Why Gary Indiana will Become a Ghost Town (The Rise and Fall of Gary Indiana) - IT'S HISTORY
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- Опубліковано 25 бер 2022
- Once the Magic City of America’s Rust Belt, Gary, Indiana is a city of a much different reputation today. From the greatest producer of American Steel and a key arm in the Arsenal of Democracy, it devolved into a murder capital until it ran out of people to kill. Its story is familiar, though, with any luck, it is not over.
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IT’S HISTORY - Weekly tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.
Chapters
0:51 - The Birth of the American Steel Industry
2:44 - What the Steel Industry Did for America
5:33 - A Rocky Start for Gary Indiana
7:45 - Pulling to the Forefront
8:15 - The Magic City During World War II
10:36 - The Past Comes back to haunt Gary Indiana
13:49 - Gary Indiana, From Magic to Murder
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» CREDIT
Special Guest Indy Neidell - WW2 @WorldWarTwo
Scriptwriter - Gregory Back
Editor - Sebastian Ripoll
Host - Ryan Socash
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» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
I was a Lake County (Gary) deputy coroner in the late 70's. Gary was the murder capital of America and I remember going from one homicide to the next... many of them execution style. The local government and police were all indicted for corruption and much worse. We were the only armed coroner's department in US history at the time.
Whenever I see interesting stories like this I screenshot them just because I'll forget them eventually you know
In the 90's the city hall decided they would close life saving emergency services through the night. People stabbed shot walking down Broadway staggering. I tried to help but 911 informed me due to police being gunned down that city hall voted to close all emergency services during the dark. The impact that had on me was life changing. I watched a man stagger holding his stomach bleeding and knowing he would die by morning. He rejected my offer for help. I was broken. How could the city I grew up in turn from the citizens? They did. Corrupt city.
That's crazy
@@heatherrice7983 So Crazy, So Sad.
How Crazy And Compelling Of A Story!
Gary is one of the best examples of why cities should NEVER base their entire economies off of one industry!
Not just one industry, one company.
It has nothing to do with industry. The people simply made enough to get away from the dust and chemicals of the steel industry and moved farther away. Some people I know commute 2 hours just to go to work at the steel mill.
@@markallen4364 west Virginia company towns have entered the chat.
@@markallen4364 It has nothing to do with industry? Watch the video from 11:42 on where Ryan spelled out how the decline of America's steel industry forced that industry to implement massive layoffs, which caused cities like Gary to decline.
And the amount of people currently working in Gary's steel mill PALES in comparison to what it used to be. I refer to the numbers Ryan put out at 14:41.
The town was founded and run as a "company" town. The city was basically built by a steel company. The city had no choice and no say in the matter.
Gary is an example of why large corporations should not be allowed to form or run cities.
My father was a Chemical Engineer in the Steel industry for 30 years, an expert in Iron Desulphurization. I remember as a kid in the 80's & into the 90's going with him to Gary on business trips. The decline was really obvious in the 90's. What a shame we allowed this to happen.
Nothing is forever 🤷🏽♂️
@@hectorcardenas2171 Except extinction!
It's not a matter of allowing. It's how a free market works. We can't have the freedom of a free market without also taking the risks that come with it. The government can't legislate us out of the risk while still keeping a free market. True freedom comes with a price. We can either have government control or we can have freedom. We can't have both and we can't have freedom for some and government control for others. It doesn't work that way.
@@lolasmom5816 Sadly in the case of The Steel Companies like US S and others the E P A which is a Governmental agency did legislate these companies out of business with laws they enacted which were so financially destructive it helped drive them out of business after a decade or 2. It was not the only factor to be sure, But it was a very big one. And most likely the nail in the coffin.
Well we had to allow it, anytime anyone tried to stop it they were called "antisemite". "Companies consolidating? Thats an antisemitic conspiracy theory!" "Banks consolidating power? Money printing to cause inflation and reduce your wealth? That's an antisemitic conspiracy theory!". "You're country is being invaded and systematically flooded with other language speaking cultures that work for less and don't know what a bill of rights is?? That's an antisemitic conspiracy theory!!"
See how this works? Countries used to solve their internal issues once upon a time... back when eliminating the source causing inhumane suffering, wasn't made to be considered, inhumane...
From Leo: Born in Gary, my family had multiple homes and businesses. Yes, certainly the decline of the mills is a big deal. You did a great job explaining the history of the Steel Industry, Thank you. Starting in 1967, the city government became very corrupt and both white collar and street thug criminality grew astronomically. The mills were still doing ok at that point. The crime caused the law abiding, productive citizens to move out of Gary and commute to their mill jobs. Losing productive citizens and the tax base was hard on the city. The still increasing crime drove out all other businesses, big and small. The real thing that killed Gary was crime. Large numbers of drug addicted people that did not produce enough to take care of themselves, let alone pay property taxes quickly destroyed what was left. . The Federal government has pumped millions upon millions into Gary since 1980, and it got eaten up with very little benefit.
Oh, come now, that's a rather limited narrative. It isn't that the city government became corrupt in 1967, it's that the face of the corruption changed. Do you honestly think nepotism, cronyism and the Chicago criminal element didn't play a part in Gary politics pre-1967? Or do you just take a more favorable view when the corrupt are the same hue as you?
As for crime causing "law-abiding productive citizens" to move out of Gary, your coded language is transparent and insulting to the people of Gary. Interesting that many of those "law abiding productive citizens" moved out after they no longer had a place at the city trough and set up shop in neighboring communities to operate in the same rackets.
I on't doubt what you just said at al..
On point!! The decline of Gary had many factors with USX being a major one but far from an explanation. My family left because of the crime…period! The south shore railroad provided many alternatives for employment. Chicago is only a 25 minute ride away…this is in stark contrast to a company owned mining town which is geographically isolated.
The violence in Gary was insane. On a weekend night you would think it was July 4th, but those weren’t fireworks
Agreed. Crime and corruption killed Gary.
Are there any particular members of the city government that caused the corruption. Did the election of Richard G. Hatcher help the situation or make things worse?
It’s a damn shame what’s happened to our steel industry.
Outsourcing!
Yeah, who needs quality American steel when you can get products made of Chinesium for less!
and the automotive industry...and the electronic industry...
@@Sunrayman123 And the rest of the industry... They said it would be fine, just learn to code! Then they started offshoring computer programming too.
