Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 census, making it Indiana's eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the southern shore of Lake Michigan about southeast of downtown Chicago. The city is the western gateway to the Indiana Dunes National Park, and is within the Chicago metropolitan area.
Gary was named after lawyer Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation. U.S. Steel had established the city in 1906 as a company town to serve its steel mills. Since the 1970s, Gary and other Rust Belt cities have lost a high number of people as the steel industry has gone through restructuring and manufacturing jobs moved offshore. As a result of this economic shift, the city's population has declined 61% since the 1960 census.
Although initially a very diverse city, Gary currently has one of the nation's highest percentages of African Americans. Between 1970 and 2010, Gary had the nation's highest Black population per capita. The city has a legacy of African-American cultural and historical accomplishments. In 1945, Gary was the first city in the Midwest to fully integrate its public school system. It elected the country's first Black mayor, Richard Hatcher in 1968, and in 1972 hosted the first and largest National Black Political Convention.
Gary is served by the Gary/Chicago International Airport, an alternative to the Chicago region's two larger airports. The city's public transport is provided by the Gary Public Transportation Corporation and the South Shore Line passenger railway, which connects to the Chicago transit system. It is home to a professional baseball team, the Gary SouthShore RailCats. In addition to its large steel mills, the city is known as the birthplace of the Jackson family, well-known entertainers whose members include singer Michael Jackson.
History
Founding and early years
Gary, Indiana, was founded in 1906 by the U.S. Steel corporation as the home for its new plant, Gary Works. The city was named after lawyer Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation.Gary was the site of civil unrest in the 1919 General Steel Strike. On October 4, 1919, a riot broke out on Broadway, the main north–south street through downtown Gary, between steel workers and strike breakers brought in from outside. Indiana governor James P. Goodrich declared martial law three days later. Shortly after that, over 4,000 federal troops under the command of Major General Leonard Wood arrived to restore order.
The steel industry's jobs provided Gary with rapid growth and a diverse population within the first 26 years of its founding. According to the 1920 United States census, 29.7% of Gary's population at the time was classified as foreign-born, mostly from eastern European countries, with another 30.8% classified as native-born with at least one foreign-born parent. By the 1930 United States census, the first census in which Gary's population exceeded 100,000, the city was the fifth largest in Indiana and comparable in size to South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Evansville. At that time, 78.7% of the population was classified as white, with 19.3% as foreign-born and another 25.9% as native-born with at least one foreign-born parent. In addition to white internal migrants, Gary had attracted numerous African-American migrants from the South in the Great Migration, and 17.8% of the population was classified as black. Some 3.5% were classified as Mexican.
Post-World War II
Gary's fortunes have risen and fallen with those of the steel industry. The growth of the steel industry brought prosperity to the community, and industrial workers gained middle-class standards of living. Broadway was known as a commercial center for the region. Department stores and architecturally significant movie houses were built in the downtown and Glen Park neighborhoods.But in the 1960s, as manufacturing jobs moved offshore, Gary entered a period of decline. This also occurred in many other American urban centers that were reliant on one particular industry. Gary's decline was brought on by reduced employment in the steel industry overall, which caused U.S. Steel to lay off many workers from the Gary area.
The U.S. Steel Gary Works employed over 30,000 in 1970; the workforce declined to 6,000 by 1990, and to 5,100 by August 2015. Attempts to shore up the city's economy with major construction projects, such as a Holiday Inn hotel and the Genesis Convention Center, failed to reverse the decline.
1968 riots
In July 1968, riots broke out in Gary following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The governor ordered 3,000 National Guard members to assist local police with restoring order to the city. Curfews were enforced, and a ban on gasoline and liquor sales helped calm the violence. During the unrest, more than 110 people were arrested, at least three stores were set on fire, and at least 15 fire-bombings were reported.Racial changes
A rapid racial change occurred in Gary during the late 20th century. Political power reflected Gary's racial demographics: the Black and Hispanic share of the city's population increased from 21% in 1930 to 39% in 1960, and to 53% in 1970. Black and Hispanic people primarily lived in the Midtown section just south of downtown.Gary voters elected one of the nation's first African-American mayors, Richard G. Hatcher, and hosted the groundbreaking 1972 National Black Political Convention.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gary had the highest percentage of African-American residents among U.S. cities with a population of 100,000 or more, 84%.
