Plan to revitalize Gary with small interventions

Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York or Rome
But Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
My home sweet home

Is there a happier song about a city? “Gary, Indiana,” a 1958 song from The Music Man, harkens back to the early 20th Century when the musical was set. The fact is that Gary was a thriving city, a great city, within living memory. 

See this aerial photo from 1939, which showed virtually the entire city intact, even after the Great Depression.

The City still thrived through the 1950s, when its population grew by a third. Now, Gary appears to be a depressing, hollowed-out city. For evidence of that, consider the current conditions of vacant and underutilized buildings and land, identified in red below, as outlined in a recent plan by the Notre Dame School of Architecture. 

I have never been to Gary except to drive through many times, on the highway, and from that perspective, Gary looks sad. Based on vacancy and underutilization, I think I wasn’t missing much when I didn’t stop.

But Gary has good bones and potential. Its street grid was based on New York’s, with Chicago alleys—a good combination. Although Gary has lost 60 percent of its population in the last 50 years, committed citizens are trying to turn things around. The report, Downtown Gary: A Vision and Action Plan, is for them. 

It originates from a great program, called the Dean’s Charrette, in honor of the current Notre Dame architecture dean, Stefanos Polyzoides, a founder of CNU and one of the great US planners of the last four decades. The Dean’s Charrette pairs School of Architecture talent with nationally known planners. Having a vision is the first step to turning around a city like Gary. According to the report:

“While this community has fruitlessly been promised a renaissance many times over the last few decades, this moment is poised to be different. The combined energy of a new mayor, an active Redevelopment Commission, and an engaged public – paired with new sources for grant funding and a renewed appreciation for walkable downtown development in cities nationwide – positions this study to break through where others have not been successful, and achieve both immediate and lasting change for the city.”

Revitalizing Gary will not be easy. The Vision Plan focuses on six areas, none of which are “silver bullets.” These include: Historic preservation and blight reversal, zoning reform, “urban interventions” (development projects planned for specific sites), street redesign, architectural identity and design standards, and pre-approved building plans. 

These foci build on the strength of Gary as a walkable, compact city. They place faith in small- to mid-sized interventions that enhance the public realm downtown and in adjacent neighborhoods, attracting people and businesses with each action. 

The set of strategies has worked in many cities over the last 30 years, including Providence, Charleston, Buffalo, South Bend, Chattanooga, and scores of others. The planners believe it will work in Gary—it’s just a matter of time before citizens can sing again with pride about “My home sweet home.”