Should Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago become one big city? (South Bend: insurance, houses)

[Suburban Guy]

So should the three towns come together as one? And if they did, what would the new name be? Population? Etc.?

[Broadrippleguy]

Yes cause then its easier to help out each other. Also easier to compete against Chicago and Illinois.

[Suburban Guy]

Originally Posted by Broadrippleguy

Yes cause then its easier to help out each other. Also easier to compete against Chicago and Illinois.

Compete for what? More companies?

[Broadrippleguy]

Originally Posted by Suburban Guy

Compete for what? More companies?

yep cause remember Illinois supported by Chicago pulled the *Stunt* (the Income Tax Hike) doing that in the middle of a tanked economy is not a smart move at all.

[amberlina26]

I vote no. If anything, Gary needs to be split up. Maybe if it were made into smaller cities and each city had new city officials, the area would stand a chance at getting better. As for what I think needs to be done to fix Gary, not gonna steal this thread for that. I just don't see why you would merge Gary with these other cities and possibly spread the disease that is Gary.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Originally Posted by Broadrippleguy

yep cause remember Illinois supported by Chicago pulled the *Stunt* (the Income Tax Hike) doing that in the middle of a tanked economy is not a smart move at all.

Confuses me as why the GOP wants to end the payroll tax break that many of us have needed during this economic slowdown.

Consider myself a strong independent and cant figure this one out at all
Understand we need long term solutions but they may as well support a break for all of us until the slow economy is showing true signs of positive growth - none of this false advertising they have been give us

As far as the poll question I can see benefits and negatives to making the three cities one municipality maybe it would help pull Gary out of the doldrums.
It would also benefit cutting the waste and clutter of overlapping municipalities and departments as this is a huge money waster and so much potential to trim budgets not only in gary hammonnd but every city, state and county in the united states. still amazes me that our country is 200 plus years old and we are still using a method that was designed for rural communities exaple would be township government what a waste- merging counties would also be a benefit to cut waste
why not merge porter and laporte co or lake and porter in illinois - will and dupage or will and kankake , will and cook . dupage and lake.


Hammond I believe has some serious potential to become a great city once again
Downtown Hammond has the Hospital along with a federal bldg

You have the southshore line close to downtown and a decent neighborhood on calumet ave heading south towards munster

If and when Chicago gets the gambling passed I think the horseshoe can be hurt as this is Indianas closest casino to the city which in turn will hurt the revenues coming in

The NWI times had an article yesterday about the infrastructure and how the budget is not going to meet the necessary monies needed for the imporovements

for any area to strongly compete infrastructure is a must
one cant argue the location of hammond, east chicago or whiting for a great industrial cooridor espicially considering most of the land is already zoned accordingly. the only area they really should not develop for industry is the shoreline of lake michigan as that natural resource is too valuble

[msamhunter]

God no the 3 should not merge, esp. Gary and Hammond. Hammond never was a great city IMO. The reason anyone has ever talked about merging Gary (and there have quite a few rumblings over the years) is because the GOP wants access to what Gary has, mainly the airport and the only real stretch of lakefront in Lake County. Both Hammond and EC marina's are mired right in the middle of heavy industry so it takes away its attractiveness and it's just a small sliver at that. Even Walhala beach in Whiting has BP sitting right on top of it. While USS takes up a huge chunk of Gary's lakefront, there's still miles of actual open Beach and lakefront that's very attractive. Marquette park is easily one of the top 3 parks in all of NWI. Of course Indiana Dunes takes the top spot but even a huge chunk of that is actually in Gary including the Environmental center. It also gives them access to Miller.

Every time south county has talked about making a play into north county, it's always involves wiping out Gary. Who can forget the whole new international airport idea of the 90's which would have wiped out the entire west side all the way into midtown Gary or merging Munster, Griffith and Highland into Gary to try to get Republican voters. Or how they convinced the state to circumvent it's own laws so Merrillville could annex all the way up to 53rd Ave completely doing away with the 5 mile buffer required by Indiana law (but ONLY for that instance) to completely land lock Gary. Instead of both halves of the county actually working together, one half (usually south) comes up with some crazy idea that would wipe out the north. You won't get too much cooperation using those methods. So no, they do not need to merge. When people think about the potential in Lake County, it's never south lake county as it really doesn't offer any appealing natural attributes. It's always Gary.

