WBEZ | Gary

Calumet brain trust tackles environmental issues across state line

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:24:00 -0500

Although county lines parcel out the southern shore of Lake Michigan like garden plots, the environmental issues that unify people from Michigan City, Ind. to Chicago do not respect political boundaries.

Nor do most economic issues. Industrial decay and depopulation have left communities throughout the greater Calumet region with some common problems, as well as shared opportunities.

That was the message from the inaugural Calumet Summit, a conference convened this week in Gary, Indiana’s lakefront Marquette Park by the Calumet Stewardship Initiative.

The summit follows some major moves in the Calumet area, not least of which is the Millennium Reserve initiative, dubbed the nation's largest "open space" project. (Although it might better be described as a regional plan that ties conservation to urban redevelopment.)

After 140 years of heavy industry, many of the region’s factories have closed and left brownfields, violence and unemployment in their wake. And while efforts to rehabilitate the Great Lakes have mopped up some pollution and begun to clamp down on invasive species, a report released Tuesday by the international body that advises Canada and U.S. on the lakes said the area still faces serious challenges. Agricultural runoff, flooding, drought, and the march of both invasive species and a changing climate are among the problems that plague people who call the southern end of Lake Michigan home.

Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said as much Tuesday at the Calumet Summit. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal funding program initiated by President Barack Obama’s administration, has enabled environmental work and research in recent years. Perhaps more importantly, Brammeier said, it has brought attention to the region and galvanized those already doing important work on the ground.

"As important as the money is the near-universal expression of support for the program year after year," he said. "That’s really at the heart of the success in moving money to entities on the ground."

Volunteer environmental stewards and planners alike see a future in green development.

Few people articulate that vision better than Lauren Riga. Tapped by Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson to head Gary’s new department of Green Urbanism, 28-year-old Riga previously served as a U.N. delegate at the 2010 climate change conference. About one quarter of Gary's buildings are vacant. As Riga and the mayor look to spur an economic revival, they plan to incorporate green infrastructure into new development. Meanwhile local and state agencies have helped rehabilitate habitat along the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, home to a series of fragile ecosystems known as pannes — wetlands nestled between sand dunes.

"[Riga] represents a new way of thinking for the region," said Andrew Pelloso, an environmental consultant who formerly worked for Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management.

"Everyone seems to see the region by Gary’s fate and fortune so what they do matters," he said.

Whether updating Northwest Indiana's stormwater infrastructure or retrofitting Chicago schoolyards, presenters at the summit emphasized action.

"Between now and the next summit go out and do something," U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky told the audience, "or everyone will have wasted their time over the two days."

Pelloso said for all the region’s challenges, and the bureaucratic headache it can be to get things done, the conference’s take-home message was affirming.

"We’re bound together by a common resource,” he said. “Not by state lines.”

Chris Bentley writes about environmental issues. Follow him on Twitter at @Cementley.

Gary airport feels brunt of sequestration battle

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:57:00 -0600

The political battle over sequestration could have a real impact in neighboring Northwest Indiana.

If a deal isn’t reached before Friday, those automatic budget cuts could force the closing of the control tower at the fledgling Gary Chicago International Airport in Gary, Indiana.

Interim airport director Steve Landry says even if that happens, it won’t have much of an impact on overall operations.

Planes already takeoff and land without control tower assistance from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

“It will not affect the safety of the airport, it will however affect the efficiency of air traffic into and and out of the airport,” Landry told WBEZ on Thursday. “So, without the air traffic controllers in the tower there are procedures in place to make (landing and takeoffs) happen and make that happen safely.”

But a spokeswoman for Gary’s only commercial carrier, Allegiant Air, says the company is unsure if its planes will continue to fly in and out of the airport if an air traffic controller is not present.

“We’ll certainly look at all of our options and try to mitigate any inconvenience for our customers and any change in our operations. But right now, it’s a lot of speculation. We just don’t know what is going to happen,” Allegiant spokeswoman Jessica Wheeler said.

