There was a thread a while back about Highland Park, MI being basically abandoned. Found another industrial city that has gone the same way. May I present Gary, IN (http://www.growingchicago.com/images/other/mypicsVI/)....:(

Edit:6/18/07 Link is temporarily down due to sever load and bandwidth usage :eek:

Aaron:)

zounds!
Was Gary a steel town back in the day?
I know a lot of the steel industry moved over the course of the last few decades.
I understand Buffalo, NY was essentially abondoned for a long time too; but may be reviving now.

I believe it was a steel town, along with Pittsburgh and some others. I am also semi familiar with Elmira, NY which is about 1/2 the size it was 20-30 years ago. It is amazing to me that that there are that many abandoned buildings around in our country. Buildings are meant to be used and if you don't they die, but we can build new crappy ones at an ungodly rate. Such a waste.

Aaron:)

I grew up in N. Indiana... We considered Gary to be the cesspool of the state. Everyone I knew of avoided the place because crime was so much higher than the rest of N. Indiana. Can't say I ever knew of anyone who would have willingly chosen to live in that town.

Yikes! Excepting the cars it looks like the dead zone around Chernobyl.

I went to Buffalo a few years back and was amazed at how deserted the entire downtown was, coming from FL I had never seen anything like that before.

that doesn't look very urban to me

that doesn't look very urban to me
Formerly Urban?

:D

Aaron:)

there are quite a lot of dead or near-dead smallish towns scattered around TX - old-timey storefronts, all decaying, only a couple gas stations, maybe an eatery, and maybe a run-down "antiques" place. tho i'm guessing the dead small towns are caused by a move away from small agriculture more than anything else.

It is amazing to me that that there are that many abandoned buildings around in our country. Buildings are meant to be used and if you don't they die, but we can build new crappy ones at an ungodly rate. Such a waste.

Aaron:)
+1.... i wonder how if and how much the local gov't contributed to the demise. i have old buildings in my town that individuals & developers would LOVE to renovate & turn into chic, unique condos & apartments, but the city insists they are only zoned for Business. I guess they'd rather have a run-down small motor repair shop than unique, affordable housing close to the (reviving in spite of the local gov't)) downtown. Ah well.

What amazes me about those photos of gary is the lack of trash. Here in philadelphia there are small sections of the city where most buildings are abandoned, and usually there is trash all around. It looks like somebody spent some serious time getting rid of the trash, although the level of abandonment is unbelievable.

that place looks fun. with streets that empty you could ride as fast and as recklessly as you want.

wow, did anyone else think that it looked like a great place to ride? the lack of traffic looks wonderful.

[edit] looks like le brad thought the same :)

wow, did anyone else think that it looked like a great place to ride? the lack of traffic looks wonderful.

[edit] looks like le brad thought the same :)
Yeah and housing would be real cheap too.:rolleyes:
BTW my wife's family lived in Gary before it turned to total poo and they moved out in the 60's. My father-in-law worked at the Budd auto frame fabrication plant which was quite near the 5 steel plants that used to operate there. Now everybody left in Gary is living the simple life of leisure.

I'm an urban planner, so I guess by its very nature, Gary just fascinates me. I'm glad that a previous poster mentioned the dead zone around Chernobyl. I've used this to describe Gary many times to people who have never been there. EVen from the Skyway, it looks terribly devoid of life. Funny thing is that they rarely believe me. However, when you see pictures of a downtown that is that dead, you just can't help of think of such drastic things. I really think Gary is poised to make a comeback, but so many of the vacant parcels of land are brownfields, and it's just so expensive to redevelop them. However, I have to think that at some point, as Chicago sprawls further and further into Northwest Indiana, that Gary's locational advantage will become attractive to developers.

Gary is pretty much the archetype for why cities need to diversify their economies.

That is incredibly bizarre! Thanks for posting this, Aaron.

Certain parts of Dayton where I live are kind of like this but nothing this extreme.

"Don't want to live in a ghost town" - Toxic Reasons (greatest punk band ever! And from Dayton!)

but so many of the vacant parcels of land are brownfields, and it's just so expensive to redevelop them.

I wasn't sure what this meant so I looked it up. Wikipedia is a wonderful thing.
brownfields (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownfield_land)

But but but their page says that "Gary provides the perfect location for a weekend getaway, a family vacation, a business trip, or a night on the town". You can "relax on the beach or rent a jet ski! Take a long walk under the stars with Chicago's beautiful skyline twinkling across the calm water, or spend the day shopping in our Lake Street Shopping District, filled with boutiques and galleries"! Sounds like the place to be, I wanna visit! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think that carfree bike people should claim gary. We'll all move there and set up shop. I'm sure rent is cheap. Centralia, PA?

