Gary, Indiana: The Company Town that American Abandoned
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ย. 2022
- Beset by a series of unforeseen forces that ultimately led to one of the most epic social and economic downfalls in American history, Gary, Indiana became known as the company town that America abandoned.
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I was hitchhiking and got stuck there once. A lady bought me a hot dog and fries and I’ll never forget the kindness of that stranger.
"If I were hungry and friendless today, I would rather take my chances with a saloon-keeper than with the average preacher.”
Eugene V. Debs, labor leader
Hitchhiking in Gary, Indiana? How tf do you end up in that position?
@@Davidpostingshid 😂 I dunno, I did it off and on for 3 years (from Maryland). I wound up in places I could never find again but Gary sticks out in my memory.
@@ezralink2630 Maryland my homestate
The Midwest!
I took a train from Chicago to Michigan city in 2008. The bit where the train went through Gary was the closest I’ve felt to the set of Robocop I’ve experienced in my many years.
This exactly!!!
Holy crap that is nuts!
I've been thru Gary on the train a few times. You ain't lyin' about the Robocop thing. I've seen a few documentaries about the general economic deterioration, as well as videos focusing on the lost architecture. It's unfortunate.
When I used to drive a truck I had to go through Gary Indiana a lot. You are absolutely right horrible horrible city.
You can give directions by referencing burned out ruins
No disrespect, but you left out a huge puzzle piece. Gary basically destroyed most of the natural sand dune lakefront in northwest Indiana. Sand is used in steel. Along with that, the mills grew up in pre-environmental regulation days. It was common in the 1970s to see dead fish washing up on the few remaining beaches. The demise of Gary was likely due to mills forced to meet EPA regs, but the cost was too high so the moved ( uh, to China?, India?). Anyway, these days, some of remaining dunes are a preserved national park. But Gary itself is mostly a brownfield status. Polluted soil everywhere. It simply can't compete with other cleaner cities. This generation is paying the price of 2-3 generations ago winning the steel race, at any cost.
So sad.
If companies weren't forced to meet EPA regulations, I'd hate to see what our country would look like. If the food and pharmaceutical industries weren't forced to meet FDA regulations, I'd hate to see what our food and medicine would look like.
Regulations are ultimately positive. Because I wouldn't trust anyone to sell clean drinking water if selling toxic drinking water would save $50 million, yaknowhatimsayin? Or however much. Probably more.
Wow! I'm not sure how to respond. Sad isn't quite the right word...but that's the only word I can think of now. Hmmm....
Makes sense. When I weld. I see silica “glass” deposits in my welds sometimes, due to the high amount of heat.
You're right about the sand and the dead fish. I lived a few blocks from the beach in Miller and swam in the lake daily during the summers. The closer it got to 1980, the more dead fish we would see and the "seaweed" which was slimy and weird to be so close to the beach and grow out of nothing but sand by the sandbars later in the summer became more prevalent.
Being from Indiana, Gary is damn near mythical 😂 Michael Jackson’s home town yet looks like the COD map Rust when you go through it.
Could be worse. Could be Favela
I work in Gary quite often. Most of it is pretty run down, half the houses are abandoned but there's little pockets of a block or two here and there that look like they were plucked out of a nicer city and dropped right in. You go from burnt down/abandoned house to manicured lawns and picket fences. It's wild.
Pride is a beautiful and strange thing I hope those people stay proud of they’re neighborhoods
@@thegoodthebadyomom forreals I'll get the fuck out of gary
Similar in Chicago
Sounds like bmore
My poor home town. 😢😢 My stepfather was chief metallurgist at Gary Works in the early 1960’s. He toured steel mills in Japan then, came back home and told management, the Japanese factories are new, modern, and will put us out of business if we don’t modernize. US Steel did not modernize.
So, it's not just in my country that businessmen are short sighted and prefer short term profits over long term investment.
@@NebachadnezzaR That is pretty much the norm, from what I have seen. Most "businessmen" are incapable of seeing past the next three months' profit and their petty egos. Most of their "success" can be attributed to their willingness to screw over everything and everyone in pursuit of that bottom line.
This is my hometown! It’s looks like a rough place, it still is. But there are a lot of people working to make the city get back up and thriving again! I hope it happens soon. Gary has too much potential to just fall by the wayside
Agreed neighbor
Pittsburgh managed to come back from a similar steel industry collapse. Hopefully Gary can too.
@AshW G.I. native here. I agree with you. I hope Gary improves. The location alone should be of value to large companies with HQ in Chicago. There are areas of Gary that are great but many have never driven through those parts (like Miller).
@@ressljs worked at US USSteel. The downfall of the most recent was when USSteel bought Midwest. Taxes in Gary were $11mil , the Portage plant was $2mil. They also lost state funding when the feds stopped funding the states.
The people aren't given enough options to come up. Can't afford to move. I live there. The problems are with the problems. The neighbors are nice, I can borrow sugar and the kids fill my yard in the summer. I air up bike tires and keep the kids rolling.
Doesn't matter where your at the people respond to other's actions. It is a little rough. Gunshots, muscle cars, Harleys, crotch rockets and emergency fill the night.
I have no issues, people are people.
But so you know I am Caucasian. I stay away from the risks. I would be happy here for the rest of my life 😁
Pass through on my way west from Philly, didnt seem much different than the rest of the cities that got crushed in the 70s
I’ve lived near Gary for years and drive through it often. 10-15 years ago it was awful but these days it’s more sad than dangerous. The property has a lot of potential; someone just needs the vision to execute on it (and rename the city)
It's literally being executed now. G.I. has so much potential that will be fully back within da next 20-30years
@@m.e.5482 no
Ohh it is still plenty dangerous. The violent crime rate is still ridiculous.