Corporate, charter and cargo jets currently utilize the Gary airport as it undergoes a multimillion dollar expansion of its main runway. The Indiana National Guard houses helicopters at the airport, and the Boeing Corporation keeps a fleet of corporate jets there.

But commercial carriers have been hard to come by for Gary.

Allegiant Air has operated consistently out of the airport for about a year with flights to near Orlando, Florida.

This unplanned set back is an unwelcome development for Allegiant Air in Gary.

“We would rather not have our airports shut down and cut back on staff, certainly not as we gear into spring break and a heavy travel season,” Wheeler said. “But we’re going to do what we always do: We’re going to react to situations and make the best of it and try to keep our service running as much as possible.”

Landry says the cuts, if they happen, won’t shut down the control tower in Gary until April.

And even still, Will Davis, owner of the privately-operated Gary Jet Center at the airport, says there’s a 50/50 chance nothing will happen.

He says the Gary airport is on a list of some 200 airports nationwide that could have its funding for air traffic controllers cut.

But like Landry, Davis says the airport can function without air traffic controllers, which it does during those overnight hours.

“There’s a lot of air traffic that comes in and out of here at night because of freight work that we do, so there are definite FAA procedures to function. It doesn’t impact the airport’s ability to function,” Davis said. “Do we like to have the tower? Absolutely. It’s just for efficiencies and safety and everything else, but we can operate without an operating tower.”

As President Obama tries to nudge lawmakers to approve a deal, Republican U.S. senators like Dan Coats of Indiana don’t support the president’s plan.

“The president’s answer to this problem is yet another call for higher taxes to pay for more government spending. This solves nothing. A smarter approach is to give the heads of agencies the flexibility to implement these cuts responsibly by eliminating waste and duplication from their departments,” Coats said in a statement on Thursday.

“Instead, the White House wants to play politics by threatening to go after the civilian defense personnel that support our national security, border patrol agents, air traffic controllers and first responders to continue the administration’s spending and taxing addiction.”

Hurt feelings continue over Northwest Indiana town's creation

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:00:00 -0500

U.S. 30 and Interstate 65 in Northwest Indiana is among the busiest retail corridors in Indiana. For a long time, this area, much of it in the Town of Merrillville, was the envy of Northwest Indiana, but none more so than for folks living in Gary.

To Steel City residents, the establishment of Merrillville a little more than 40 years ago was seen as a racist slap in the face allowed by Indiana state lawmakers.

White families from an increasing black Gary left in droves once Merrillville became a town.
The hurt from that time still exists today even as Merrillville’s demographics have shifted.

***

But today, if you need to buy a new car, or celebrate a birthday or buy that special gift or see a concert by a top-notch artist, if you live anywhere in Northwest Indiana chances are you’re doing it in Merrillville.
“Merrillville is the Main Street of Northwest Indiana,” said Rich James, a retired political columnist from Northwest Indiana.

While shops dominate the Merrillville landscape now, James remembers it wasn’t always like that.
“Fourty-one years ago, Merrillville was pretty much a cow pasture,” James said. “It had a name, it wasn’t incorporated.”

But what the area did have was plenty of open land; land to build homes and businesses on. This area became pretty attractive just as the City of Gary began its steep decline as steel jobs began to dry up in the once-thriving community of 175,000 residents.

But loss of jobs wasn’t the only issue facing Gary.

In the mid-1960s, blacks increased in number in what was then a very ethnic-white Gary.

Confined to living in one section of city for decades, blacks pushed for the right to live anywhere they chose, including in affluent white sections.

Richard Gordon Hatcher became Gary’s first black mayor in 1968. In the years up to his election, Hatcher pushed for an open housing law. It wasn’t easy.

“Every time it came up for a vote the council chambers would be packed with screaming and yelling. I liken them to the Tea Partiers today,” Hatcher told WBEZ. “They were yelling and all kinds of racial slurs and they would intimidate. I introduced that bill at least six times. It was defeated five times.”

That 6th time was the charm.

But the victories of the housing ordinance coupled with Hatcher’s mayoral victory came with consequences.

