For Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, improving the city, such as through blight elimination, is a dream come true.
“Being in this office is a blessing,” Melton said. “But the goal — and I want to make sure I’m clear — is not just about eliminating blight, it’s creating community, giving people an option to have a safer environment, it’s about improving.”
As he looks forward to 2025, Melton said he’s dedicated to delivering on blight elimination projects and laying a foundation for Gary’s growth.
Someone scribbled a message on a boarded-up storefront on Broadway in Gary where officials say blight is common. (Carole Carlson/Post-Tribune)
Melton’s work with blight elimination goes further back than his role as mayor. As state senator, he helped create Senate Bill 434, which established the blighted property demolition fund and allows the city to receive $6 million from the state for blight elimination.
Money from the blight elimination fund must be used for Gary’s transit development district, which was created in the vicinity of Gary’s Adam Benjamin Metro Station.
The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Agency has $6 million set aside for blight elimination, which will be reimbursed by the state. RDA will receive $3 million in the current fiscal year and $3 million after July 1, according to Post-Tribune archives.
The city had to match the state’s $6 million, and Hard Rock Casino provided $3 million of its funds. The remaining $3 million will come from American Rescue Plan Act funds, which the Gary Common Council approved at its Dec. 10 meeting.
Blighted properties include vacant lots, abandoned building, houses in dangerous shape and environmental contamination, according to the Vacant Property Research Network. Blight can also be overgrown lawns, uncollected litter, and inadequate street lighting.
Christopher Harris, executive director of the Gary Redevelopment Commission, said residents will start to see work towards blight elimination in the city’s “highly trafficked” corridors, including the transportation district.
“We’re going to be working in the downtown corridor starting in the first quarter of 2025,” Harris said. “That’s probably going to go on through the fourth quarter of 2025, addressing the highly visible structures along Fifth Avenue and along Broadway to make Gary more attractive.”
The redevelopment commission has been preparing for work with Senate Bill 434, Harris said, and they’ve identified key structures that need to be addressed first.
In July, the city announced a partnership with the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative. The program works with cities within the 100-mile radius of South Bend, said Marianne Cusato, director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative.
Gary has the preliminary designs for the corridor, which will be used when construction begins, Harris said.
“(The designs are) helping us develop this design standard and aesthetic for the downtown and Broadway corridor,” Harris said. “It’s helping us develop housing templates where we can help current and future Gary residents build multi-generational wealth and envision how downtown Gary can be a catalyst for future development purposes.”
In August, Notre Dame hosted a listening session for Gary residents to learn more about the project and the initiative’s recommendations.
“(Listening) is an essential part of the process,” Cusato said. “We’re experts in cities, but every city is an expert in their own city.”
The architecture school’s proposed plan is a recommendation, and engineers will have to look at structures to see what can be done throughout the city. Funding might also impact what can be done.
One structure that Notre Dame officials recommended work on is the long-neglected City Methodist Church. During listening sessions, Cusato said the team’s architects are “reasonably sure” the church’s tower could be saved, and the space could turn into a renaissance park.
Cusato reaffirmed that belief in an email Dec. 23, saying that the goal is to save the building’s bell tower and reconstruct the remainder of the building. The city is seeking additional grant funding to save part of the church, Melton said, but he didn’t say how much would be needed.
Blight reversal is more than demolishing buildings, Cusato said. Notre Dame architects are getting creative to find ways to keep Gary’s history in its plan, including using bricks from historic deconstructed buildings in other projects.
“A brick today is not going to be the same brick that you find in historic buildings,” Cusato added. “Anyone that’s rehabbing a historic building would need the older bricks, so there’s a lot of value in these buildings.”
Stephen Hartley, associate professor of the practice in Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, said his project role is to look at Gary’s historic buildings to figure out what can be saved and what can change going forward.
Hartley said the city’s Broadway corridor “has some truly remarkable buildings” that show Gary’s history, including Union Station, which he added is “just outside” Notre Dame’s scope in this partnership.
The Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative only looks at a single area of cities they visit, and for Gary, it’s the Broadway corridor. Union Station is located behind the Adam Benjamin Jr. Metro Center across Indiana Toll Road, which Hartley said is beyond the border.
Decay Devils, a Gary-based nonprofit, has worked since 2016 to preserve Union Station. The organization plans to raise $2 million to transform the station into a mixed-use community space, with dining and offices, according to Decay Devils’ website.
Gary Johnson, board chair for the Calumet Heritage Partnership, has helped Decay Devils submit applications for grants and funding for the Union Station project. Johnson was disappointed the old train station was excluded from Notre Dame’s plans.
“Union Station has close proximity to the redeveloped metro center,” Johnson said. “Having access to two resources right in the middle of downtown Gary is a really nice benefit for the citizens of Gary.”
The Decay Devils own Union Station, but Johnson said he wants city leadership to include the redevelopment of the station.
Johnson also said it’s a “huge missed opportunity” for the city to omit Union Station from the transportation district that will receive $12 million to eliminate blight.
“It accomplishes so many objectives that they’ve indicated they want to accomplish,” he said. “They’re trying to create a sense of place with the metro station redevelopment, and Union Station could fit right into that.”
Johnson and the Decay Devils are still looking for funding for the Union Station project, and he talked with Hartley about his concerns with the station’s exclusion.
Although not everyone’s desires can be included, Cusato and Hartley both said they appreciate the community’s engagement in the process. Melton and Harris both said residents are invested in blight elimination, which makes it important for city leadership to prioritize.
Melton believes it’s important for Gary to have outside help with blight elimination.
“We can’t do it alone,” he said. “It’s going to take local, state and federal partnerships to address issues in communities like Gary that have been impacted by economic circumstances for decades.”
Cusato and Hartley both said they’ve enjoyed working with Gary leadership and residents. The leadership in Gary is “nothing short of extraordinary,” Cusato said.
She’s also felt that residents have full confidence in the Notre Dame team.
“The stigma from the past is outdated, and the rich history of this place is just incredible,” Cusato said. “The culture, the arts, the music, just the history of the city shines through through its architecture and its memories.”
The resiliency of the community has shone through in all of Hartley’s interactions with residents, he said. Buildings are inanimate objects, but Hartley said he’s felt the community is connected to them and invested in its history.
For Hartley, his job is easier when the community cares and wants to improve.
“What they need is what a lot of towns we work with need,” Hartley said. “They need a vision of what Gary can be, and once people see the vision, then they’re ready, and they’re absolutely willing to be active partners.”