@@m.e.5482 That was true 20 to 30 years ago as well. I believe that the same is true of Detroit, Michigan. Unfortunately the opposite is also true, and Gary might improve by comparison due to the rest of the USA collapsing like Gary. Improving things is generally more work and difficult than letting things go to H--- and letting others pick up the cost.
@@BBulletin 20-30 years ago Gary was at its worst what you mean. Da bandos are being torn down, land is being cleared 2 rebuild, infrastructure is being built, da population is at a low. Now is da time everything is being situated 4 da rebuild. I'm here and I see it in action in person.
My dad was a reporter and copy-editor, usually in Valpo but often enough he had to go to the main office of the Post-Tribune. He used to carry a baseball bat. When he applied for a gun permit the clerk asked why a reporter needed a gun. He said he worked nights in Gary. The clerk asked how many guns did he need.
A woman was assaulted in the paper's parking lot, prompting the gun permit.
Must have been a long time ago, these days Indiana cannot ask you why you want a carry license, you turn in the paperwork, get fingerprinted, and after the background check you get your permit. Of course this year Indiana passed Constitutional Carry, so you no longer need a permit to carry.
@@kdrapertrucker I still recommend getting a permit if you're going to travel to reciprocal states.
@@kdrapertrucker I got asked by the local sheriff when I got my permit several years ago when I still lived in Indiana. She seemed incredibly bored and acted like I was the first human she'd seen that day. It was just a conversation starter while paperwork got filled out and we got my fingerprinting set up.
I had a cousin of mine who lived in Gary Indiana for a while. I went to visit him one time, in my mid-teens. It seemed like every house was abandoned, but there was a school in the community that was up and running, in the middle of it all.
@@oldgoat50 was just there urbexing sunday, most schools are gone, closed or completed abandoned with zero chance of re open. i have TONS AND TONS of great shots taken from these buildings.
I'm surprised that it wasn't mentioned that Gary is the birthplace of the Jackson 5. Great things can come from anywhere
I was waiting for that too!
Visited their childhood home there a few years ago still all dressed up with a monument in the yard in the middle of a low-income area. Explained so much about Michael
In many interviews the brothers have said that the father used music and rehearsals as a way to keep the boys away from gangs and violence.
Obviously the fear Joe Jackson instilled on his boys had a negative impact on them, especially Michael. But I wonder if Joe had not been that strict, maybe the world would have never had the king of pop.
I lived in Gary and live 15 minutes away from it to this day. Simon thank you for shining a spotlight on our little slice of the world
Hi neighbor 🙂
Hello neighbors. It's mighty cold today lol
@@robbobthecorncobjriii8195 it snowed a bit yesterday
i stayed right off 5th ave....El Norteno still fire to this dayy!!!!
I've lived right by Gary almost my whole life and I drive through it on a regular basis because of my job and it's just as bad as you imagine. Parts of it aren't that bad, but those neighborhoods are few and far between. Plus Gary is absolutely massive. So many abandoned buildings. Driving down Route 20 specifically is wild because there are pockets of really nice architecture that is in utter disrepair. There's an abandoned church near the downtown area that always looks really cool in the spring and summer because it's just completely covered with vines and overgrowth, but it's in the middle of a busy neighborhood. A majority of streets have traffic lights that they just refuse to fix so they put up stop signs instead.
Driving down many roads seriously like abandoned home, abandoned store, 3 burnt down buildings in a row, a factory, liquor store, corner store abandoned school, a couple rundown houses in a row followed by a nice one, burnt down gas station, etc.
That's kind of what major population decline does to a city. You mention the traffic lights, and honestly they're not fixing them because they can't afford it. With so much abandonment and so much existing infrastructure, their current tax income just can't cover it.
I assumed they put up the stops signs so people wouldn't be stopped long enough to be carjacked, grew up in Merrillville myself.
Bro the BBQ joint across the street from the Loves Truckstop is amazing. Been going there for years. They started selling it at the Loves too
@@RetroletsplayGBA Also nearby. This is what I also assumed was true. Stop signs help prevent car jackings over the use of stop lights. They probably sold the stop lights to other cities.
What you describe around US 12/20 north, (an let us not forget the syndicate that ran the Harbor areas) sounds like US 6 on the more south side of Gary as well, Abandoned, burnouts, stop signs not stop lights, and collapsed houses where the garages were built into the hills, so effectively a basement garage, sad to see.
What’s funny is if you travel to the Miller Beach neighborhood on the north side along the lake shore, there are still multi million dollar homes, with more being built. Gary is a wild and crazy place
Miller is starting to look a bit shabby in spots. I took a garden tour this summer and you can tell it's not as nice as it used to be. It doesn't help that the city of Gary seems to ignore it. There are many streets that are in dire need of being repaved.
An interesting fact about the fall of Gary IN; part of its fall is due to the city I live in in Canada. When US Steel was bought out by Defastco they moved most of their production to the city of Hamilton Ontario since the city wasn't reliant on Defastco keeping it up for it's workers like Gary was. Most of the jobs lost are still to this day filled by people here, though Defastco has kind of started a repeat of slow abandonment here too, it's just other industries and companies where able to fill the gap in Hamilton unlike Gary. But yeah there is a saying in Hamilton when local governments get too invested in Steel as the only lifeline for the city "Don't be like Gary."
Do you mean "Dofasco"?
Its Defasco…And Stelco, it was the place pools couldn’t survive in (Black Dust) Plants always Choked with Black Dust on them. I was unfortunate to live in Hamilton Ontario in the early 80’s . Being from Alberta Canada, I had Never seen so much Pollution, Crime, Bikers and Bars. I was so happy to leave. Hamilton has thrived and cleaned up, so I’m told. Steel towns are Bleak. And sad.