“And so blacks were able to move wherever they wanted to move and that really accelerated the flight out of the city,” Hatcher said. “People panicked and so that’s when they began in serious numbers to move out.”

But move out to where? There wasn’t really anywhere to go south of Gary.

“But a couple of legislators from up here, a fella by the name of Chet Dobis, who is still in office, they pushed a bill through that took away the City of Gary’s buffer zone,” Hatcher said.

Chet Dobis is nearing the end of a 42-year career in the Indiana House of Representative.

He recalls that in order to establish Merrillville as a town, a three-mile buffer zone that existed for all 2nd-Class cities in Indiana would have to be removed.

“Merrillville did not have enough territory to build a town on if that 3-mile buffer zone existed,” Dobis said. “So, if we knocked the buffer zone down we could get right up to the border with Gary.

And that’s what happened.

Dobis may be best remembered for his earliest legislation – a special law allowing a town to be created adjacent to an established city like Gary.

“People call me the father of the town of Merrillville,” he said.

Dobis says he was simply giving the people – mostly white people – what they wanted – a place to go to since they no longer wanted to live not only in Gary – but other racially changing urban areas of Northwest Indiana.

“You have to understand, we were in a different time. It was as different environment. The atmosphere was highly charged. And people had started to move from Hammond, East Chicago and Whiting as well to this area,” Dobis said. “A lot of them made major investments. A lot of them thought and supported this idea of protecting their investment.”

Merrillville incorporated as a town in 1971, developing at a rapid pace with not only new residents, but retail development over the next decade.

As life breathed into Merrillville, in Gary, it was just the opposite.

Residents fled and Gary’s once thriving downtown – devastated.

Carolyn E. Mosby remembers growing up in a rapidly deteriorating Gary and couldn’t understand why it was happening.

“When you see these boarded up buildings on Broadway or you see these vacant homes, a lot of the people who chose to leave, a lot of the people who chose to leave didn’t decide to sell their businesses or sell their homes, they just boarded them up and left,” Mosby said.

By the 1980s, Mosby was a teenager who often found herself not shopping at the Merrillville area’s new mall or other stores – pretty much at the insistence of her late mother, Carolyn B. Mosby, a longtime state legislator from Gary.

“She was very involved in the community as well and this was something that was very near and dear to her was to really support those people that chose to stay in Gary, the businesses and the folks who didn’t abandoned their home and moved to Merrillville,” Mosby said.

Just last year, Merrillville celebrated 40 years as a town.

This town of 35,000 residents is no longer lily white.

In fact, it’s now more than 40 percent African American, with many continuing to move because its school district is considered better than Gary’s.

Kimberly Williams grew up in Gary. These days, the 32-year-old owns Graphics United, a graphic design company in Merrillville. Williams’ office is located near a large shopping center, with ethnic food restaurants close by and other businesses owned by African Americans, Asians, Indians and Latinos.

Williams, who also lives in Merrillville, says there may be always some apprehension in Merrillville because of its past, but those are slowly washing away.

“I don’t think there will ever be a point where it’s never a reservation but i think probably from 40 years ago up to this date it’s probably has become less and less because you’re starting to see business from pretty much all different types of races and I know it wasn’t like that 40 years ago,” Williams said.

Although its retail corridor is thriving, sections of Merrillville struggle to keep residents and businesses. And now, the town is experiencing its own white flight, something Carolyn Mosby finds ironic.

“The white citizens moved from Gary to create Merrillville because they didn’t want to live with black residents so now more black residents have started to move to Merrillville and now they are moving even further out,” Mosby said.

Journalist Rich James says what’s happening in Merrillville is just the nature of all of Northwest Indiana.

“Northwest Indiana never has accepted integration openly or warmly or on a grand scale. As Merrillville became more black, some whites said well, this happened once before and it’s happening again and we’re going to move,” James said. “Well, it’s unfortunate.”

Milwaukee Mayor and former WI gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett explains hopes for regional collaboration

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:01:00 -0500

Last week, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson came to Chicago to discuss “mega-regional priorities” at the Metropolitan Planning Council’s annual luncheon. (Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was scheduled to attend, but couldn’t get out of a City Council meeting in time.)