They built the new Tapanzee bridge with Chinese steel, and we pay a toll for it.
I ve worked at USS for 18 years. Drive down 5th avenue daily and see the decay and abandonment. Yet, as I drive I see so much potential. A super market with fresh produce would be a great start. Helping home owners renovate their existing homes and bring some aesthetics back into these neighborhoods. Also knocking down these dangerous collapsed structures that don’t have historic significance would be huge for the look of Gary. Turning some of these vacant lots into green spaces. Community gardens, dog parks, or farmers markets to encourage and provide healthy foods from local communities. Gary has its issues no doubt, but I’ve also worked with so many from there and seen the perseverance. If I could see Gary revived one day would being a huge smile to my face.
There is a real nice new grocery store, 94 exit Grant Street North one brock
@@lawrencebraun7616 Isn't that the sheet mill?
@@russellmarra8520Go west on 94 it's north of the village shopping center. Next to a Freightliner dealer. There is two grocery stores. One is a quick convenient store but there the same company
5th Avenue (US 12 and US 20) used to be the main road from Detroit to Chicago. That was replaced by Interstate 94 (Detroit to Minneapolis) which is also in Gary. Much of that commerce along 5th avenue didn't go away, it just moved to the 80/94 corridor. Interstate 80 replaced US 30, the main road from NYC to San Francisco. Gary's retail sector has largely migrated to old US 30 which is in Merrilville, which used to be part of Gary. However, the combination of 1000 times more traffic and the truckers wanting to fill up in Indiana rather than higher gas tax Illinois means that 80/94 in Gary generates huge amounts of revenue for the State of Indiana, which gets spent in other parts of the state.
When USS is taken over by an Indian family things might start happening, current management is waiting for WW3. Myself I'm betting on the Indians. Hope you like curry.
I had an aunt and uncle who moved there from the Steel Capital Of Canada back in about 1958. All I know is he had a higher up position in the mills as I was too young to have understood his job as I was only born 2 years before their move. We went to visit them quite often in the 1960’s and I remember Gary as I big city and the crime at night as the downtown stores would roll the bars across the store fronts in the early evening. Let’s wish Gary a brighter future. Rip Aunt Peggy and Uncle John.
The Steel Capital of Canada, Hamilton Ontario, is a dump now too.
@@myleshagar9722 it was a real steel hearted town back in the day. Then steel demand dropped and now it is a fraction of what it once was. Today the city has reinvented itself into technology but still has aaa iron heart. It is not what you said it is by a long shot. Today it has also become Toronto’s bedroom community. I do remember know how you could call a city with an average house price of $900,000 a dump. But if you are living in the poorer section or an outsider I can see where the comment came from. It is also quote: “The Waterfall Capital of The World.”
I have seen Gary, and i have seen Hamilton. Gary is a wasteland. Hamilton, however imperfect, is an evolving city with a future. The Canadians are doing something right.
The wife and I drove through Gary a few years back heading to Chicago. It was eerie and quite sad at the same time. Nothing lasts forever, but Gary didn't need to be forgotten either.
So many ppl live there still. Yes it's very erie.
@@FairyDragon9 it’s not EERIE at all.
I live directly across the street from Indiana University which by the way just build a brand-new arts and science building a block long about a year ago.
Your exaggeration and hyperbole is truly hilarious
@@themfingmfer so I guess your telling me how I feel. I FEEL like it's eerie. Everything thing is shutdown and not used. All boarded up, graffiti every where. Y'all downtown is dirty. It's just different for me, like a ghost town. I've lived in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Columbus. If he you see the downtown area of the 3 I just named you wld understand why Gary is so erie to me. Looks like 20 other ppl agree. The murders and crime rate is also ridiculous for the cities size. Wake up your city, don't worry about me.
@@themfingmfer I agree. I found nothing about it eerie. I find it disgusting. I love this city and some of its people, but we need better leaders and more community action.
Eerie Indiana was a 90s kids horro tv show 📺 😌
Employment and being able to earn a living made Gary prosper. We can't make a living cutting each other's hair.
I've been trying to get people to understand exactly this point. I use the food analogy and like yours a bit better.
I cut my own hair!
Democrats and unions. Period
We can also be teachers and burger flippers /s
@@shanelewis617 You have solved the employment problem.
I have filmed a lot of documentaries in Gary. It is a really fascinating place. Many of the abandoned places I have filmed at have since been demolished. It is important to note that groups like the Rust Devils are trying to take back their town and I have enjoyed my time filming there. It is a cool place and an urban explorer dream. I hope that it recovers some day and gets better.
Edit: Really cool video. Nice breakdown on the state of the town. Gary Screw and Bolt is a huge abandoned factory I filmed at last year. The place is probably the largest ruin in Gary, right beside the hospital and City Methodist (which is still very beautiful even in the abandoned state)
I dig your content.
Been there several times recently for work. Picking over (a very specific set of) remains to see if there's something worth salvaging. Depressing.
Aside from Camden and Trenton NJ ,Gary IN is the armpit of America. Lmfao
@@mattmarzula Thank you!
@@RayJorg Yeah the place is falling apart. I explored the abandoned hospital, 1/3 of which is their police station. We actually walked across a sky bridge and looked down for a moment watching the cops go about their business, completely oblivious that we were in their building lol.
Love the crossover with Indy. I live in CHicago and have some clients who are property owners in Gary. They're consciously trying to remake the area into something that will be palpatable for people who may have jobs/offices in Chicago. I've been in that Methodist Church. It's HUGE. It must've been quite magnificent...
I just text a friend who lives in Gary and shared this video and said the exact same thing turn Gary into a nice place to live for people who work in Chicago then bring back businesses and industries to serve the people that lives there.
Stay away from gary u are not wolcome
@@makemoneynotfriends4023 said the devil... the devil will never want restoration!
Most pictures of Boston are taken from across the Charles river in Cambridge. Most pictures of San Francisco are taken from the bay. For a city no known for its beauty, Chicago has a stunning waterfront. You can appreciate Chicago's beauty from the beaches in Gary which is why land in Gary is particularly attractive to folk from Chicago.