First of all it was Dofasco.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dofasco
Second of all, in Jan 2006, Luxembourg based company (and at the time 2nd largest steel company by volume worldwide) Arcelor purchased the company, outbidding German ThyssenKrupp AG.
But only 3 months later, the largest steel company bought Arcelor out, so the company is now Arcelor-Mittal Dofasco.
Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian born Brit, who in 2005 was ranked as 3rd richest man in the world by Forbes.
Source: My dad worked at Dofasco for 36 years and I did a 2 year contract there.
@@laurie113 actually its Arcelor-Mittal Dofasco. See my comment below the guy you replied to.
And it has cleaned up a great deal. Not all of the city, as downtown is still pretty sketchy at night and the pollution by the Bayfront isn't great, but on the mountain it isn't bad.
@Brick it's now Arcelor-Mittal Dofasco. See my comment below the guy you replied to.
Much celebrated in the Broadway musical, The Music Man. They devoted a whole song to it!
Gary, Indiana!
What a wonderful name
Named for Elbert Gary of judiciary fame
Gary, Indiana, as a Shakespeare would say
Trips along softly on the tongue this way
Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana
Let me say it once again
Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana
That's the town that "knew me when"
Now if you'd like to have a logical explanation
How I happened on this elegant syncopation
I will say without a moment of hesitation
There is just one place
That can light my face
Gary, Indiana
Gary Indiana
Not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but
Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Gary Indiana
My home sweet home
sung by a very young Ron Howard
sorry, Ron was in the scene
Live in Chicago and every time I need to go east or south one must pass through Gary, Indiana.
"Through" is the key word here for I NEVER stop there....just an industrial blur on the highway.
Save yourself a nickel and take the Tri-state instead of the Toll Road next time. Only a small amount of industry that far south.
This reminds me of the line from Futurama, when Professor says " Even I wouldn't send you to Gary, Indiana!"
Speaking as someone who has been through Gary a few times since the 70s (Once or twice a decade) It was much richer in the 70s but you rolled up your windows and closed all the vents before you entered the wall of SMOG! The smell was impressive. Today its like Detroit (where Robocop is set) however their air wasn't so bad the last time I went through in 2018. The spark effect from Simon was cool.
I'm a steel worker that lives in Gary. The city has improved quite a lot in the past few years. There's still neighborhoods I would avoid but there's plenty of nice, safe places to live here. The biggest issue is they keep electing mayors that are blatantly absolutely corrupt. I have friends that used to work in the local government and they had to quit because the mayor was doing everything in his power to keep the town from prospering.
Stop voting Democrat.
@@mirzaahmed6589 I agree 100%. If we got a republican mayor, the city would be fixed up in no time. But due to the voter demographics, that's not going to happen.
@@hk07666 You have the equivalent of a republican mayor. They run democrat to capture that vote. It is no different than the black lady they ran against mrvan to try capture the black vote. The mayor of gary has no connection to the democratic party, its an isolated corrupt city. Mcdermott called gary out for their bullshit all the time when he was the democratic mayor of hammond. If there was ever going to be a DINO, it would be the mayor of gary.
High neighbor 🙂
love the pic hope the remake is good lol.
Yeah seems that part was overlooked. elected officials been stealin for years, and yes they keep getting elected. I have noticed more police presence, they recently got newer cars from their old vics. Everyone i meet from gary who works, are generally good people. its all the Chicago trash that move over, pay no taxes, are a burden to the system, commit violent crime and vote blue no matter who.
Hope you do well for yourself and stay safe.
I'm from Gary's next door neighbor and it is sad to see. Taking a trip down Broadway shows a shadow of its golden days and so many of my family remember that days when Gary was at the height of its prosperity. I hope they can right the ship and become a functioning city once again.
That will never happen. Most of the people who live there are too apathetic.😢
I attended IUN in Gary for several years and never felt unsafe on campus, but there were always headlines about bodies being dumped in empty buildings around town every now and again. And there's always the haunting memory of my high school history teacher explaining to us why the steel mills would be strategic targets for foreign militaries.
Gary housed one of the Nike Hercules air defense sights for Chicago. The control center was by Ridge Rd and Grant St. The command center in Hobart is now a paintball field (Blast Camp).
@@andy-in-indy I remember the one behind the village and it was very close to Chase Street and about 35th Ave. Ridge and Grant was where Matthews Nursery used to be. I used to get my flowers and pumpkins from there. Now they are turning that into one of those fenced truck centers where they can leave the trailers etc for a while. The Blast Field is more on the far east side of Hobart on near a lot of farm land. It's more near Portage than Hobart but they have a Hobart zip code.
@@deborahosika9960 My memory was that it was just south of The Village, but it was taken out before I got to see the actual installation (I was born in 1969). Since I am going off what other people have told me, it makes sense that I am thinking of the wrong direction from The Village. I have tried to find the remnants of the location but all I could find by the 1990's was that they built on top of it.
Or any city that lost a major industry.
@@deborahosika9960 wheeler indiana.
This is a recurring theme with major steel producing cities.
I think it would be awesome to continue this as a series highlighting the stories of steel cities across America.
I agree. Now they make up The Rust Belt which in general is largely filled with poverty, crime, opioid addiction & lack of opportunities but in a past life were the shining examples of American production & the ability for anyone to earn a living wage to help raise a family.
Gary is really a different kind of situation with its own special problems. The city was purpose-built to feed labor into the Gary Works. The Gary Works is still there, but its never going to employ the numbers it once did. There isn't the infrastructure or the available space to do anything new. Any development in the region takes place around Gary rather than within Gary.
