The city of Gary is hosting The Homecoming, a daylong forum Friday inviting Gary natives with professional skills and expertise to brainstorm how to rebuild the Steel City.
“We want to tap into that love for Gary, Indiana,” the city’s invitation states.
“You will be able to determine how you can best offer your insight and expertise in a way that will allow us to advance our work in the community,” it states.
The event will focus on economic development, job creation, public safety, technology, communications, health, logistics, education and youth, finance and infrastructure. Its goal is to lay the foundation for concrete steps toward sustained projects within the city, which just turned 112 years old.
“This work will be driven by the expatriates,” the invitation states.
I don’t know who’s expected to attend Friday’s forum at the ArtHouse: a Social Kitchen on Fifth Avenue, but I do know who won’t be attending.
“I knew nothing about it,” said Dorothy Scott, a 78-year-old resident at Genesis Towers, a senior housing complex in downtown Gary, just a few blocks from City Hall.
Earlier this week, I talked to a handful of residents at the former Hotel Gary, which has become a beleaguered symbol for the city’s towering challenges. It’s operated by the Gary Housing Authority, and I routinely receive complaints from its residents about poor living conditions and lack of maintenance.
“We’re experts at living in Gary, I’ll tell you that,” griped one older woman who’s lived at Genesis Towers for several years. “We’ve been through mayor after mayor after mayor, and ain’t nobody ever asking us our opinions.”
The last time I visited Genesis Towers was in August 2014, when I met with 72-year-old Billie Morris, a woman whose 10th-floor apartment felt like an oven. Her air conditioner wasn’t working that day.
“Unlike me, they’ll just sit outside and moan and groan instead of talking up for themselves,” Morris told me that day of other residents who were less vocal.
Today, many of the residents still enjoy sitting outside the building at 578 Broadway, watching the wheels go by while sharing their opinions how to fix the city (and the country, and the world).
“Most of these seniors have nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one ever asks their opinion about nothing in this city,” said one woman, who was leery of sharing her name with me. “I’m afraid of getting kicked out of here. I got no place to go. I’m very vexed about all this nonsense.”
I asked her what the city needs to rebuild, reflecting the theme of Friday’s forum.
“It would be nice if city leaders would sit down and listen to us,” she replied, noting that she has lived in Gary for more than 40 years. “Yeah, I’ve seen it all, baby.”
Beyond the complaints I heard about bedbugs, roaches, and the lack of respect from Gary Housing Authority officials, many of the residents here feel neglected and ignored.
“City leaders give us a chicken dinner or a fish fry to get their vote and then we never hear from them again,” one older man told me. “Gary these days is just like Chicago.”
I promised those residents that I would share their feelings, and their disgust, in this column space. Wouldn’t be something if some of those visiting “expatriates” stopped there Friday to lend an ear?
“We’re not gonna hold our breath,” one woman replied.
Sharon Chambers, a State Farm insurance agent who’s lived in Gary since 1965, echoes the feelings of many citizens by suggesting the city adopts a “back-to-basics strategy” of investing in good schools, public safety, and family-oriented events.
“Expatriates who have moved and developed very successful lifestyles are showing an interest in wanting to invest in the quality of life of their hometown. But they need to be reassured and feel secure with consistent visual improvements of their efforts,” said Chambers, who’s not a resident of Genesis Towers.
Still, I hope her comment gets mentioned at Friday’s forum.
I have no expertise in those areas to be examined, such as economic development, job creation, and technology. However, I do have insights into the city’s public image.
They base their opinions mostly on newspaper headlines and stories. Like waves crashing on our Lake Michigan beaches, gradually eroding the shoreline, the waves of negative news about Gary have eroded public trust. This only confirms skeptics’ pessimism or condemnation about the city.
For instance, the proposed plan to sell the city’s public safety building at 555 Polk St., only to lease it back to the city.
Or the newly released audit showing the Gary airport overstated its cash balance by some $650,000.
Or the news that top Gary officials are being subpoenaed by the city’s Common Council for any documents they have related to transfers of funds from the Fire Department’s ambulance fund, called the Fund 224.
Northwest Indiana is collectively shaking its head in disbelief. Again.
These are just three examples that continue to sabotage Gary’s public image. And too many to count through the years.
At a public meeting, Gary Common Council member LaVetta Sparks-Wade, D-6th, said about the Fund 224 fiasco, “We need to get to the bottom of this.”
Region residents have been saying this for decades. Echoing that older woman from Genesis Towers, we are vexed about all this nonsense.
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