There’s a push underway for the region to work more collaboratively and revamp its image. Many say the “Rust Belt” should trade in its nickname for something catchier like the “Fresh Coast,” which reflects the area’s strengths and uniqueness.

“I think it’s time that we as a region promote America’s 'Fresh Coast' because that is who we are,” Barrett explained at the luncheon.

Milwaukee has been trying to capitalize on its proximity to Lake Michigan for a number of years, and the efforts go beyond just branding--it wants to become the next Silicon Valley of water technology.

According to the Milwaukee Water Council, the area is already home to over 130 “water technology companies.” Chicago’s own Blue Tech Alliance exists to promote similar businesses in the Chicago area.

Wednesday on Afternoon Shift, Milwaukee Mayor and former gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett joins us for a primer on the water technology industry. He'll also explain the ways in which he thinks the region should be working more collaboratively. Do Gary and Milwaukee need Chicago more than we need them? What could we stand to gain by working together, and what exactly do those efforts look like? Tune in to hear Barrett’s thoughts just after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Gary's National Black Political Convention, 40 years on

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:45:00 -0600

In a few months Republicans and Democrats will hold their respective conventions to officially nominate candidates for president. While it’s a forgone conclusion that President Barack Obama will be the Democrats’ pick, no fewer than four Republicans candidates are still fighting it out at the polls.

While the cycle of party conventions seems to go back, unbroken, for many decades, there are a few instances when major political meetings interrupted the more predictable schedule of events.

One of these occurred 40 years ago this week in Gary, Ind. For three days beginning March 10, 1972, the Steel City hosted the National Black Political Convention. Some say this independent meeting forged a path forward for African-American politics, one that remains open to this day.

The event took place in the gym at Gary’s West Side High School, which is now called West Side Leadership Academy. These days the gym hosts high school basketball tournaments — sometimes packed with thousands of fans, parents and players. But Lonnie Randolph, a veteran state senator from neighboring East Chicago, remembers how the gym looked during the black political convention of 1972, and how excited he was to be part of the historic event.

“You hear and read about the national conventions and all that, but to have one in your own backyard, especially for the first-time gathering of African-Americans,” Randolph said.

The overriding mission: unity

The National Black Political Convention attracted approximately 8,000 people from across the United States. Their mission was to establish a unified political agenda that would address poverty, unemployment and blacks’ lack of clout within the Republican and Democratic parties.

Some made impassioned pleas for African-American political and economic freedom following tumultuous events of the '60s, such as the violence in Selma, Alabama, the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and the deaths of major figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Some of the biggest names in the civil rights movement came to lend their voices in Gary, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

“We are grown. We ain’t taking it no more. No more yes boss. No more bowing or scrapping. We are 25 million strong. Cut us in or cut it out. It is a new ball game,” Jackson said in a passionate speech at the convention, as depicted on the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize.

Jackson recently sat down with WBEZ for a one-on-one interview to discuss the convention and its legacy.

“For the first time ever, really, in a political sense, this was a really major, somewhat unorthodox, political convention. People there from all over the country and the Caribbean. And even without Internet, Facebook and high technology, people came,” Jackson said. “Getting the right to vote in ’65 was the beginning of a process, but the convention in Gary solidified the sense of focus. This convention was overwhelming. It could not be turned around.”

Convention lands in a town with 'only one hotel'

Jackson says the convention was planned at a time when the nation was experiencing heated and sometimes violent political protests, so hosting a black political convention would have been a major feat for any city. But the convention landed in the growing, but modest-sized Gary, a city on the shores of Lake Michigan with a population of 175,000 — half of which was black. It didn’t hurt that its latest mayor was African-American.

“It was important to have it in a city where the mayor was the host. We couldn’t have had the same convention if the climate had been hostile,” Jackson said. “Mayor (Richard) Hatcher was the driving force. He chaired that convention into reality.”