Many people will not like it, but the best path forward in Gary is probably to shrink the footprint of the city down and create vacant land around the edges. Start new development from the outside-in rather than trying to "save" Gary as it is.
@@Jim-Tuner Pueblo Colorado is the exact same situation. The town was built around the steel mill. Now it’s a ghost of its former self.
Essen in Germany was a bit like that. Not build for the Krupp Werke, but for a long time they, the coal mines and other steel companies dominated the city.
In the 80s large parts of the town were in massive decline with the mines and steel companies closing or moving away. Unemployment was high and the whole city looked gray and depressed.
Today one of the coal mines (Zeche Zollverein) is a protected historical monument and on the list of the UNESCO world heritage sites. Some of the buildings are used as museums, others for events, and even by the Folkwang university. There are also several restaurants and cafes.
The whole city has managed to recover and is back to being an industrial hub. Still a lot of steel and constructions companies, but Aldi also has its HQ there. As well as many other companies, especially more and more IT companies. Several banks and the convention center also plays an important role.
A few years ago the city was even elected as the green capital of Europe, because they focused so much on planting trees everywhere and turning the city from gray to green.
So change is possible, it just takes a lot of work, money, and people willing to invest. And be creative.
Not just steel cities, but big manufacturing cities. Wichita KS was once a booming hub of aircraft manufacturing, with a sizable (and well paid) workforce, and fairly minimal crime.
Now it’s turning into a shadow version of Detroit, because of the loss of good paying jobs…and drugs. Drugs and gangs.
Unfortunately, a certain segment of the population is perfectly okay with turning their homes into versions of Gary. It’s everyone else’s fault, too.
The failure of Gary, and the US manufacturing as a whole, wasn't due to obsolescence; it was due to the federal governments failure to keep manufacturing here instead of shipping it overseas to the slave labor of China
Sending everything overseas was a huge mistake
It’s inevitable in all developed nations: your told you can have ‘everything’: Job available, Pay good and stuff to buy. BUT those jobs are expected to pay a salary that gives you the ‘dream’. That’s unsustainable- so the production goes to places that can employ staff cheap = abruptly there are no jobs and it all falls apart. You can watch the same shitshow happening in China right now. Solutions: complicated, hard to achieve and will involve a major reset of expectations or outright rebellion and systemic shift in western culture. Both will be deeply painful for the general public.
I’ve been searching for this comment, like I thought, “I can’t believe I’m the only one to think this?” So I agree, I’m here in Texas and it’s booming but there’s a divide of class for sure
@@Ralnon No, employing Americans to buy American, and encouraging American investment, is the opposite of "unsustainable".
Let me guess: you voted Democrat but you used to be a Republican "back when they were sane", because MAGA is extreme.
@@Ralnon from what I see the problem with American consumer culture stems from the failures I already mentioned. While it is nice to get products for as little cost as possible, sacrificing independent sustainability to achieve that was a huge blunder. What needs to happen is a shift back to manufacturing products here, not just steel and textile but pharmaceutical too. This will never happen, unfortunately, since the consumer will have to be ok with paying more and the populist will have to do actual work instead of being the laptop class.
Hey, I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. My father was employed at Gary Works for 41 years. I worked in the mill and drove 4-, 5-, 10-, and 16-speed trucks, worked on a railroad track gang, you name it. I could feel the dust from the furnaces hitting my face. For some reason, I live far, far away from there now. I wonder why.
Surprised nobody has talked about how you can smell Gary long before you ever enter the city limits…
It's soooo bad
I drove to the refinery every day. The toll road has a terrible smell passing through there.
what smells is the coke plant at US Steel, not Gary.
50 miles before entering the city limits in my experience.
@@matthewjacobs4543 yeah, Gary has it's problems but we don't have homeless shitting in the middle of the street like in California
You mentioned Sparrow's Point in Baltimore. I once talked to a guy who worked there back in the day when it was busy and he told me he had two cars, one for his family daily driver, and the other just to go to work, because the stuff in the air at Sparrow's Point was so nasty it would eat the finish off the bodies of cars in the employee parking lot. Bet that was good for their lungs.
I worked at a newspaper in Gary in the late 1990s, early 2000s. And yeah, all of this is true. The newspaper building and printing press was about a mile south of downtown and except for an iffy Popeye's across the street, there was almost nothing there. The newspaper actually had most of its advertisers from the surrounding towns and cities. It can be depressing as hell.
But there's also a persistent optimism. People there keep trying to change the course of the city or improve it, even after other attempts have failed. And they never stop trying.
True that, there's a lot of optimistic people living there.
Neither have the Ethiopians, FOR THE LAST 1000 YEARS……😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@lonerose99 no, just people that need an optometrist…..74% of it will never ever succeed, EVER and if the people on East Side leave, along the lake front, it will become another Hopkins Park,Il (Pembroke Township)…..
I lived in Lake Station in the 80’s. Another hole. I forgot which town it was, but they literally blocked a roadway under a bridge so the Gary people couldn’t use it as a get-away anymore.😂😂😂😂😂😂
In the 60s and 70s I often traveled through Gary on my way to Chicago. It was the most depressing place I had ever seen.
It didn't get any better in the 80s and 90s driving to Chicago. My parents use to threaten me that we'd stop in Gary if I was being bad in the back seat.
Sounds like sunderland
60's & 70's were the very beginning of the downward trend.
