Economy
How Gary, Indiana, Got Serious About Tackling Blight
The mayor of Gary is determined to stop a tide of vacant, neglected buildings in her post-industrial city. Data-rich parcel mapping is the first step.
For more than three decades, the vacant Sheraton Hotel loomed over City Hall in Gary, Indiana, a billboard for the city's descent from Steel City glory into postindustrial blight.
Once the city's tallest building, it was hailed as "the gateway to the city's future" by former Mayor Richard Hatcher upon its opening in 1971. It went dark just 14 years later. Entering or passing by Gary on the highway, visitors could see straight through the gutted building, its skeleton a rebuke to the neoclassical dome of City Hall right next door.