Richard Gordon Hatcher had been voted into office in 1968, making him the first black mayor of a large American city.

“At that time, most large cities in the country, the last thing they wanted was to have thousands of black people coming to that city for any period of time,” Hatcher told WBEZ recently. “People said there would be riots, buildings would be burned, crime would escalate. All of those things.”

Hatcher says, at the time, the nation’s political climate was changing and blacks needed to decide how to best address pressing issues as well as achieve true equality. Hatcher, along with many other attendees, thought other means had failed.

“You couldn’t get it done through the courts and it was pretty clear that peaceful, non-violent demonstrations were not going to happen anymore. But what was evolving was politics, the political sphere,” said Hatcher, now a political science professor at Indiana University Northwest in Gary. “The decision was made that we needed to call all of the black people that we could together from all over the country to come to a meeting, come to a convention.”

Hatcher recalls having several meetings in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Chicago with top black leaders to decide where to host the convention.

“So the discussion moved from, ‘Shall we do it,’ to ‘Where shall we do it?’ I think we tried a couple of cities and basically, the officials in those cities made it clear that such a meeting was not welcomed in their cities,” Hatcher said. “I suggested Gary would take the meeting. Gary could handle the meeting. There had been no discussion about the fact that Gary had only one hotel.”

To offset a lack of hotel rooms, Hatcher says some convention visitors stayed in Chicago, but a good number were hosted in the homes of Gary residents.

Time to welcome visitors

“I don’t think I had ever been to Indiana before,” said Amiri Baraka. In a recent interview with WBEZ, the noted poet from Newark, New Jersey, recalled his impressions from the 1972 convention.

At that time, Baraka considered himself to be a black nationalist, and that movement's imagery and vibe were on display.

“You know, it was a very striking kind of thing," he said. "When we got there, Hatcher had put these red, black and green flags on all the sign posts down there. It was very exciting. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been to in my life. There were black delegates there from all 50 states, just like it was a convention for the Democratic or Republican party.”

The convention’s main objective was to establish a black political agenda for the nation, but coming to a consensus wasn’t easy. There were heated, back-and-forth discussions and some delegates even threatened to walk out of the convention when they couldn’t come to terms.

Baraka says attendees pressed on because adopting that agenda was paramount.

“That was the reason that we gave for having a convention in the first place — that we were going to create this black agenda so that every politician would have to take this into consideration if they wanted to run,” Baraka said. “The things the African-American people wanted … nationally.”

Despite the appeals to unity, divisions remained. One of the deepest was between black groups that chose to participate in the convention and those that did not. One prominent no-show was The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which avoided the meeting because whites were not allowed to participate.

That exclusion carried over to white news reporters, whose absence proved to be an opportunity for young black journalists, at a time when few minorities were in the news business.

One journalist who attended was Renee Ferguson, the current press secretary for U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.). Ferguson had a long career as one of Chicago's top television journalists, but in 1972 she was a 22-year-old reporter with the Indianapolis News newspaper.

“I don’t think the News had hired a woman or an African-American person,” Ferguson told WBEZ recently. “They sent me because, in order to cover this, I think the organizers had said they would only have black reporters. So, I got credentialed and got to cover this beautiful piece of history.

“When I got there it was very disorganized, much bigger than anybody had planned for and impossible actually for anybody to see what was happening. The speeches were long and there were a lot of egos and there weren’t many women."

Ferguson says the Gary delegates grappled with a basic question.

“Are black people going to work on the inside with the system, or are they going to have their own and work on the outside? And that was the big argument no matter what else they talked about,” Ferguson said. “That was the underlying intrigue and the most interesting thing for me to document as a young reporter.”

Three days with a decades-long legacy

The convention is credited with galvanizing African-Americans and encouraging them to run for office. Over the next 10 years, the number of elected black politicians grew from 2,200 to more than 5,000.

Even those who didn’t attend the event, such as former Illinois U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, said the aftereffects are undeniable.

“Out of that was a lot of groundwork laid for blacks to run for various offices throughout the country,” Burris said. “The energizing coming out of that ’72 national convention certainly would energize the voters to see the power and interest in electing these various individuals to these new offices.”