The Gary Works remains the largest integrated steel mill in the U.S.A., but automation has eliminated the majority of the workforce
My mom and I drove to Gary when Michael Jackson died to see the house he grew up in....it was tiny and the town had definitely seen better days
Been there too it explained so much about his childhood and life
I am from Merrillville Indiana, like 5 minutes from Gary, it's a suburb of Chicago, you can go 10 blocks in any direction and find 1 Millon dollar houses, it wasn't that bad unless you're looking for trouble. My dad use
to work at US Steel pulling double shifts don't keep your lighter in your breast pocket, it'll explode from the heat.
I used to live on 73rd in Merrillville and would take Broadway home from IUN sometimes. I was always told to keep my doors locked and windows up.
The north side of Merrillville is getting pretty bad these days...
Merrillville also helped the blight of Gary.
Merriville is a suburb of Chicago???? Since when?
@@nettraypisces since forever. All these cities outside of 40 miles of Chicago is considered a suburb.
Born and raised in Gary and moved after high school. I currently own rental properties in the city and see tremendous potential
My grandpa was raised in Gary in the late 40s. His dad lost their home in a poker game, and they lived in a trailer just outside town. He would share stories of having to take in the laundry before the clothes were fully dry, because they would build up a layer of soot if they were outside too long. He had breathing problems for most of his life that he attributed to his childhood, and passed from Covid pneumonia this last year.
I’m sorry for your loss. Covid was awful, especially for people with respiratory problems.
I’m sorry for the loss of your grandpa.
I'm impressed your grandpa survived losing his house. Wife would kill me
@@flowk5 I think it was around that time his first wife left him. And a few years after that, his second wife also left him. I've grown up hearing a lot of crazy stories about shenanigans in Gary Ind.
You should do a story about Cabbage Town in Atlanta. It was an inner city industrial neighborhood. When all the local factories were shut down in the 70s the surrounding communities fell into the most impoverished urban neighborhoods in America. It wasn't until the the early 2000s that gentrification began to redevelopment this area, and those who were the first to try faced a war zone.
Yep
There's a place on Georgia with a bunch of abandoned carpet and textile places I remember driving through. It was pretty crazy
I worked EMS in Gary for many years, and still occasionally work at the only hospital. Some areas are better than others and I’m starting to see it slowly get better. However, a lot of work needs to be done. Need to demolish abandoned houses
Drop an atomic bomb in the middle of the city of Gary and just get rid of all of it.😅
Back in the late 80's Gary was #1 in murders. I was 16 visiting my father in Dyer. One night i was jist driving around late was pulled over by a state trooper asking me what i was doing and asked if i knew where i was. Lol. He told me to run every light and get the hell out of their.
Haha … I used to date a girl that lived in a bad part of ft. Worth. I was young and didn’t know any better. So I got pulled over one night… police told me the exact same thing!
Nice old copypasta there
@@craigh5236 ?
@@craigh5236 what do you mean by that? What's copypasta?
The run ever light story is an urban legend. People around the area have heard it for decades.. It never really happened.
Source - live 45 mins from there and have heard the story for decades.
A few years back, I was diverted through Gary due to a major traffic backup on the highway. It’s the most surreal experience of my adult life. The entire city looks like a dystopian movie. Abandoned, boarded up homes at every turn.
The only people I saw up and around were police officers and bouncers at strip clubs… At 11:00am.
I visited Gary on my way to Chicago... Driving by on 94/90 I was totally blown away by the sheer number of burnt down houses that were just sitting around. Spent about 5 hours there. Went to the local McDonald's, a local bar, and a few small convenience stores. Didn't have any issues, and all the people we talked to were super friendly. Sad to see how rough things are in that town, but hey, life goes on.
They were probably intentionally burnt down to keep homeless from living in them.
I drive Uber and took a young family of 3 there. I was shocked at what I saw there, it looks worse then the south side of Chicago, where a lot of the violent crimes are. But like the Southside a decent amount of the people I talked to were Midwestern nice. I was talking to them since I was trying to find a public bathroom, which was hard to find. Most towns with high crime rates, have a small percentage of people committing the crimes, but that small percentage do so much harm that most investment opportunities get scared off.
Years ago I was on 94 and traffic was backed up because someone jumped off one of the Gary bridges over the highway. Very sad but understandable.
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned the sulfury stench from the furnaces that you could smell from 20 miles away in the 60's and 70's.
By the 80s it smelled more like tires filled with cat piss set on fire. Glade and Air Wick could have a baby full of Clorox explode and it wouldn't help.
I’ve lived near Gary almost my whole life. It’s not as bad as it used to be but it’s hard to see a turn around with sooooooo many abandoned buildings. That would be my priority if i was mayor , spend anything you can to demolish these buildings. No reason why schools that closed 15+ years ago are still standing.
Northwest Indiana is a very interesting place in general. You have cities like Gary where almost everything is abandoned, then you have towns like Munster that's only a few miles away with multimillion dollar houses and things being built up at every corner Then we're so close to the city some towns here are closer to the city then some suburbs in Illinois.
Spot on. It’s always baffled me how there is such a difference between the cities of The Region. The whole area is really more Chicago than it is Indiana.
I have lived all my life in NWI in a couple different areas and yeah, it's like the outskirts of Chicago. That's why it's on Central Time, when most of IN is on Eastern Time
The percentage of jobless black population makes the difference. Crime deters investment and drives away the educated. He mentioned white flight
White flight. Gary isn’t the only place like this. The suburbs of Detroit are populated and wealthy too.
As I type this from my in-laws' home in Munster....
There is an underlying current here that things are changing in Munster and people are moving out. Not in mass numbers yet, but the feel is that it is coming. People are eyeing Crown Point, Dyer, St. John and out to even Valpo.
I used to have to drive from southern Indiana to Chicago all the time and I canNOT even begin to tell you how grim Gary is. I used to plan my route so I’d never have to stop there for gas. It’s like something out of a movie. So terrifying.
smart, I used to do that with LA always made sure I had enough gas to make it through the downtown area without stopping.
