# Looking for stories: Gary, IN



## DocRoberts (Jul 8, 2014)

Does anyone have any stories about what it's like in the industrial sites of Gary, Indiana? I've only ever read about how those areas are somewhat deserted, so I'm woefully at a loss for any information. I'd owe some serious favors to anyone that could provide me with information on what it's like to spend time in any abandoned buildings of the area. What's the general attitude of urban explorers there? How are the folk that go looking for scrap metal? Is it as deserted as documentaries make it seem?


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## rvon (Jul 8, 2014)

me and my friend just hopped a train from northwest indiana (just east of gary) to chicago this past weekend...gary (and surrounding cities such as hammond, whitting, etc) is cool if u like urban exploration of abandonded buildings..becuase there are alot of old abandoned really big structures..like old abandoned steel mills..lots of crazy bridges and shit too..i bet ud find all kinds of cool shit up in there...i was actually saying this to my friend the other day..im still in NW indiana..


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## rvon (Jul 8, 2014)

whitting has alot of abandoned shit..where are u at?


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## DocRoberts (Jul 9, 2014)

I'm from Jersey, and I can't say that I get out much. Something of a coward, you see.


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## rvon (Jul 9, 2014)

haahaha..


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## DocRoberts (Jul 11, 2014)

The entirety of the topic was to get some impressions of people living in largely abandoned areas. Gary, IN, is one of the few that I've every been aware of. If you've any stories to share in regards to the area, I'd be more than obliged to repay you in some shape or form.


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## Kim Chee (Jul 12, 2014)

I've been to Gary, IN., but I didn't go exploring...I just sat in the cab of a big rig and entertained thoughts of hookers, shootings and shady drug deals (not in that order). Sorry I don't have more for you in terms of urbex or actually even tramping around there.

Can you say why Gary? Are you able to travel?


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## DocRoberts (Jul 12, 2014)

Able insofar as my legs work? Surely.

But I've a dearth of worldly knowledge, and like I've mentioned before, I need to keep within thirty days of a pharmacy for resupplies of insulin. I've gone for short periods without long-lasting or short-acting doses, but life becomes centered around activity-eat-rest, turning you into something of an animal rather than someone able to travel and appreciate the world around you.

As for why I've chosen Gary, it was the first joint that popped into my head. I'm interested in any sort of sprawling abandoned areas. The idea that towns end up abandoned baffles me. Though I've access to certain east-coast statutes, the idea that land ends up owned by the government and entirely unused baffles me. The limbo that is "awaiting redevelopment" is something that's not only shocking, but downright confusing.

I'm in no position to speak, obviously, being no more than a late 20s bum that hides behind medicare, but the fact that there exist buildings ripe for the picking and ready to be refurnished is baffling. If I had the ability, I would travel to and begin working on one of them myself, going so far as to specialize in squatter's law to protect those who made such bohemian paradises their home.

Of course, all of that is a grand and romanticized idea. The long and short of it remains that houses sit abandoned across the country and they remain abandoned in great numbers due to mid-century industrialization. In the more suburban areas of the nation, you see people struggling to dedicate such places as "Sites of Historical Value" while allowing others to decay. I'd love to think that any individual could turn a mass-abandoned joint located in the dust belt into a livable space much like the molefolk in NYC's subway (proud to say that I've lurked on the fringes, there! Only managed to wave before running away in terror way back in '06)

Ah-hah... does that answer anything? It's the abandoned-city-living that fascinates me. It seems to be a culture unto itself, distinct from squatting.


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## Kim Chee (Jul 12, 2014)

I think there is plenty of opportunity to scoop up some of this decay. The city may let you have it cheap, but they will likely limit how many structures you can buy (owner must occupy for x period of time and make x improvements). If you have a trickle of cash coming in it might work for you. Wish I had more for you on exploration experience.


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## DocRoberts (Jul 12, 2014)

I shouldn't have tagged this so specifically. I was looking for people who had long-term squats that had either come into government agents reticent to force them away or somesuch, or amiable locals.

My father would tell me tales of the govenrment buying former industrial properties for cents on the dollar and selling them, quite literally, at the dollar provided the owners would accept as is. I've been curious as to any squatters that have come across situations such as this, or situations that sank below this. Such as, even lower standards to living. Would folks give even less a damn?

I'm an urban romantic that envies the folk freeborn. I think that abandoned land should be claimed and made useful rather than sit to rot until humans die until it returns to its natural state. Were any great construct to fall in societies eyes, let "the unwashed" claim and rebuild there. This is just sophistry coming from some privileged sickly brat, but I just can't see the point of wasted land sitting on a planet where there's ever-so-much necessity for resource and ever-so-little room for demanding growth.


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## Max (Dec 21, 2014)

I love the Grim Fandango avatar dude!


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## anticivpunk (Jan 16, 2016)

I lived the first five years of my life on 35th in Gary, Indiana and barely survived to tell the tale. Seriously, I have family that still lives there who have been shot, stabbed, left for dead, ectetera. Some of them did die. I still have dreams of me and my cousins ducking in my grandpa's as it was shot up over two dozen times. I have uncles on crack in Gary who used to work the steel mills. I've smoked crack, but let's just say it's not that great of a place. It's the 3rd highest homicide rate city in the U.S. They say you meet 36 killers in your life, but if you live in Gary, you might as well multiply that by a fucking thousand. My cousin has a rap thing you can check out here, he's a member of my family that still lives in Murder City: https://soundcloud.com/yung-blackheartgang-shade

We call it Murder City, because the name fits. He calls it Chiraq, too, since Gary, Indiana is part of Metro East Chicago.


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