Smaller black political conventions were organized in later years but none approached the size or scope of the one in Gary. Despite the fact that the nation now has its first black president, many observers contacted by WBEZ agree there’s reason to hold another major black political convention.

“It’s time for another one,” said Jackson. “While we have the joy of having the White House occupied by President Barack Obama, blacks remain in the hull of the ship, and the water’s rising and (there is a) growing sense of desperation.”

West Side’s gymnasium has no plaque or other commemoration of the 1972 convention, though surviving attendees hope to keep its memory alive. To that end, U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), will host a symposium on the National Black Political Convention on Capitol Hill the weekend of March 23. Organizers say they hope to draw connections between the overlooked convention and this year’s presidential election.

Gary's Katie Hall, Indiana's first African-American member of Congress, dies

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:24:00 -0600

Former Indiana Congresswoman Katie Hall died on Monday at the age of 73. For many, she’ll be remembered for marking a significant milestone in American history, but for others, she’ll be remembered for leaving political office in a cloud of shame.

Hall’s long political career in Northwest Indiana dated back to the 1970s. She served a single term in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1974 to 1976 and later held a state senate seat from 1976 to 1982.

In 1982, she won a special election for a local congressional seat, becoming Indiana’s first African-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. That election followed the sudden death of U.S. Rep. Adam Benjamin, a much-revered congressman from Gary. Hall was appointed the Democratic nominee for the seat by Gary’s mayor, Richard Hatcher.

In Congress, Hall had a spotty record. She gained notoriety for sponsoring the law that made Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday but, despite that, she did not win re-election in 1984. Instead, she narrowly lost the Democratic primary to Peter Visclosky, who is the son of a former mayor of Gary and remains the congressman from Northwest Indiana. Former Lake County Prosecutor Jack Crawford finished third in that race.

Hall wasn’t finished politically, though.

Following her congressional defeat, she won election as Gary City Clerk, serving from 1985 to 1993. She twice challenged Visclosky for Congress, but failed both times. Later, she returned to office as Gary City Clerk.

During her last term in 2002, she and her daughter, Junifer Hall, who served as Deputy Clerk, were indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering, extortion and mail fraud charges. A series of newspaper articles in the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana alleged Hall extorted campaign cash from her employees. In 2003, Hall was spared prison following her guilty plea on mail fraud charges, but her daughter served 16 months. In 2009 Hall asked President Barack Obama for a pardon, which was denied.

Hall, who earned political science and social studies degrees, taught for more than 30 years in the Gary Public School system.

Katie Hall died Monday morning at a Gary hospital of an undisclosed illness.

Clay plans for last days as Gary mayor

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:42:00 -0600

The city of Gary’s outgoing mayor makes no bones about how hard it has been for him to leave office this weekend.

Rudy Clay, 75, said it’s not because he’s lost his political mettle or his resolve to improve his city; instead, it was because of something he had no control over — his diagnosis of prostate cancer. During an interview with WBEZ earlier this week, Clay called this personal health obstacle the biggest disappointment of his political career.

"It was a devastating blow to me and my family," Clay said. "I really wanted to continue what we had already started here. I felt we had laid a real good foundation."

Clay passes the proverbial baton to newly-elected Karen Freeman-Wilson, but not before noting the irony of the connection between the two. Clay publicly announced his departure from the race at a press conference in April. At that same event, Clay endorsed Freeman-Wilson, one of his most prominent opponents. Clay had faced Freeman-Wilson, Indiana’s former Attorney General, before. In 2003 both had sought the mayor’s seat, only to be bested by incumbent Scott King.

Clay had dropped out of the 2003 mayoral race early, but his decades-worth of political connections eventually paid off. In 2006, King left office and, just a few weeks later, Democrats placed Clay in the mayor’s chair.

He was stunned.

“It was sort of a clarion call — it wasn’t really on my mind,” Clay said. “It was quite humbling for me to even accomplish that. I said, ‘Gee wiz, God had to be in the plan, there.’”