I was told to not even stop at a stop sign by a cop
@@angelabohot7435 Heard the same story on comment threads under other videos about the place. Sad and scary.
Southern Indiana Hoosier here- Who thinks he should do one on the Meth Capital of the World, Evansville?
I had to go to unemployment office in Gary when I was out of work back in 2019. Crumbling buildings + Crumbling career = The greatest days any one man could have.
Back in 2009, I was in film school. I was working audio on a student production about a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
That student film was shot in Gary, Indiana.
I first heard about Gary from playing Vampire: The Masquerade in the 90s. A lot of the early source books dealt with Gary and Chicago feuding. Its really interesting to hear about the reality of it.
As an avid VtM fan... and someone who lives in Gary. WHHHHAAATTT?!? However I never got into any of the actual TTRPGs... so I guess that would make since. Fan of the games and the world though.
I was born and raised in Gary, IN. Most of my family worked in the steel mills when I was younger. There’s some beautiful architecture downtown. It’s sad what it’s become. Lots of abandoned buildings and schools. Gangs, drugs, and crime. It’s got a great location. It would be wonderful if someone could turn that city around.
Certified Hoosier here (Indiana native) and there is a reason why a "one way ticket to Gary, Indiana" is not a good thing
Had to stop in Gary for some gas in the middle of the night once. Station attendent was in a bullet proof box. While I was filling up I had the feeling of being watched. Happened to turn around and see a car with its light out creeping around the corner. Everyone in the car was looking at me and after a brief staredown, they hammered the gas and sped off. I could not get out of there fast enough.
I rode with my father in the late 70's-early 80's hauling steel coils. I remember being told to "stay in the truck" as he placed his .44 Magnum in his back waist band and climbed out of the truck. I also have a duality of existence in regards to unions from these trips.
And hopefully unlike the movies you stayed in the F***** truck right ;)
I saw worst city and immediately assumed Gary, Indiana and I was correct. I live a little over an hour from here and it’s downright depressing in most parts. It’s a treasure trove for urban exploring though! My friend and I have explored the thoroughly and we’ve never been accosted in any way except for a karen police officer or Karen Five-Oh as I call her. I’ve also never seen crime being committed but anyone who can afford it has bars over there windows, even in the nicer neighborhoods. There is honestly more abandoned buildings than occupied bullies. I would probably estimate at least 60% of buildings are abandoned .
a few years ago i was watching an urban explorer skulking about in Abandoned Urban Detroit and one house he went into had a qreat many human bones in it. there is no mistaking the human femur...the explorer wasn't sure and i hadn't learned how to work the comments on my phone yet, forgive me, i am old.
creepy, very creepy.
Did you hear about the serial killer that was dumping bodies in abandoned buildings? Just a few years ago a girl was murdered in my town and they dumped her in an abandoned school in Gary. Very sad. Have you ever explored the brickyards in Hobart by chance?
Funny enough 60% is the estimated abandoned business places in NYC
A "Karen" police officer was doing her job and you were trespassing. Given the above comment about a serial killer dumping bodies and the problem with drug heads hanging out in these places you should've thanked her for looking out for you.
@@RCAvhstape i wholeheartedly agree. i was once rescued from trespassing in an abandoned apartment complex in houston tx, when i was 22 and drunk and was looking for a quiet place to sit in my truck and listen to music....a woman was found murdered not long after that in a closet next to where i was parked. thank you, Houston Police!
I went to Gary in the early 90s for an installation. The contrast to sunny and prosperous Ca drove home the reality of rust belt. The millions of workers that used to labor in steel plants had long faded. The cities and towns around them died with their fading. It was pretty grim.
Look into Avalon Beach, Milton, FL. There are thousands of tenth acre lots that are mostly under water or within wetlands which are completely uninhabitable and the parcels were sold as beach front property back in the 40's. This devastated many families. Not as expensive as your story but a lot of people got eff'd back in the day.
Driving through Gary always reminds me of home, in Youngstown, Ohio because they have similar stories
My dad as well as both his parents were born in Youngstown and my grandfather worked for the steel company before he was laid off. It is sad what happened to the these cities and I hope Youngstown is doing better. I mean to visit at some point just to visit the graves of my great grandparents on my dad's side.
All these steel/coal towns are dead. I live just outside Pittsburgh and its the same story.
I live in Indy and have family in Wisconsin and Chicago I visit often. I always try to take Cline Ave bypassing some of 90, because of its eeriness and scenery of derelict mid-century mills and factories. It feels like you're not supposed to be there but its melancholy you can't ignore. I do hope Gary's future is better.
I do the same when I drive to Chicago! Especially if the traffic is especially bad on 90/94, Cline Ave is it. I find it fascinating driving through what’s essentially a ghost town. Gary has some beautiful old churches and other architecture buried under all the eyesores.
He's good this simon whistler
I drive past Gary almost everyday for work (truck driver) my company also has a terminal there just right off the highway. It’s very interesting to see it’s a place from a bygone era, a large majority of the population has left and it’s strange to see certain areas with decent looking homes then a couple houses down or street over there are boarded up homes and destroyed/burnt down buildings
Very sad indeed to see such productive cities, now in shambles.
Ironically, our massively huge steel mills are rusting instead of being recycled.
All because companies wanted cheap labor from China.
The steel mill in Gary is doing fine. It just needs one tenth as many workers as it used to. Gary is still a productive city in terms of steel.
@@Jim-Tuner yep, we're still here and making all sorts of steel 24/7! This place may look abandoned and like it needs to be 'recycled' apparently, but it's just old and shows its age. There are plenty of people here working hard every day to produce the metal that produces the necessary products we all use.