I thought I recognized the voice. I was just listening while working on something and not watching the video or description lol
Born, grew up, and currently live right next to Gary (Hammond and Munster). Work in a machine shop that makes a few parts for the mills. There has been new ownership and reinvestment in recent years so I think the future of the mills looks bright. The city, unfortunately, is a lost cause. There have been so many "revitalization" efforts made in the past couple decades (upgraded airport, railcats stadium, charter schools, etc.), but nothing seems to stick. The burnt out buildings, high crime, insane drug/gang activity, and horribly corrupt local government WILL continue to push businesses and families away. The city needs to be leveled... it's a shame because there are SO MANY beautiful buildings rotting away
And I will tell you one of the reasons for that. The owners are white and they refuse to sell or refurbish their properties. There is a beautiful brick home with attached garage down the block from me. The sun comes and most the lawn and keeps the snow removed. He specifically tells us that his mother is still alive and doesn’t want to sell to “N-words” so the property stays vacant until at which time she passes away.
Even though they have long since moved away, whites continue to blight this city.
Not to mention the state Republican administration who uses Gary funds to motivate their own communities south of the city.
@@themfingmfer agreed. I live in Gary. Alot of the homes are still owned by familes where the orginal owners are dead or their family lives somewhere else and are simply holding them. As a local I think it overall boils down to strategies maintaining segregation and efforts to continue to drain Gary. NWI fears that if Gary gets businesses then surrounding suburbs would decline. They drain the city's residents of money to put into their own community.
Nah, the abandoned buildings need to be removed. I like the country side of Gary.
@@TropikGamer But these families still have to pay taxes on the land they own. I don't see how this benefits them at all. They should sell the land.
@@themfingmferYou are blaming "whites" for Gary being unable to bring any large companies in, to help the economy.
18% of the community is white, yet you're blaming 1 white guy who won't sell, for the entire city's demise?
This lack of residential accountability might be the reason Gary's being overlooked.
The thing that brought the steel industry to Gary is still there, in abundance, transportation access: Seaports with ocean access, 2 of the 3 coast to coast interstates (80 & 90) pass through the city as well as 1 of the 6 Great Lakes to Gulf Coast interstates (65), 8 of the 15 national east-west rail lines, commuter rail to downtown Chicago (the South Shore Rail), and a fairly serviceable airport. The airport houses Boeing's fleet of executive jets and the Chicago Air Show is actually run out of Gary. When Obama was president, Air Force One would sometimes land in Gary for his trips back to Chicago, and that show on the History Channel where they repo airliners, the ones that do not go directly back to the owner come to Gary.
Regarding the steel industry, US Steel consolidated its primary steel-making operations into Gary Works. Unfortunately this came with a high level of automation that reduced employment at the plant from almost 30K to about 5K presently. However, with 85% of its capacity in Gary, US Steel made over $4 billion on $20 billion in sales during 2021. It is completing a $750 Million round of investment in Gary and recently announced further upgrades to the plant.
Other Gary news, the recently opened Hard Rock Cafe, a $400 million investment, the Dunes National Lakeshore (partly in Gary) is now the Dunes National Park, and the shorter runway of the airport is being lengthened. How many ghost towns have a National Park, over $1 billion in current (within the last 2 years) investment, and economic activity over $10 billion? True, the loss of jobs in the steel mills, the loss of downtown businesses to the local mall has made for urban blight but it is a bit premature to call the patient dead.
Two more comments.. First US Steel gifted the city with an excellent minor league ball park. Its small but the facilities are as nice as any major league park complete with sky boxes that are affordable for even small businesses. Second, the great lakes total about 5% of the entire planet's liquid fresh water. As global warming and depletion of millennia old groundwater resources impact many locations, the entire great lakes region has an unlimited supply of fresh water.
@Norman Hairston, thank you for your knowledge of Gary, which I currently still reside here, blessings to you and your family.
The Hard Rock Casino will be adding a Hotel to open by 2023 and UPS recently relocated part of its Chicago area flight operations to Gary.
The real reason is the ore from MN would arrive by boat. The coal from Southern IL/IN would arrive by rail. Then the steel would leave by rail.
The water in the Great Lakes watershed cannot be piped or transported away from that area. Waukesha WI is currently battling with that restriction as it's trying to get water from Lake Michigan. Waukesha is just west of the western limit of the watershed
Way back during the 1950s, USS floated a plan to build a modern steelmill on a greenfields site somewhere not too far from Gary. After millions of dollars spent on plans they had a library full of reports but no community stepped forward saying we'd like to be the home of this great mill, no one stepped forward saying what a great plan this was, the union said plainly that the new mill would have as many employees as the old mills had but will higher pay, and the company said fuck it and went off to do something else. Kennedy's '62 campaign talked repeatedly about the steel industry running at 50% of capacity but most of this excess was built before 1920 and a lot dated back to the 19th century while European and Asian steelmakers had shiny new mills. The Navy need new high strength steels for submarines and welding techniques that would work with it, they only got bids from the Japanese. The primary American builder of steelmill equipment went out of business, if you want to build one you need go to Japan. Same thing happened to the auto tire industry. And the auto industry. And the mousetrap industry. (in that case you go to China).
I worked in the gary mills in the late 60’s and early 70’s and I watched bus’s come into the work area and offload Japanese and other foreigners with little clip boards taking note of the process we used and using that information to crush competition with American company s.
there was a company Cicero, Illinois that made stamping machines for the auto industry and others. It was called Danly Machine and had 5500 employees when I started doing business with them in 79. By 1985 or so, it was a shell of itself with maybe 700 employees. What happened? Well the Japanese waved a huge contract at them with some conditions. They got to have their own office in the middle of the plant for 5 years. They let the fox in the hen house. After a while, the Japanese decided they could make their own stampers and did not renew the contract and after a while were making stampers for GM
/continued Ford and others. As they lost customers, they shut down buildings and layed workers off.
Ironically enough the Japanese steel industry has been largely wiped out by cheap steel from China and Korea. There are steel mill ghost towns all over Japan.
This is my City, I was born in 1970, my father served in Vietnam and grandfather in WWII. Most of the men in my family worked in the steel mill industry. This decline should never have happened.
Johnstown PA is a similar story. Once the center of steel making, now it's just a shell, many empty houses and plants, now a center of Section 8 housing with its accompanying drugs and crime. The last major steel mill closed in 1971.
That, and you know, the huge wave of death. That might have had something to do with it.
@Two Tone what huge wave of death?
