake oil about him. My question is how are the people who will ultimately live in these houses pay the monthly rent or mortgages when there are no jobs to be had? I heard him refer to this investor and reselling to another investor, but investors expect an ultimate pay off and I don't see much hope of that.
What a wonderful doc. This is Netflix quality.
Are you joking? You must be. This would be a moderately impressive high school history project. It is, however, lacking in professionalism or any knack for storytelling. Gary deserves a good doc. This isn’t it.
I used to take Ridge Rd home at night, right through Gary. I never once had a problem. As the masses have left and spread into New Chicago, Lake Station, Merrillville and some part of Hobart, those cities are too on the decline. What used to be hard working families who showed pride in ownership of their home and towns has been replaced by low income renters, drug abuse and low grade businesses ie; pawn shops, liquor stores and check cashing. Unfortunately the schools have suffered as well. River Forest High School has been on academic probation for years for not meeting the state standards. I miss what my home use to be but I’m happier knowing where I live now, it’s the people who make my city great. Their is pride and community commitment that has made it flourish in resources, education and infrastructure. I will always hope that someday NWI will rise above what was and focus on what can be.
It's because of drugs nobody wants to work everybody gets stuff off the internet and all big businesses are moving to other countries it's just going to get worse until anarchy in the streets the cops will end up quitting and it's going to be military policing America it will be off the chain
Gary didn't die because of black/brown people. it died because of nearsighted people thinking one industry is going to support a whole city. All of these Rustbelt cities are guilty of this, thinking a industry is going to keep them going....it don't. I'm from Birmingham Alabama and my city is in better shape than Gary but has the same problems on a smaller level, mostly due to divided municipalities working against each other. One guy in this documentary said Gary needs to scale back and concentrate on the living active areas, instead of trying to fix the rotted dead areas. That's actually a GREAT idea, scale back and THEN rebuild outwards. .
I think it has nothing to do with race but it has to do with the mentality of the people. In a changing world, people need to not only change but anticipate change and prepare for it. I've seen many interviews of laid off factory workers from depressed areas of the U.S.. They sound pretty stupid and complacent. They seem to have no transferable skills or at least they don't have the minds to think how they could use their skills in a different job. If a staple food no longer exists, will the people starve?
That too...
"How can Gary come back?" he asks.
Get rid of the thugs, I say.
It wasn't murder capital of the country for nothing. The national guard wasn't called in for nothing. The political and police corruption was beyond none other.
People are scared to go there. That is why they would rather drive to Midway airport instead of going to the closer Gary airport. I made some good money boarding up some of those buildings you saw in this video. I know. I lived it.
If you want to clean up this city you will first need to put responsibility and pride back into the people that live there. Rather than cowering behind their doors as the thugs run the streets.
Well done Roger, rebuilding homes for the people of Gary and helping those to become builders, You’re a very good man!!
I come from a long line of steelworkers. My dad and uncle both worked at Allegheny Ludlum in New Castle, Indiana. I even worked there as a temp in 2005.
America has never been kind to its blue collar workers.
What does this even mean? It was unions (and environmentalists) that basically negotiated the blue collar worker’s job overseas or to a right to work state.
The last one to leave Gary - don't bother to turn the lights out. The bulbs are either stolen, smashed, or brunt out.
I lived in Gary for a total of 17 years. What they aren't telling is the division in the city. Nobody supports anybody. If the vision is not there's then they will either talk against it, withdraw support or don't support it altogether. There are also some policemen I saw in the video that were on the GPD when I was there 17 YEARS AGO that aint doing nothing but collecting a check and are unified with the drug, gang and violent culture of the city.
And as far as finances go, the city government has had more than enough money poured into from Washington DC down thru the years to rebuild it. What is happening is there a misappropriation of funds as leadership has pocketed it. Mayor Freeman talks about needing money, but when you don't wanna discipline yourself with the fiances you get, OF COURSE you are going to end up filiing bankruptcy. There is also a lot of lying and crooked people who are behind the scenes sabotaging their own city. You build it up, then they will try to either tear it down or use loopholes in the laws to stop you before you get started. STONEWALLING it is called. The city simply needs to remove ALL the powers that be and put some people of godly moral character in there who have the business savy to not just put a sound vision together, but have the know how to follow thru - even when opposition rises up.