How are you not gonna mention the Jackson 5? After visiting their childhood home (looks like 2:29) which is preserved with a monument in the yard I understood so much about Michael's childhood and upbringing. So many kids in such a small house
I ended up there on accident getting off on the Chicago Skyway exit.
It was surreal as it was about midnight and it felt like a ghost town, but not in a cool way.
Are there cool ghost towns?
@@shadowpat810 Yes, lots of them. Some are like time capsules.
Blew two tires on my trailer and had to go into Gary to get replacements. Happy Way Tire shop had good selection, good prices and quick service. Drive to get to it was fine because there was no one there among the burned out houses, abandoned school, empty lots and then all of a sudden a decent well kept neigborhood.
Let's not forget the Brother Cities of Gary:
Larry, MO
Barry, TN
Harry, KY
For some reason Gary is the most famous slump waste city. You search other cities on YT and you can find much but search Gary and there 20 videos with 100k+ views at least
In the late 1950's on of my uncles died in one of the Gary mills. They didn't notice him missing until my aunt called the police and said he never came home.
I grew up there. First in a large tri-level house with 4 bedrooms. Later in the 70s, moved to a single story 3 broom house until the layoffs hit hard and family fell apart. Other family had to come get us. Even though I was young and don't remember much. What I do remember is the decline was very real and harsh. One of the best things recently is I reconnected with my best friends from back then earlier this year and one of them took me around the neighborhood and filled in memory gaps. The other one told me he played in our abandoned house after we were whisked away.
Im from New Zealand and even i know about Gary. And that's not the first time I've mentioned this on a comments section.
I live just outside of Gary. I've worked there and lived there. It's a crazy place.
1:40 - Chapter 1 - Background
3:15 - Chapter 2 - Inequality
5:55 - Chapter 3 - Facilities & production
8:00 - Chapter 4 - Unrest
9:15 - Chapter 5 - The fall
12:00 - Chapter 6 - The future
God-bless your helpful m************ a**
Could you do a video on Butte, Montana? I spent some time in the area and was fascinated by the boom to bust copper mining town. The mine basically surrounds the town, even underneath, they had an unsuccessful bid for state capitol, there was the Granite mountain disaster, and let's not forget the superfund site created at the Berkley pit that's so toxic it has killed more than one migrating flock of geese (the official statements from the government claim that the water from the pit hasn't permeated the water tables, but locals all know that's a lie. The cancer rates in that town are sky high). I think the strangest part was the dichotomy of people from Butte being fiercely proud of their town while people in the rest of the state seemed to think it was the absolute dregs. Oh, and they have a massive statue of the virgin Mary overlooking the whole town, and I either read somewhere or someone told me that the town has the highest concentration of Irish people, outside of Ireland itself, and their St. Patrick's day celebration is notoriously raucous.
As someone that has lived In Indiana not too far from Gary nearly my whole life, this is a very respectful video about its downfall… thank you for reporting about it accurately and respectful 💜
@@oldgoat50 I do not doubt that he has never been to Gary… that is not even a question. I personally enjoy most of his videos on not only this channel but the others as well, due to the fact that his writers (some that do indeed live here in the USA) do their research extremely thoroughly, which I appreciate. 😉
Oddly enough the only building I saw in pristine condition there is the KFC
If you zoom in on Google Maps and see that long railroad yard, that is CN Kirkyard. I was just there this AM doing a yard job.
I came here to comment on how I used to live just minutes from Gary over in Hammond... And then I saw that nearly every single comment is pretty much exactly the same. You can see how many of us that grew up nearby absolutely hated Gary. It's kind of sad how bad the place got. Hammond went downhill, too. I visited again just a year ago and, while some places got a new paint job, the decay is very apparent. It really is sad. I'll sound like that old guy, but I really miss how it was when I was a teenager.
I'm from Portage and a friend got shot at in a bar parking lot in Hammond a few years ago😂 the whole area is kind of terrible lol
My grandfather moved to Gary from Puerto Rico in the 60’s, was a cop there for 25 years shortly thereafter, got shot once and stabbed four times in his career
The first time I was in Gary Indiana... I was driving from Cleveland to Chicago, and there was an ominous storm filling the horizon. It looked like I was driving through hell, apocalyptic lighting flashing across the sky...
Yes, America abandoned the people of Gary, Indiana.
It awesome seeing local places on big channels
Drove through Gary a few weeks ago and it's crazy it looks like an industrial ghost town stuck in time.
We used to drive through Gary, Indiana back in the late 1950's and 1960"s. You could smell it well before you got there.
You are closer to the truth then anyone else has told on youtube ever. But, if my dad was alive, he would add to your story. Born in Gary in 1937 and raised there. He watched alot of thing go bad there. My grandparents died there. My brother worked at the EJ&E railway till 2012. Retired from there. Gary has not been the place to live at since the late 60s. I got to see it through the 70s go straight down hill. People moving in from Chicago helped destroy Gary. Once they tore up one neighborhood, they moved to another and destroyed it.
"People moving in from Chicago"
Yeah.
Black people destroyed Gary. It's what they do.
awsome work as always Simon!!
Lmao, currently sitting here at GARY WORKS! Watch this channel all the time and put it on for background noise in my crane. Started cracking up once I heard Gary, Indiana!
I am surprised as a person from northwest Indiana and a fan to find this video. Thank you for teaching me about a town I live near. Unfortunately they don’t tell us much about this kind of things in our school system.
John Adams left a ring in a book.
I grabbed it for you.
Some soldiers were innocent. In a court of law.
And that was all. FakeNewZ was sent everywhere.