@@sabrinatscha2554 Johnstown, PA once had a dam above it, and its failure wrecked the town. The steel mill was most famous for producing barbed wire, so imagine a 20 meter wall of water intermixed with thousands of tons of barbed wire, and houses paradoxically on fire floating on top of it all. 2,209 known fatalities made it one of the US's most deadly engineering failures.
@@twotone3471 That was in the 19th Century. He's talking about the city's huge economic and population decline between the 1970s and the 1990s.
If the population has dropped so much, who is buying all the drugs here?
One of the problems Gary is facing is that it's large (50 square miles) but has a small population (69,000). They don't have enough residents paying taxes to provide services to such a large area.
For comparison, Boston is slightly smaller land-wise but has ten times the population.
@@tellucas - I live next door. It’s an industrial city. At least they are trying to make it that way. Lot of the abandoned buildings are being demolished. Some streets have maybe three well kept homes and the rest are empty lots.
The Hardrock Casino just came to Gary, so that’s going to change things. Plus they reopened the skyway bridge.
@@fixedguitar47 The same thing is happening in Detroit, parts of the city are reverting back to a natural state. Wildlife is taking over.
@@tellucas Yeah cuz people are just itching to be moved. What are we, commodities?
@@fixedguitar47 It will change things if we ever if Gary ever gets to see any of the money from it. From what I’ve been told, it’s been a year and still nothing.
@@themfingmfer - I wouldn’t expect anything for the community. The funds from the casino and what’s left of the mills is being directed to corporate interests. The housing with the exception of Miller and Black Oak is being phased out completely. As it should be. There’s pockets of neighborhoods that will remain but the majority of the ghetto is being demolished.
No one’s taking care of their property, typically cause the occupants don’t own it, they rent it, so there’s no incentive to improve the property or even maintain it.
Used to drive past there all the time coming from Chicago across the bridge way you could smell it in the air it would smell terrible at times due to all the factories.
That smell was Whiting.
Its very sad that the shadow of the tallest building in the world (at the time) falls upon the abandoned steel mills of Gary. It was cheaper to import the steel from overseas. Very sad.
This is all by design....Soros, Obama, and all the leftists want our nation to be exactly like Gary and every other Democrat - controlled dungheap.
Very nice piece. You should look into Flint, Mi. The only difference was the Companies names. It was GM that left the city where it got it's start.
This piece isn’t nice. It is full of ancient information and not well researched at all.
Flint used to be a good place to live until the auto industry especially GM moved out likewise Chicago all these companies moved to where they had Cheaper Labor?
Flint Michigan used to be a good place to live until GM and other Auto Companies abandoned Flint in their search for cheaper labot! This is why the USA economy is going down we are in a depression due to the greed of the top 1percent! This is why Gary Indiana is declining! The Midwest is known as the Rust Belt now! This has been going on since the late 1980s! 😦😧😩!
Check out the lyrics of the song "Gary Indiana" from the musical "The Music Man". Not many towns are so special as to have a song written in their honor.
Ah yes I attended conservatory school there in the class of ought five. 😉
That song, as it appeared in the original play, was supposed to be an insult to Gary.
@@russellmarra8520 The lyrics do make fun of the town name, but IMO, it's an affectionate reflection of someone's hometown.
That's the town that knew me well...... Lol
Loved the Music Man when I was a kid ! Something special just for meeeee !
Gary basically rose and fell with U.S. Steel. It was built specifically to be a company town. Gary should be viewed as a cautionary tale. It's always good to innovate. It's also good to have a diversified economy.
The reason the steel industry peaked in 1969 was that the country was finished being built. We will never again see projects like the interstate system or the Manhattan project. or the building of Manhattan or Hoover dam. The list goes on and on.
We have crumbling infrastructure and lack of adequate public transportation for most of the country. We should have been improving as the rest of the world has moved on
Industry begin to have too much clout after the WWII Americans begin to retire, and the US government was not willing to place limits on the off-shoring of jobs and industry. At it's core greed of Corporate executives pushed legislation that made American workers too expensive in the global sphere. Only government could have set limits to this race to the bottom of global wages, but failed to do so. Sometimes having government be the referee to the game and having everyone play by the same rules is necessary.
Another reason the steel industry did so well in the late 60's was the Vietnam war. Military purchases were driving industry, especially steel. The Navy was building ships then. Think about how much steel goes into a fighting group. Everything from belt buckles, helmets, rifles, artillery, and so much more. There's a reason President Reagan called steel a strategic industry.
@@jasminewilliams1673 And yet we give billions in foreign aid while America's infrastructure crumbles. Someone educate me because I just don't get ir.
The country is not finished being built. We have millions more people than in 1969, and as population increases, so do infrastructure needs. And in the near future, how much steel do you think it would take to build a proper high speed rail network, or to rebuild our freight railroads so we can continue shipping goods to every town in America after the trucking industry collapse which seems inevitable?
I'm from MN, the source of most of that ore. They make taconite now. Little pellets of steel, easier to transport. Edmund Fitzgerald was full of 'em when she sank. I was interested to know that the "rust belt" referrs to the whole iron country. We call it "The Iron Range" I thought that rust belt was from all the damage caused by the iron oxide on the surface, and all the salt they use on the roads. A car door will come off in your hands if you don't take care of it. We went through the same experiences as Gary. Shut downs, strikes, ghost towns. Somehow we got through. Half of my father's and many others' pension was effectively stolen from him as a company tried to negate their responsibilities by going over seas. They were stopped, but... oy.
And who owns Minnesota Iron mines now, is it china?? And the price of steel just went up 30%, who profits most?
@@deutzallis6497 I'm really not sure. If you're really interested, look up Keetac, Keewatin Taconite. that's what they called it when my father was there. I think us steel bought them out. And I'm certainly not very happy about the economy either.
@@asn413 it's china.
Wow, I wasn't aware foreign countries could own 100% of businesses in America. Do they, at least get taxed more? That's wild.
The steel industry took hits from three sides at the same time. Unions that went too far. Corporations that pulled profit, with no re-investment, and Government regulating and taxing the crap out of the industries. When the corporations did try to upgrade the mills, unions fought it as it would reduce manpower needed. Federal government all but ended mining. Our votes, and opinions are what killed the industry. With that fall, came the destruction of ship building, and tool manufacturing. We once made the most precise tools in the world. No more.....