By the 2007 mayoral election, Clay consolidated his support and retained his office. But by then, any pretense of an easy job had evaporated. The city government was dogged by more than $70 million in debt, and the state had begun capping property tax rates, effectively ham-stringing municipal governments’ easiest and most direct means of raising revenue.

Clay and his supporters sought relief through Indiana’s Distressed Unit Appeals Board, a body meant to hear local governments’ arguments to lift such caps on a year-by-year basis.

Clay is proud that Gary is the only city to have sought and received such help from the DUAB. And though he caught flak from some home owners and business groups, he went to the board three times, making Gary’s effective property tax rates the highest in the state.

And, Clay said, he’d proudly do it again.

“I had no shame, I might add,” he said. “I’d say if there’s any board that wanted to help the city of Gary — financially or otherwise — I’d be the first in line.”

Clay said he plans to write a book about his forty-year political career and how it’s intersected with the history of Gary. Beyond that, he would only say he’s going to remain the city’s biggest booster and repeatedly make the case that every city in the region — even Chicago — should take notice of the fate of Gary, Indiana. After all, he said, no city’s assets should be wasted.

“Northwest Indiana, Lake County, Indiana, and the state of Indiana cannot be what they ought to be until Gary, Indiana, is what it ought to be,“ Clay said.

Gary's new mayor makes history--and plans to revitalize the city

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:30:00 -0600

Karen Freeman-Wilson won the race for mayor of Gary, Indiana back in November; in the process, she made history. Freeman-Wilson is the state’s first African-American female mayor and Gary’s first female mayor.

Freeman-Wilson was born and raised in Gary and attended Harvard Law School. Her hometown faces big struggles, from high unemployment to chronic crime, but Freeman-Wilson said she has a plan: It is called Blueprint for Rebuilding Gary.

Her ambitions include bringing new business to the area, creating jobs and improving the city’s infrastructure. However, her biggest challenge will be getting citizens to have hope in their city.

Mayor-elect Freeman-Wilson joined Eight Forty-Eight to talk about what she hoped to accomplish and how she planned to do it. She will officially be sworn into office on Dec. 31.

Music Button: Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, "Back Home Again In Indiana", from the album The California Concerts, (Decca)

Gary’s mayor-elect wants a new police chief

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:12:00 -0600

The mayor elect in Gary, Indiana plans to look far and wide for a new police chief in a city where crime is a big concern.

Democrat Karen Freeman Wilson easily won the general election last week. She says she wants to have a new police chief in place soon after she takes office January 1st.

She plans to place ads in trade publications in her national search. Under current Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, the police department is now under its ninth chief since he took office five years ago. Freeman-Wilson says she doesn’t think putting in yet another chief will upset the rank and file.

“That is a cause for some concern but we believe if there is yet another change that we would be able to transition that person in a while that it would work well for both the citizens as well as the police personnel,” Freeman-Wilson said at a Wednesday news conference.

The salary for the new chief will be limited, given the city’s budget crunch. Freeman-Wilson is tapping the expertise of Dennis Rittenmeyer to head her search committee.

Gary's Mayor-elect betting on new casino operator

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:55:00 -0600

Two bankrupt Northwest Indiana casinos are under new ownership. Wayzata Investment Partners out of Minnesota is now calling the shots at the Majestic Star Casinos in Gary. Wayzata has been a top creditor since the casino's parent company filed for bankruptcy in 2009. A woman who answered the phone at Wayzata promptly hung up when reached for comment this afternoon.

But Gary Mayor-elect Karen Freeman-Wilson says she thinks the new owners will be good for both the casino and the City of Gary.

"Investment in their structure will attract more gamers and to the extent that you can attract more gamers and increase your volume and thereby increase your profits, that's a positive thing," she said.

Freeman-Wilson said the Majestic Star casinos owe the city up to $15 million. She said the city needs that money for infrastructure projects, especially fixing city streets.

Recent numbers show a few Northwest Indiana casinos have seen a decrease in attendance.