midwest love: gary, in

I’ve never been to Gary, Indiana. I don’t actually think it is one of those places that people choose to go. I have however passed the city several times going from Chicago to Michigan and back since it borders the bottom of Lake Michigan. You can’t miss the city. Not because it has grand architecture or sits in a hill or valley to view from the highway. No, it is hard to miss because as you pass by the city your nose begins to twinge. That twinge is from the steel and gas factories that co-exist with the city. The smell, although it deters you from stopping to fill up for gasoline in the city, is not the reason why people do not go to Gary.

People don’t go to Gary because it is the pit of the Midwest if not the United States. The town is deteriorating more and more every year and is rattled with crime and violence.

Gary however was not always a place of crime and violence. The city was established actually in 1906 for the sole purpose of U.S. Steel Corporation’s new plant. Much like Detroit during that period it thrived and prospered. In the fifties Detroit began to experience white-flight. In the sixties so did Gary. As the base of economy in Gary began to leave so did its foundation and the city began to stumble. It has never recovered.