You hit the nail on the head.
Don't forget also that after WWII we supplied the funds for the former allies and enemies alike to rebuild their steel industries that were bombed or worn out. So they had the newest, highest technology that completely outclassed the US steel Industry in terms of cost structure, labor, and efficiency. What had been the best steel industry in the world rapidly became the most backward.
That's the USA for you. Screwing ourselves. We SHOULD have shipped all the Europeans and Japanese OUR worn out industry and gotten the good new stuff for ourselves. But nope, gotta be USA Stoopid as usual.
You got that right.
Evil people sold off our future
@@TugIronChief Those people you mentioned, they are the henchmen ;). This conspiracy goes back all the way to Jesus; Rev 3:9.
I believe a large part of the steel industry's downfall was the purchasing of cheap Japanese steel in the late 70's and early 80's. The steel industry doomed itself because at that point it was no longer producing its own steel so it threw its own employees out of work, not just in Gary, but across the industry itself.
As is mentioned in the vid, the countries that were wiped out in ww2 started out from scratch with the latest , most modern and efficient steel making tech. While US companies would not put money back into the industry to modernize and remain competitive and just kept doing things the way they always did. The exact same thing happened in the auto industry at about the same time. They were on top and said "why should we do anything different". We all know how that worked out. If you are not continually improving, you are falling behind.
From mid 1960’s thru about 1980, Japanese steel quality was excellent plus it was not lower cost than US Steel plate from Gary. The best American plate was from Bethlehem’s plant near Baltimore. That plant is razed. Their Burns Harbor plant in Indiana is now owned by Cleveland Cliffs.
Gary can be made a national park before the lake shore becomes gentrified with high rise condominiums.
It started in 1975 with the Oil embargoes and OPEC. And dirty trade DEALS with NATO, WTO at the demand of the UN. (FOREIGN influence) USA was being ordered to elimate Tariff. None of us understood what it was about ... But we knew that American was being transitioned, for something. And our Market was being flooded with FOREIGN countries products. Inwhich, was American Companies Knock offs made with slave labor. JUNK! American products were quality. Night and Day difference.
There's nothing like cutting open an import box and finding animals, dead and alive. Baby alligator are amazing. Snakes! Rats...???
Globalization/ Ronald Reagan, and others
@@johnstudd4245 How did that work out? Auto industry after ww2 was totally dominating!
Growing up in IN in the 70s & 80s, Gary was seen by the rest of the state as a very scary, dangerous place, and we pretended it was just an extension of Chicago, and an embarrassment to the state.
Sadly, that reputation will continue to haunt Gary, keeping people from giving it a chance.
With the exception of a few largeish cities such as Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Terre Haute,and so on, all of Indiana is farms. Farms are independent businesses. The farmers tend to vote conservative. Cities tend to be union and union workers historically voted liberal. I'm not surprised you were embarrassed by Gary. On the other hand the middle class was single handedly created by the unions. After over 30 years of employment at USS Gary Works, I am convinced that the decline of American industry is first and foremost an attempt to destroy the unions and the middle class.
@@russellmarra8520 I was blessed to live in perhaps the best small city in Indiana- definitely the most beautiful and visually interesting - Columbus, IN.
@@mattskustomkreations I once dated a woman from Columbus. While I never made it there, I've always heard that the architecture there is amazing.
@@russellmarra8520 Absolutely true. Am amazing place to grow up. Nearly all of the municipal, public or semi-public buildings (aka churches) were designed by world class Post Modern architects. The schools are all pretty funky, for example. The “new” architecture inspired owners of 19th Century buildings and a smattering of Art Deco style buildings to then remodel/restore the older buildings, so the city became a showcase for architecture. Many of these landmarks are featured in an indy film called “Columbus” which is actually a romance story.
My dad was a steel mill worker. After he lost that job I swear he was never the same.
Society teaches men to judge their self image on their job. It's sad.
I worked down there building HUD housing... And honestly the place was spooky.
My paternal grandparents immigrated from Germany during WW1. They settled in Gary, and everyone worked in the steel mills. I was born in '72 and watched first hand how everybody's lives revolved around steel production.
In the 70's, life in the region was good. Dad went to work, and mom stayed home with the children. The decline started around 1980. I remember my aunts and uncles sitting around during family gatherings discussing that their bosses had mandated that they teach all of these Japanese companies everything they knew about the steel making process.
It wasn't long after this that microwaves appeared in every home, and suddenly mom had to enter the workplace. By 1990, my family left the area and only a few of us stuck around to watch as the area became the mess it is today.
I surmise, that planned obsolescence was the reason for the region's decline.
I’m from Wales, UK and I’d love to visit Gary someday, from everything I’ve seen here and other sources it’s got a beauty and faded grandeur all its own..❤
I went on vacation there. Showed up with a hawaiin shirt on and flip flops . Nice place
This seems to be ore about US Steel and not of Gary itself, though they inextricably tied together. However, if this is about the city, it also needs to be said that "suburbanization" also had an effect on the decay of Gary, where stores moved into the suburbs (shopping malls) and left the downtown empty. No stores meant people shopped elsewhere and moved out of the towns. This hastened the shrinking of the city the lost revenue made it difficult to maintain the infrastructure.
Suburbanization...lol
Call it what it is. White Flight.
The Miller Beach area of Gary has had a good amount of success with revitalization efforts in the past couple of years. New local businesses are popping up every so often around there. Granted, this is a small section, but it definitely shows there is hope.
Gary Indiana has become a tourist destination for people who want to see haunted houses and city ruins.
I do a lot of work in Gary, so it is always nice to see videos talking about the history of the city.
Every time someone mentions Gary, all I can hear is the song from "The Music Man", lol
❤
Outsourcing and automation are the greatest tragedies to happen to American workers, families and communities. Poverty is the root cause of violence and communal decay.
Yeah, but Big Business wanted to feed their Wall Street "private equity" owners over the people who actually made them their money. And now the top 1% might as well live on another planet from the rest of us. And still they want more.
Outsourcing and automation are completely fine. We've had multiple waves of automation across the history of industrialization, people just move elsewhere and retrain for a different, more skilled occupation. Outsourcing is much the same thing, though it happens faster. Unfortunately some segment of the population, whether through poverty or otherwise, can't retrain for a different job successfully. Their failures don't really say anything about automation/outsourcing, indeed such a proportion of the population is bound to exist, it's unavoidable.