The city's population has fallen well below 100,000 residents. In 2013, the Gary Department of Redevelopment estimated that one-third of all homes in the city were unoccupied and/or abandoned.
U.S. Steel
U.S. Steel continues to be a major steel producer but has a small fraction of its previous workforce.While Gary has been unable to establish or replace the manufacturing base, it has worked to diversify. Two casinos opened along the Gary lakeshore in the 1990s, to create an entertainment destination. Their success has been adversely affected by the state closing Cline Avenue, an important means of access to the area.
Today, Gary faces the difficulties of a Rust Belt city, including high unemployment and decaying infrastructure.
21st century
Gary has closed 21 public schools. While some school buildings have been reused, most remain unused since closing. As of 2014, Gary is considering closing additional schools in response to budget deficits.Gary Chief of Police Thomas Houston was convicted of excessive force and abuse of authority in 2008. He died in 2010 while serving a three-year, five-month federal prison sentence.
In April 2011, 75-year-old mayor Rudolph M. Clay announced that he would suspend his campaign for reelection as he was being treated for prostate cancer. He endorsed rival Karen Freeman-Wilson, who won the Democratic mayoral primary in May 2011. Freeman-Wilson won election with 87 percent of the vote and her term began in January 2012; she is the first woman elected mayor in the city's history. She was reelected in 2015. She was defeated in her bid for a third term in the 2019 Democratic primary by Lake County Assessor Jerome Prince. Since no challengers filed for the November 2019 general election, Prince's nomination was effectively tantamount to election. He officially succeeded Freeman-Wilson on January 1, 2020, two days after being sworn in as the city's 21st mayor on December 30, 2019.
In May 2021, a $300 million Hard Rock Casino opened in the city. Branded as Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, the location includes memorabilia from the local entertainment family, the Jackson 5, and a 1,950-seat Hard Rock Live performance hall.
Geography
The city is located at the southern end of the former lake bed of the prehistoric Lake Chicago and the current Lake Michigan. Most of the city's soil, nearly one foot below the surface, is pure sand. The sand beneath Gary and on its beaches is of such volume and quality that for over a century, companies have mined it, especially for the manufacture of glass.According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is land and is water.
Gary is T-shaped, with its northern border on Lake Michigan. In the northwesternmost section, Gary borders Hammond and East Chicago; 165th Street, one of several roads connecting Hammond and Gary, has been walled off from Gary since 1981, initially due to a toxic flood. Miller Beach, Gary's easternmost neighborhood, borders Lake Station and Portage. Gary's southernmost section borders Griffith, Hobart, Merrillville, and unincorporated Ross. Gary is about from the Chicago Loop.
Gary contains the western portion of Indiana Dunes National Park, including Miller Woods, the western part of Long Lake, and the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education. Much of this is within Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood, although the park's western tip extends to downtown Gary.
Climate
Gary is listed by the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system as humid continental. In July and August, the warmest months, high temperatures average 84 °F and peak just above 100 °F, and low temperatures average 63 °F. In January and February, the coldest months, high temperatures average around 29 °F and low temperatures average 13 °F, with at least a few days of temperatures dipping below 0 °F.The weather in Gary is greatly regulated by its proximity to Lake Michigan. Weather varies yearly. In the summer months Gary is humid. The city's yearly precipitation averages about 40 inches. Summer is the rainiest season. Winters vary but are predominantly snowy. Snowfall in Gary averages approximately 25 inches per year. Sometimes large blizzards hit because of "lake effect snow", a phenomenon whereby large amounts of water evaporated from the lake deposit onto the shoreline areas as inordinate amounts of snow.