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Former Major Midwest City Is Now a Semi-Abandoned Wasteland
Wander Wisdom ^ | 4/30/2023 | Kathleen Joyce

Posted on 04/30/2023 10:02:28 AM PDT by sodpoodle

Not even an hour's drive southeast from the center of Chicago sits Gary, Indiana, a semi-apocalyptic shell of its former self. Originally founded in 1906, Gary, Indiana wasn't always the way it is now. During the middle of the 20th century, Gary was a booming steel town and a hub for the United States Steel Corporation. Domestic steel workers and newly-arrived immigrants flocked to the city for its economic opportunity, and during the 50's and 60's, Gary was thriving enough to rival other major industrial hubs like Chicago and Detroit. So how did this once-thriving center of industry collapse into the semi-abandoned "Murder Capital of America?"

The whole story is a complex one, but the primary contributor to Gary's doom was the decline of the steel industry itself. The majority of people who lived in Gary worked for the town's steel mill, and when America's steel industry started to collapse due to overseas competition, so did the city's largest employer.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: eerie; gary; indiana; industry; steel
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To: crz

Sage advice.


21 posted on 04/30/2023 10:56:13 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: sodpoodle
A couple years ago, I was driving my wife to Rochester, MN for surgery at the Mayo Clinic out there.

Due to some road construction, I got diverted off the highway while going through Gary, Indiana.

I ended up driving a few miles through desolated buildings before I could get back on the interstate.

Now this is a toll highway so when I went to get back on, my FastPass transponder wasn't working. However, there was nobody manning the tollbooths. So I just ended up driving through the tollbooths without paying.

Never heard anything about it so I guess it was no problem.

I believe Gary, Indiana was where the Michael Jackson family were born and raised.

22 posted on 04/30/2023 11:04:19 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (5,181,324 Truth | 87,174,230 Twitter)
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To: GaltAdonis

The Democratic Party will not rest until every city, town and village looks just like Gary, IN.


23 posted on 04/30/2023 11:10:52 AM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: sodpoodle
" due to overseas competition"

So why didn't that happen before? Because Nixon took the US off the gold standard. Before 1971, trade deficits had to be paid for in gold. Too many gold transfers meant your currency had to depreciate, raising the costs of imports and reducing the trade deficit. Removing gold destroyed this balancing mechanism.

In addition, this was not "free trade," as all foreign competitors subsidized or gave domestic producers a protected market.

At the time it was argued that this happened because US steel producers had failed to modernize. But the billions needed for that instead had to be spent on pollution controls, effectively an enormous tax US producers had to pay but foreign producers did not. Effectively a reverse tariff that penalized US production and encouraged imports.

So Gary became a wasteland because the US government delivered a left hook followed by a right uppercut right on the chin of US industry.

24 posted on 04/30/2023 11:11:19 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: Lurker

It isn’t racist if it’s true, is ot?


25 posted on 04/30/2023 11:19:06 AM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: slapshot

The fate of all such cities.


26 posted on 04/30/2023 11:20:59 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: joma89
I'm not sure that's the case.

The U.S. steel industry declined for a number of reasons. Foreign competition was only one of them. I'll list a few more here:

1. The completion of the construction work on the Interstate Highway System (bridge construction was a major part of the domestic market for steel).
2. The use of plastic, fiberglass and composite materials for auto manufacturing in place of steel.
3. Technological obsolescence of U.S. steel factories, tied to #4 below.
4. A fascist business model involving management, labor and government that kept obsolete steel plants afloat long after they should have been upgraded or replaced.
5. Domestic competition from new U.S. steel mills.

Item #5 is a big one that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should. As one industry representative said at a North American trade conference a few years ago: "It's not 'globalism' when a company closes a steel mill in Ohio and opens a new one in Alabama or Texas."

27 posted on 04/30/2023 11:24:17 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've just pissed in my pants and nobody can do anything about it." -- Major Fambrough)
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To: SamAdams76

I was born in the same hospital and about the same time as Michael.


28 posted on 04/30/2023 11:55:53 AM PDT by lizma2
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To: Noumenon

Being true makes it doubly racist.

L


29 posted on 04/30/2023 11:58:02 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Your points are valid in some cases. As I understand it, though, the US imports much of its steal now compared to decades ago even if some companies relocated within the US and still produce some steal.


30 posted on 04/30/2023 12:17:34 PM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: lizma2
I was born in the same hospital and about the same time as Michael.

The critical difference being that you didn't grow up and identify as a rich white woman like Michael Jackson did. I'm also betting you never owned a chimpanzee.

31 posted on 04/30/2023 12:29:31 PM PDT by Towed_Jumper (“A nation without a central bank is like a digestive tract without a tapeworm.” F. Saunders)
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To: GaltAdonis
Gary today. Looks stunningly prosperous & vibrant. Eh?

With its 79.1% demographic majority, this is what our black urban under class in Gary, Indiana provides America in terms of cultural enrichment.

32 posted on 04/30/2023 12:35:45 PM PDT by Towed_Jumper (“A nation without a central bank is like a digestive tract without a tapeworm.” F. Saunders)
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To: dfwgator

Single-dominant-industry towns usually have histories that fade with that dominant industry or fade with changes to where that industry wants to be located.


33 posted on 04/30/2023 12:57:49 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: T.B. Yoits

Usually it’s something as basic as that.

People are always mourning that beautiful old buildings aren’t preserved, but usually the reason is that it would cost a fortune to bring the electricity and the water up to whatever is required by the building code.


34 posted on 04/30/2023 1:10:50 PM PDT by firebrand
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To: Carriage Hill

Silliness. TikTok is fine. We were sold a bill of goods on this crap. The truth is that it is far better and blows away Facebook and Instagram. Zuckerberg called his bought and paid for congressmen and demanded action.


35 posted on 04/30/2023 1:31:35 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: Wuli

A tale as old as time.


36 posted on 04/30/2023 1:33:48 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DesertRhino

I’ve never been on Tik Tok, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram or any of that social sewage. Tried Twitter, but I can’t figure out how to navigate it. Probably best. I am on several firearm websites and enjoy those. And I’ll just stay here on FR.


37 posted on 04/30/2023 3:22:38 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: sodpoodle

The story isn’t complex at all.

Our “leaders” betrayed us and gave away most of our industrial capacity to foreign countries.

Straight 100% cause and effect chain there.


38 posted on 04/30/2023 3:25:18 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Lurker

Steel industry collapsing.

That’s how.


39 posted on 04/30/2023 3:26:50 PM PDT by x
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To: Pollard
when America's steel industry started to collapse due to Free Trade, globalism and no protective tariffs.

But who needs jobs and industry? Those jobs are for losers right?

40 posted on 04/30/2023 3:30:18 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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