Outsourcing is NOT completely fine. It only helps rich shareholders and executives to side step OSHA and environmental restrictions by manufacturing in a less developed country that doesn't follow safe labor practices, no environmental restrictions, and no benefits.
@@toksta79 You can thank the personal greed of BOTH the employees and the employers for outsourcing. Employees demanded higher wages, bigger pensions, more paid vacations, and more health insurance. In order to pay for that, the companies had to raise the cost of their products. They could not compete with overseas manufacturers so they outsourced. I watched as Pfizer employees in Terra Haute, Indiana forced the closure of the Pfizer facility there by demanding more than the facility could pay. While Pfizer overall was making a profit, the Terre Haute facility was operating on a break even basis at best. The union executives knew this because the union had purchased Pfizer shares so that the union would have access to Pfizers financial records. The union made unreasonable demands and the members lost their jobs. When interviewed by the news media, most of the employees admitted that they bought generic drugs because the Pfizer products were too expensive. They didn't seem to realize that part of the blame for the high cost was because they demanded so much from the company. We Americans are a sorry lot. We shop at Walmart, Big Lots, Harbor Freight, and Home Depot and buy Chinese crap because we don't want to pay the higher cost of American made products, and then we complain about outsourcing. We have become a nation of selfish, sniveling, crybabies.
Neat! I thought the rust belt was called such because cars would rust so badly, but I looked into it and he’s right!
Everything was made with steel. Bridges, buildings, cars, etc. When it decays, it rusts thus the rust belt.
Mostly confined to The Great Industrial Northeast..
Me too
I think the development of Merrillville and white flight certainly sped up Gary's issues. I considered living in Gary but the taxes are incredibly high - a tiny tax base combined with the need for so many costly changes mean that without an injection of cash from elsewhere, Gary is simply unaffordable for incomers.
the tax set up in America is I think one of its biggest problems, because as an area goes down and needs more resources in gets less money.
White flight lol, I think the real decline happen when the black people moved in. 😅 I'm from Gary Indiana and let me tell you something. White people don't look at the black man and said, theys be darker then I is I'm moving out. There is a reason why they left. They said all hell naw the crimes coming, I'm out. How do we blame White people for dat sheet. 🤔 White don't play the knock out game, White people don't be shooting at the police, White people don't be throwing up gang sings and kill a brother cut he's be looking at be funny. Black people do dat sheet. Moa' fugga I leave too. 🤣
chicago isn't far off
When I was born Merrillville was part Gary
First statement contradicted by the second statement.
Thanks for putting this whole subject into a box. I've heard and read bits and pieces about the mighty fall of our steel industry, but this is a great perspective. It's the same type of fall as Detroit.
The smell was horrendous coming from those steel mills when I was a young boy. Going through Gary Indiana heading to Chicago you always knew when you were near Gary , Indiana.
You should do one on Pontiac and Flint Michigan before and after the GM plant layoffs. So many factories around here closed and it's a damn shame.
GM was sold to the Chinese Communist party in the SAIC agreement. Expecting them to care about the country they bought GM off of is like expecting China to care about Sweeden, seeing they bought SAAB similarly.
@@kerrydonnelly9296 you seem a bit confused
Why did you take down your nonsensical hateful rant against Michigan?
@@cjsnidlio9409 Guess they realized Michigan is as Red as it has been in their lifetime. Lansing is pretty Liberal, but most of the rest of the state was leaning red until the whole lead in the drinking water event kind of gave the state republican party a black eye.
@@twotone3471 I'm tired of politics myself. I don't like the right wing at all. But that don't mean I'm all that big on democrats either. I really don't know where I stand anymore. But the weird thing is my comment wasn't even remotely political. This video just reminded me of what a shithole Pontiac and flint became after GM closed all its factories around here. Pontiac is such a beautiful place and it's so sad for me to see it so dilapidated and crime ridden knowing what it's history is. I'm not from Flint but I know they are in the same boat there. I feel like anybody would agree with that if they are familiar with this area. Regardless of which party they vote for. And then some lady comes in telling me what a horrible communist state Michigan is and that all the vehicles are now made in Texas. You'd have to see it to believe it
This is such a cool channel. Please keep doing your thing. Your content is dope. Thank you 🙏🏽
Pueblo Colorado was a boom steel city that saw a economic collapse in the 80’s. We have managed to recover and while not as fast as i would like compared to Gary Pueblo is a bustling metro area.
We all know the difference between Pueblo and Gary. Steel or Jobs as nothing to do with it. The people of Gary are trash. Normal people will never move to Gary until they are gone.
@@peterpuller8569 I live here in Gary and not everyone who lives here is trash, now I do see a lot of trash coming here to get their fix, but some of the residents are just trying to make it like the average person, we work hard just like anyone that's trying to make it, oh and by the way the white people that resided here before my time grandchildren have moved here and no one bothers them, there are normal, decent people living here, so don't call us, citizens of Gary, Indiana trash, you don't know us.
Loved all the info.I was born n raised in Good old Gary.
In 1961 my family was traveling cross-country by car. I was 8 at the time, but I vividly remember that we passed through Gary. There were a lot of loiterers just standing on the streets. My parents were afraid and rolled up all the windows.
I was born raised in Gary! Mr grandfather worked in those steel mills. I would love to see the rise and restoration of Gary,IN
One of the main problems was Gary's dependance on only one industry, and that was steel. Once that failed, the domino effect took place. White flight did not help the situation either.
Ah yes, the white man's burden.
The Mill didn't fail! It's called progress! New and better ways to produce! The UNION failed!
@@dong6839 the same party that earlier this year has no issue throwing 10,000 pipe line workers out of a job. Supporting the down trodden - great party.
@@MAC-ws8fz , go back and listen to the documentary. The mills DID fail. Why? In large part because the owners didn't reinvest in them. They sank their profits elsewhere, then sat by and let foreign competition introduce new and more profitable ways to produce steel. Go back and listen to the doc and you will hear the narrator state that fact very clearly. Unions don't order layoffs; that's a management decision, as is the move to disinvest in workplaces. The American Middle Class was built by unions. The wage improvements won by auto workers, steel workers, iron workers, coal miners, truckers, rail workers, construction workers, garment workers, pilots unions and all the other areas were blue collar people were allowed to organize, allowed people to buy homes, build lives and dream about sending their kids to college. So stop with the union bashing and start looking at the business decisions and practices made by the guys in the tailored suits and corner offices.