Im sorry. but Gary CAN BE HELPED. Things are not as they seem. It's the corrupt leadership that has to be uprooted and new fresh blood needs to be put in. It took time for Gary to get in this state and it will take time for Gary to overcome, but they just need to take what they got and use it wisely and acklnowledge God first that the steps of God become ordered by God.
The only problem there really is spiritual. Poverty and fear are spiritual strongholds. And this kind only come out by fasting and prayer after the city repents for there past sins and turns back to God totally FIRST.
*Please turn on the automatic closed captions!*
This is useful for many people, _besides the hearing impaired_---if children are playing in the backgroud; outside noise coming through an open window; listening late at night when others are asleep, and other reasons.
*_PLEASE TURN ON AUTOMATIC CLOSED CAPTIONS._*
The theatre, houses, schools, and city as a whole were built by and served hundreds of thousands of people in their lifetimes, they weren't wasted. I think what you're really lamenting is the finite nature of mortality. And I get it, but find it all fascinating none-the-less. Back in the real world though, most of the comments below are still shitty and racist.
Don't blame Gary's decline on racism, follow the $. Also blame short sighted politicians for their one horse town!
i blame China and its goddamn labor policies
A big part of the decline was definitely racism tho. To deny that is to lie
A big part of its decline WAS racism lol
@@helgaformo2054 China had nothing to do with it
@@helgaformo2054 Goddamn Labor practices WTF are you blabbering about?
Some people just use this comment section for a racism paradise. I looked at it for almost an hour. I feel ashamed that a few black people like them in gary, i.e: the ones who murder, or do drugs give us a bad name. But I really dont understand. How does color affect the way we are portrayed? I’m happy my family moved me to a mostly white community where im not judged much by race. Grandma lives in a mostly black area, where I dont hear much harm happening between race. Im glad my family is in such good places where both races get along with eachother. But places, like this comment section, make me sad. I may be wrong on this, but it’s not neither races fault. I am mostly mixed, and I’m trying to be on both sides as good as I can.
Race is not color.
I live 45 minutes south of Gary and I'd love to see it restored. I'd definitely go there if they had more to offer. As is, there's not much to attract me there besides an occasional RailCats game. There's no reason to spend a day in Gary when I could drive an extra 30 minutes and be in the heart of Chicago with a million choices of things to do and see. But, if Gary had something unique that nowhere else in NW Indiana had, I promise I'd be there in a heartbeat.
The mayor, Karen, sure likes signs saying she’s the mayor. I suspect public officials have drained and wasted public funds over the years.
Anyway, excellent documentary, thank you.
I’d love an update!
Apparently, “It’s Gary’s Time” is still operating.
Gary Indiana in 2020 is the most depressing place on Earth...
Everybody is broke & bummed out
Holy moly, good I watch this video, I was trying to move there.
You have obviously never been to Colon City, Panama
Found this documentary very interesting .would love to see an update.god bless you Gary from Dublin ireland 🇮🇪
Excellent video. I grew up in Lansing, work in Hammond, and have a few friends that grew up in Gary or close to. Sad to see such a once proud and prosperous town looking the way it does. Same with Detroit. I always say Detroit is Gary’s big brother.
It’s a Cesspool of crime, drugs and dead end jobs. It’s not racial to move your children somewhere that has a better influence on them than crime and gangster life. When you get jumped and beat for your hat, it not racist to get your children out. I’m so tired of hearing how it racist to be a good parent and try to give your children a better chance at life.
That is not why they left it was racial. Get over it, it is what it is.
@@trethatdude so ?
@@trethatdude You never have to take responsibility for your own failures as long as whypepo are around to shoulder the blame.
@@trethatdudeI grew up next to Gary. Everyone that could moved out to get away from the low life obnoxious Blacks that were moving in from Chicago. A huge number abandoned their homes since nobody was interested in owning property in Gary. Gangs took over the abandoned properties to live in and rent out with the city doing nothing about it.