^^I was kind of thinking the same thing.

We could set up a good coffee stand by the city park and sit around all day arguing about lights, helmets, kickstands, dogs, etc.

Probably not much point in arguing bikelanes vs. VC if there's no cars.

^^I was kind of thinking the same thing.

We could set up a good coffee stand by the city park and sit around all day arguing about lights, helmets, kickstands, dogs, etc.

Probably not much point in arguing bikelanes vs. VC if there's no cars.
Your cycling friends can expect to quickly get some face to face experiences with the reasons why others discuss carrying weapons when they ride. Count on it.

^^Does that mean you're not coming with us? Dang, there goes the party.;)

^^Does that mean you're not coming with us? Dang, there goes the party.;)
I've been there, more than once. My wife's best friend from high school still works at Inland Steel. My mother-in-law still lives just south of Gary. The situation in Gary ain't cute or funny except to dimwits.

Totally cool!!! We could have the longest fastest criterium race ever, "Race Around Gary" and even throw in a point-to-point "Race Through Gary" time trial. Probably won't even have to worry about blocking the streets or crowd control (except actual racing fans). May even revive the city, and certainly couldn't hurt.

Like le brad says, carfree people should claim Gary and additionally make it like the Portland Oregon of the midwest.

I'm thinking the easiest alleycat ever.

steel is real?

funny Americans abandon their towns after a couple hundred years, when many European cities look vibrant after almost a 1000 years.

funny Americans abandon their towns after a couple hundred years, when many European cities look vibrant after almost a 1000 years.

Yes I am sure there are no abandoned towns anywhere in Europe...

-D

maybe some in Eastern Europe. Pretty much a world wide standard is urban real estate is valuable. as an urban planning professor once said in class. A national standard is use, abuse , abandon.

Dang, I was hoping we (the whole forum) could all live in Serge's RV and an old school bus set up by the lake and adopt a bunch of mongrel dogs.;)

What amazes me about those photos of gary is the lack of trash. Here in philadelphia there are small sections of the city where most buildings are abandoned, and usually there is trash all around. It looks like somebody spent some serious time getting rid of the trash, although the level of abandonment is unbelievable.

There's no trash because there aren't any people to throw trash! :)

I think that carfree bike people should claim gary. We'll all move there and set up shop. I'm sure rent is cheap. Centralia, PA?

The first thing we'll have to do is get rid of those wide streets that killed off all the sidwalk traffic. In fact, if the whole town was redesigned to look like a city in the 1890's, there might be hope.

funny Americans abandon their towns after a couple hundred years, when many European cities look vibrant after almost a 1000 years.

This town wasn't designed to function like a European city. It was an industrial town built around the motorcar. Those abandoned fields will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean and that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

The jobs were exported overseas and basically killed employment and the town.

The first thing we'll have to do is get rid of those wide streets that killed off all the sidwalk traffic. In fact, if the whole town was redesigned to look like a city in the 1890's, there might be hope.
It helps to ignore the demographic elephant in the tent too!

This town wasn't designed to function like a European city. It was an industrial town built around the motorcar. Those abandoned fields will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean and that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

The jobs were exported overseas and basically killed employment and the town.
totally agree and it is happening wherever industry once stalked America.

The jobs were exported overseas and basically killed employment and the town.
We aren't finished exporting jobs, are we? I wonder what gets killed next. The formerly middle class and some of the suburbs?

It helps to ignore the demographic elephant in the tent too!
The demographic elephant you refer to are the descendants of people kidnapped in Africa and brought here against their will to labor as slaves. After emancipation, these people had no economic assets other than their labor, so they migrated to the industrial centers. In time, capital left the old cities, leaving the formerly low cost labor pool behind to fend for itself. From the strictly economic point of view there was no ethical problem with that.

The lust for exploitable low cost labor has ruined this country. We're repeating the same mistake by winking at the widespread employment of illegal Latino immigrants, and also by exporting good jobs to low labor cost countries. In each case the strictly economic point of view fails to deal with some very real social implications.

I don't know whether it's possible to revitalize any of the old urban centers. I'd cast my lot with the dreamers, because supposedly hard headed business and economic approaches have failed so miserably.

I'd cast my lot with the dreamers, because supposedly hard headed business and economic approaches have failed so miserably.
Cool, let's get the incense and patchouli goin'.:D

Cool, let's get the incense and patchouli goin'.:D
Kooommmm baaaa yaaaaahhhh...

Urban abandonment on that magnitude is hard to fathom in my Cali real estate biased mind, at least in the portion of Cali I live in. Looks like something out of Omega Man, can you to take some pictures after sunset?