@@TricksterDa People just don't listen or they're so mired in their partisan explanations, they reject what they hear.
the story of Gary has always been interesting to me. Cities like Kokomo which were ruined similarly by the loss of US auto manufacturering have been able to start turning things around, although Chrysler investing into the town again helps a lot. Gary has a lot of potential for industry, easy access to Chicago, rail and lake access, presumably plenty of cheap land. it's sad to see such a city on life support
The saddest way to see Gary is from an Amtrak train heading to Chicago . The first time I saw it I was brought to tears. Adding insult to injury is seeing the gambling ships parked at the shore.i remember when it was thought that gambling would solve its problems.
.
Actually the casino money is quite visible in East Chicago in Hammond. Yet somehow Gary has received not a dime of casino funds since the boats opened.
Maybe the author of this video can delve into why that is instead of publishing ancient content.
I was just explaining Gary to a friend the other day. Thank you for this video
Good video. The baseball venue is nice.
Change steel to Glass and you have Clarksburg WV. Once one of the leading producers in the world, one by one the factories closed people left and decay set in
They'll do anything but blame Wall Street and Big Business for deserting this country for slave labor elsewhere.
You should also do a video on Youngstown
Went through there one time. Reminded me exactly of Schenectady, NY.
Mahoning valley sheet and tube.
Sad topic - fantastic video; well done 👍
Wow, I nearly spit out my coffee from surprise, haven't seen Indy around in ages
Fun fact: only white area of Gary is called "" black oak ""
12 minutes about Gary, 5 minutes on the mechanics of steel mills. The 12 minutes were great!
I love all your Chicago and Midwest content
This is now my new favorite youtube channel. Im moving to Gary Indiana to flip houses with my Dad. Once I get my money up id love to support the channel or get involved somehow in your efforts to raise awareness about laying down brick. My grandparents raised my dad in Gary in the 70s. He's been flipping houses there for 12 years. City just built a Hard Rock Casino!! Your video was so informative and dare i say... inspiring 🤔
Good luck to you 🙌
Charge 26k for a 5k house then leave the new owner holding the bag. Got it.
😩 " Gary won't become another ' ghost town ' , any more than others, so long as Most of it's residents don't give up on it. "
If you go to Bethlehem, Pa, all that’s left of the steel mills are historical exhibits and the remainder is a casino. The company that built the Golden Gate Bridge, B-25 Liberator Bombers, Battleships, and the first Ferris wheel was left to wither and die by administration that didn’t care any more, unions that were only interested in what they could extract for themselves, and a work force that wasn’t interested in productivity.
Lived near Gary most of my life. Loved to hear the history of the city. I've loved seeing the old architecture I could see from the highway but everyone around here says don't ever stop in Gary. Seeing the decay and hearing of the crime it really sticks with you. If the city is to ever recover it needs to break that image of a place you shouldn't go.
Really interesting essay. Very interesting, thank u.
I've commented on you guys and your great work before. Your entire team.. kudos! As a born and bred Brooklynite, your coverage on infrastructure and building in big cities is incredible! It is great to see videos on cities in the U.S. that I know of, but no "true" history. This is where you come in.
If accepting any topics... by chance... check out the name "ota benga", or if less controversial "love canal". Forgive me if you have already covered either subjects. Either way I love your work and efforts.
Despite the crime now, a lot of old timers here still respect Gary for how it birthed a lot of our metal industry
My fathers home town and my favorite place to explore. That church is amazing, Horace Mann High School, the Palace Theater, St. Mary's hospital, the Screw and Bolt Co plus many others.
Awesome video my friend.
We in northern Indiana call Gary little Africa
Smh why mate why?
@@trepeterson7752 Because the Cities population is +85% persons of African heritage.
Ya you racists we’re always there
I worked for a business in the 1990's that sold smoke stack filter systems to these mills. The mini mill technology took hold made the whole process much more efficient. A lot fewer workers needed. Yes there was competition from China but in smaller exotic metal orders America still excelled. Advancements in technology tend to take no prisoners.
I really enjoyed this Thanks.
Hey Ryan, just wa nted to tell you that you're doing a great job with the narration.
Hey, thanks!
I live in Gary indiana n yes everything is closing down it so sad...
Gary produces the same amount of steel it always produced. It just does it with less than 10% of the staff
The US Steel plant in Birmingham AL (where I live) used to employ 15,000+ workers. My Dad worked there.
It now employs 1500. Most of the plant started shutting down in the 70’s and now only consists of a huge arc furnace and sheet, pipe, and rolling mills.
The city has never really recovered from losing its largest employer even though the economy is diversified now.
@@pmscalisi My uncle worked there in the 50's, took me out to plant once at night to see rail cars dumping some red hot material down a hill, it was quite a sight.
Very interesting story. Thank you.
Thanks for setting the intro gong volume to a nice level.
As a resident of Gary I always find these misrepresentations hilarious.
Me too
@@TugIronChief The whole end was misrepresented
Agreed. I currently work at USS Gary Works and there has been a hiring spree and not the layoffs that he talked about in his video. The upcoming recession could change that but at the moment we've had so many new hires it's crazy. I love Gary.
I went to college and graduated at the university there. I even got my COVID vaccines at one of the community centers. It's a fascinating city with some of the most kind and interesting people. Even the citizens are trying to change the city for the better but it is very difficult, thanks to people in power. There is quite a bit of history with politics and dirty dealings that did have a hand in bringing the city down. Strange as it is, I love driving through the city as you can see buildings from various eras. It's a big city despite what it appears. I do hope one day it will rise again and, maybe this time, it won't be due to the mills and those in power will work harder to make the city better.
I mostly wanted to make this comment as a reminder that it still has life and that, with anything, it still has merits to it.
I was born in the Methodist church in Gary, 1958. Our family lived in Hobart which was a nice town to live in.
Great video 🍿
Gary is a cool town it's a interesting ghetto there's still alot of money and potential to clean the town up. they just opened the hard rock casino and they have the best firework shops in Indiana I personally spend a few thousand dollars a year in the the town.
Michael Jackson's father was also a crane operator at US Steel Gary Works.