It started a revolution. PG1 US HISTORY CLASS.
Quincy Ma. 🛡️The City of Presidents.
#Boston2024 BORDER SECURITY.
That's because the liberal teachers unions don't want you to know what happened in Democrat-run cities.
Growing up in a nearby town, my father threatened me and my siblings to (drop us off) in gary when we were misbehaving. he worked there and sometimes would show us around the steel mill. gary is scary
The Gary steel plant would make a wicked real-life Twisted Metal racetrack, urban combat firearms training facility for civilian, law enforcement and military, worlds largest paintball arena and skate park. Man, the things i would do with that plant property would be, dare i say, lit.
Drove through there in 1994. Sad looking place . It went from a song about Gary , Indiana being my home to scary Gary
In the mid 90's I was working high end residental construction in cwntral Indiana abd we had a client in Gary that was noving to Indianapolis. We were in Gary for a meeting to the client's home when we stopped at a red light in downtown Gary. My boss was on the phone with the client's wife when she asked where we where. My boss told her and she imediately yelled in the phone for him to move even if it meant running the red light. At that moment I looked behind the truck and there were three men walking toward the truck with blocks, a jack, and a lug wrench. They were planning on stealing the wheels off the truck while we sat at the light!
A few months later another emplyee was driving through Gary and someone tried to steal a wooden door out of the back of a pick-up while they were driving down the street.
So basically Gary is what every movie/show tried to convince us the worst of Detroit or LA is like?
Visiting Gary is a wild experience! I've been through there several times. This summer, I finally had a chance to explore the town. You can see a video I made about it on my channel. It was a surreal experience to say the least. Hard to describe really. I try to in the video i made but I really just let the camera do the work. You can see "Charile's Cony Island" in my video at some point.
My fiancé and I did some urbex in Gary earlier this year, and I can tell you it is still as derelect as ever. There were so many abandoned buildings it was hard to decide which ones to explore. We both took some amazing shots of the high-school and theater there. But we couldn't stay for long, because we noticed more than a few people eyeing our car and we didn't want to have anything happen to it. If you are going to visit Gary, I would recommend doing it in a group.
I drove past Gary on the way to Chicago last summer for the first time and I've never seen anything like it. Just endless infrastructure and manufacturing plants for miles and miles and miles. I was actually awed by it to be honest.
Gary has a city's worth of people that are looking for work. It'd be a good place for a new business to set up shop. Almost any business that does has its positions almost immediately filled.
It's hard to set up a successful business when everything will be trashed or stolen if it isn't bolted to the ground. Maybe it would be successful if large areas were purchased and redeveloped and new housing was built.
They just opened a Hard rock casino and venue not that long ago
Businesses arent moving to Democrat controlled cities in general. Too risky.
As a Hoosier, I promise that we all make fun of Gary
Region Rats do the same for the Euchre playing yokels in the rest of Indiana, so it is fair. 😉
Hammond and East Chicago aren’t much better.
@@andy-in-indy gotta tell people I'm from Indiana but up near Chicago so they don't think I'm like the rest of the Hoosiers😂
@@auntbee6993 I used to tell people I lived at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
We grew up in Lowell, IN and my mom would go shopping in Gary. So sad what happened to this city.
There is nothing wrong with Gary... it is a wonderful place to settle down and raise a family.
Very clean and scenic, low crime, and right on Lake Michigan.
Plenty of good jobs and schools...
The shopping is incredible too.
😂😅😢
Taking the train from the Dunes into Chicago, I saw more mattresses abandoned in alleyways in Gary than I've ever seen in my life. Why so many mattresses I have no idea.
Junkie puke/piss/shit/blood.....
@@Jaysin412 Mattresses are very absorbent.
@@Alloy211 true, but nobody wants to use that mattress after someone shot up and puked on it/pissed/shit themselves on it, or even overdosed on it. Flophouses are gross. But even they throw out a junkie mat once it starts to stink. Lmao
@@Jaysin412 True, not enough Little Trees air fresheners in the world to cover that stench.
Bed bug epidemic of bout 10 years ago. Whole world was hit
I’d love to see a similar type episode about Flint, Mi as well! Great job. Love the videos! I am going to subscribe!!
It's great to hear Simon talk about my hometown.
I own a carpet cleaning business where I go into Gary twice a week. Most of my competitors won't go to Gary. When you do it awhile, you can understand. I've had great and wonderful customers. So of my best are there and my worst are also there. Some of what I've seen are shocking. You can own a house for $15,000.
It's a great ballpark! Love it.
I was driving though the area and knew nothing of Gary. I knew that it was approximately where I should stop for the night so just told Google Maps to take me to Gary not realizing how far off the main hwy it was. It guided me to the centre of Gary and innocently I just followed it. How I wish it had of guided me into the lake instead. There have been very few times I've ended up somewhere in this world that every sense told me that I shouldn't be there and to get out as quietly and quickly as I could and this was very much one of them. When even pawn shops have boarded up and gone out of business things can't be good.
China had an app for its citizens that avoided areas like Gary Indiana. I wonder if Americans can use the app.
@@jeffk464 Indonesia has one too. It’s actually targeted at tourists who think they want to “see the real Indonesia”, but have no idea what they’re actually saying.
My uncle lived and worked in Gary in the late 50's and his two daughters grew up there and graduated from Emerson high school. We visited them a few times and it looked like a nice place. That was before the downfall. My uncle made a quick getaway to Chicago just in time.
Yes... blocks need to leveled... empty lots will give you less trouble than dilapidated houses that can still be shelter... costs money but you guys just need the right governor and funding... what a Cinderella story it will be when its eventually rebuilt 💯
Idk who decided to add a spark effect to that snap but i appreciated it