Gary and other ghost towns reminded me of a non-technical book I got for my b'day about the history of Demolition in the USA. There was a whole chapter about Detroit. Some neighborhood got so ratty the poeple left were demolishing places on their own. Got to be such a thing that the City gov. started getting involved. I'd be willing to pay to push the button on the building in the first post.

Urban abandonment on that magnitude is hard to fathom in my Cali real estate biased mind, at least in the portion of Cali I live in. Looks like something out of Omega Man, can you to take some pictures after sunset?
Suburban California maybe. California has had it's industrial decline too. Just away from the glitz of So Cal. Look to south central LA or Oakland. that looks like urban decay to me.

Suburban California maybe. California has had it's industrial decline too. Just away from the glitz of So Cal. Look to south central LA or Oakland. that looks like urban decay to me.

Sorry, I cannot see that far south, the Redwood Curtain and along with my rose colored glasses keep distorting my already biased vision. Seriously, the small town I live in has seen it's share of urban decay in smaller versions, and I was refering to the size of the area in the photos. With the going price of real estate in the past few years in Cali, abandon property doesn't stay abandon for very long before some developer aquires it, again, going by what I see in my section of Cali. Usually if an area in our town is abandon or in decay, it's either because there are evironmental studies to be completed(which Cali can make a very lengthy process) or the community is at odds on what is to done with the area.

Sorry, I cannot see that far south, the Redwood Curtain and along with my rose colored glasses keep distorting my already biased vision. Seriously, the small town I live in has seen it's share of urban decay in smaller versions, and I was refering to the size of the area in the photos. With the going price of real estate in the past few years in Cali, abandon property doesn't stay abandon for very long before some developer aquires it, again, going by what I see in my section of Cali. Usually if an area in our town is abandon or in decay, it's either because there are evironmental studies to be completed(which Cali can make a very lengthy process) or the community is at odds on what is to done with the area. The economy and lifestyle of California (maybe even more than the rest of the world, including Gary) is based on unsustainable foundations. Therefore, it's only a matter of time before it is "abandoned" to the same degree as Gary. Unless y'all start doing things very differently, very soon.

Shoot, the website isnt working for me :( - i really want to see it aswell after reading this thread :)

Shoot, the website isnt working for me :( - i really want to see it aswell after reading this thread :) Well just picture very clean but very empty streets.

The cleanliness bothered me a bit. Truly abandoned cities aren't usually that tidy. I have to wonder if they took the pictures on a Sunday, when any Midwestern downtown area is deserted. This Web site might be fudged a bit?

Any Gary locals who can tell us if the streets would look more occupied at noon on Monday, for example?

Roody, our town's two main industries are mere shadows of what they were once were, and over the past twenty years, the town I live has taken measures to move away from one or two large industries that are prone to "boom and bust", and the more numerous smaller cottage industries that have moved in will not totally decimate our urban area if one or two pull out. Granted that these cottage industries are not as lucrative as the two former giant industries, but they are better than having the financial vacuum left behind when the other two made a rapid decline.

Roody, our town's two main industries are mere shadows of what they were once were, and over the past twenty years, the town I live has taken measures to move away from one or two large industries that are prone to "boom and bust", and the more numerous smaller cottage industries that have moved in will not totally decimate our urban area if one or two pull out. Granted that these cottage industries are not as lucrative as the two former giant industries, but they are better than having the financial vacuum left behind when the other two made a rapid decline.
In the long run, I believe that the "cottage industries" are the only ones that will be enduring and practical. American towns are being abandoned for understandable reasons, and it is stupid to replace them with more of the same but in a different location.

"Economy of scale" is a code phrase for "ecological and social disaster on a very large scale."

Back in the early 90s I rode the Greyhound from CA across the country to visit a girl in MI. The bus got off the freeway for a stop in Gary. Absolutely blew my mind! We rolled through neighborhoods with most of the homes obviously abandoned. Everything was run down. I had heard about the 'Rust Belt', but I had no idea it was that bad. Very depressing.

Another interesting fact about "cottage" industries is that combined they employ more workers than the larger industries. IIRC something like 70% of workers are employed by a company with fewer than 150 workers. Yet communities are always giving tax breaks to try and get the "big" manufacturing concerns to move to their community, instead of investing in the local businesses that already are in their community. (pet peeve of mine;) )

Aaron:)

Any Gary locals who can tell us if the streets would look more occupied at noon on Monday, for example?
The few times I have driven down Broadway, the main street in Gary, there were quite a few members of the local gentry lounging around outside the liquor stores and bars. The wig stores and check cashing agencies were open for business. Not much else going on.

The situation in Gary ain't cute or funny except to dimwits.

Cheerful as ever I see, ILTB :D