Then he beat his children into becoming famous
It was actually Inland Steel
@@ULIEINTOME It was? I didn't know that. I thought it was USS Gary. Same area though.
@@njunderground82 Inland Steel is in East Chicago, In… same region
Thanks, very informative 👍
I'm a truck driver and I passed through there regularly they now have a hard Rock Cafe and casino there in Gary Indiana
@wonder warthog I'm glad to see they are improving. They got a nice big casino I'm West Memphis as well I see.
The area should be allowed to return to the wild. All the abandoned neighborhoods should be leveled and left for nature to reclaim. In a couple of decades there will be a forest again, just like there was before the steel industry arrived. It's a comforting thought in a way, the environment will slowly return to what it was like before humans came along. Gary was a mill town anyway. It wasn't meant to last forever, just long enough for the steel tycoons to get their money and move to Florida.
When I was a little kid in the 1950's . We lived at Portage Ind. Across from Domby Lake. At a place called Hillbilly Haven. We colllected soda bottles and sold them for the deposit and went up to central avenue and caught a bus. And went to Gary to Goblatts Theatre and Watched Godzilla. Push Thursday was the beginning of the end for folks traveling to Gary to Shop. We left Indianna and went back to Arkansas in 1962 when I was 11.
I live in portage!
@@PastelRose92 We lived right across from Domby Lake right at the corner at Glass house road. I went to grade school at the Garyton School.
I have flashbacks when I see those old brick buildings in those defunct neighborhoods. Been thru there so many times. Looks like most Midwest cities on the great lakes.
Good documentary! Do you plan on doing one for East Chicago, IN?
Yay. More Indiana content. (Even if it is Gary. 🙃)
All joking aside. Gary has a very interesting history. And it's connections to Chicago, both legal and illegal, are quite fascinating.
This happened because workers demanded to be paid living wages and companies did not want to pay them so they off-shored everything and laid everyone off
You are correct. Capitalism doesn't care about earning a living wage. It's all about the profits for the company and CEOs. They couldn't care less about us workers.
Well done documentary. One of the cities that exemplified America's power and strength. An industry that built American , was the arsenal of Democracy, a sad epitaph.
About time someone got the real reason. Good job Ryan
We weren't nicknamed the rust belt for being steel producing cities, we were nicknamed the rust belt because our prolific use of salt on our roads that causes cars to rusty out quickly.
"The Rust Belt is a potentially pejorative[1] term for a region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting around 1980. " The term "Rust" refers to the impact of deindustrialization, economic decline, population loss, and urban decay on these regions attributable to the shrinking of the once-powerful industrial sector
@@rikmayerkirkland BS that area was known as the rust belt clear back in the 50's. You are sourcing your info from some very unreliable sources.
And rusty cars from Deetroit
That is pure BS.
Rust- a half baked western movie where a nutty condescending loud mouth actor/director got mad and shot his staff.
I would say Gary is making a comeback, especially after The Hard Rock opened up. They are even building new loft apartments on Broadway near City Hall. It will take time but I see Gary improving massively.
Thank you.
One of the biggest problems is greedy mayors who make the highest salaries in Indiana, a fact I do not understand at all as we don’t have the taxpayers to support that.
They don’t give a shit about helping the city, only lining their own pockets.
you think it's improving? you are living in a dream world. it continues to deteriorate and get worse. there is no hope at all that Gary will ever be livable again. basically all it is now is a big garbage dump.
@@danielthoman7324 Well, it’s clear that you don’t live here and you haven’t been here in years. Marquette Park is a showplace and there are still multi million dollar homes in that area. Which is still part of Gary. Gary is right on the lake and it will never be allowed to be the ghost town that many of you seem to want it to be.
@@danielthoman7324 Tell that to Indiana University Northwest that just built and multi million dollar arts and sciences building on Broadway last year.
What we need is a good mayor who actually cares about the city instead of just filling his pockets, good councilman, and finally for the greedy racist whites who still own a shitload of property in this area and are waiting for it to fall into even more blight before coming in and swooping up entire blocks for nothing and then gentrify the entire area.
Just like they did in Detroit.
@@danielthoman7324 in fact it’s sad and reprehensible that people like you have such pointless hatred for a city in which you don’t even reside.
It’s pathological, actually.
Seek help.
Very interesting video I’ve been working in steel mills and refineries all my life
Very informative
Cuz we shipped most of our manufacturing overseas we need to start manufacturing here
It's simple manufacturing moved abroad for poverty level wages.
i met a pretty cool dude from Gary Indiana in 1999 in a minnesota prison. Obviously all these years later i recall where he's from. I had no idea about that city. thanks for the video.
1:00 - If my memory serves correctly, the steel mill was present BEFORE Gary became a city.
I grew up 6 miles from that now US Steel plant. Worked there over the years for perhaps 14 months, much of that time spent in the open hearth furnaces at both the floor and pit sides.
There are still EXTRAORDINARILY LARGE 25 Hz electric motors running in that plant, as it was built before there was a frequency standard for grid power. US Steel generates their own 25 Hz power for those machines from coke oven gas, a byproduct of making coke from coal.
5:00 - that explosive charge is called a "torpedo", and is buried in the mortar that plugs the furnace on the pit side.
~6:00 - 10,000 acres is around 15 square miles. The plant in the 1970s was ten x two miles - 20 sq. miles. I expect they came up with extra area by dumping SLAG into Lake Fishigan to make their footprint larger. I know they did this, as I used to see it happening.
6:18 - one does not FORGE steel in an open hearth furnace. One MANUFACTURES STEEL in it. FORGING is a completely unrelated operation for shaping and strengthening steel components. At 10:10 you will see a minor forging operation, small in comparison to the 40,000 TON machines I have serviced at Schultz Steel in greater Los Angeles.
Those open hearth furnaces used to blow so much iron oxide into the air when I was a child that if we fell down ice skating on nearby Lake George, we would be brown where we came into contact with the ice. The oxide also quickly degraded the sharp edge on our skates.
8:40 - that bright blue building is US Steel Gary Works BOP #2 (basic oxygen process furnace), aka the "BOP SHOP." BOP #1 was built in the early sixties, and BOP #2 was running like a Swiss Clock in 1971. Air quality regulations, among other things, shut the open hearths down in the late 1970s, but they were running like tops when I was there from 1971-1975.