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by msamhunter

When people think about the potential in Lake County, it's never south lake county as it really doesn't offer any appealing natural attributes. It's always Gary.

Can't say I agree with this, although I think I know what you mean. That said, no community is going to willingly merge with Gary, and no community would accept any portion of Gary were it to be split up.

[svillechris]

Respectfully, this whole discussion about merging towns is a waste of time. When is the last time two or three large towns/cities merged to become one larger viable city? Especially in this scenerio, it's not feasible. A decision like this would have to be made by the town leaders and politicians, and a merger would cut a lot of those positions. Do you think they'd be in favor of a move that may risk their pocketstuffing jobs? Doubt it.

Now, to merge the services, public departments, school systems, and things like that to cut costs for each town may be worth discussing, although that too doesn't appear imminent. Or, the discussion of changing what towns are in each township and how/why changes may be done with respect to that may be worth having. Sorry, but this posted question doesn't seem very well thought out. Just because most of central and south lake county doesn't care much for the blight in northern lake county (assuming you're not from EC, Hammond, or Gary) doesn't necessarily mean combining those towns is feasible.

[msamhunter]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

Confuses me as why the GOP wants to end the payroll tax break that many of us have needed during this economic slowdown.

Consider myself a strong independent and cant figure this one out at all
Understand we need long term solutions but they may as well support a break for all of us until the slow economy is showing true signs of positive growth - none of this false advertising they have been give us

As far as the poll question I can see benefits and negatives to making the three cities one municipality maybe it would help pull Gary out of the doldrums.
It would also benefit cutting the waste and clutter of overlapping municipalities and departments as this is a huge money waster and so much potential to trim budgets not only in gary hammonnd but every city, state and county in the united states. still amazes me that our country is 200 plus years old and we are still using a method that was designed for rural communities exaple would be township government what a waste- merging counties would also be a benefit to cut waste
why not merge porter and laporte co or lake and porter in illinois - will and dupage or will and kankake , will and cook . dupage and lake.


Hammond I believe has some serious potential to become a great city once again
Downtown Hammond has the Hospital along with a federal bldg

You have the southshore line close to downtown and a decent neighborhood on calumet ave heading south towards munster

If and when Chicago gets the gambling passed I think the horseshoe can be hurt as this is Indianas closest casino to the city which in turn will hurt the revenues coming in

The NWI times had an article yesterday about the infrastructure and how the budget is not going to meet the necessary monies needed for the imporovements

for any area to strongly compete infrastructure is a must
one cant argue the location of hammond, east chicago or whiting for a great industrial cooridor espicially considering most of the land is already zoned accordingly. the only area they really should not develop for industry is the shoreline of lake michigan as that natural resource is too valuble

Uh, pretty much all of the shoreline is heavy industry already, from Whiting all the way to US Steels eastern boundary with a few minute pockets in between (Walhala Beach in Whiting, Hammond Marina, EC Marina and Buffington Harbor in Gary). Outside of that you don't get to actual true shoreline until about a half mile east of Lake Street Beach in Gary, through Marquette Park, Wells St. Beach, West Beach, then on into Indiana Dunes and picks up industry again at Bethlehem Steel. So that is a very moot point unless someone wants to spend billions on top of billions tearing down and rebuilding but I doubt BP and USS are willing to just close shop. What was LTV or is it Inland is now the Tin mill if I'm not mistaken. Gary Sanitation District also has a plant on the lake. The problem is the area was never designed for recreation, housing or to take advantage of its natural location, they were built to house steel mill employees so it was flawed from the start.

To combine a couple of other posts. Yes Hammond has St. Margaret, EC has St. Catherine and Gary has Methodist Northlake. Northlake is actually in the process of becoming a Level II trauma center and the powers that be submitted that back in '09. That would make it the only trauma center in NWI out of a dozen or so hospitals in the area. Other than that, they would have to be airlifted to Chicago (Loyola, Level I and closest) or South Bend (Memorial is Level II). It makes sense as it's the most known hospital in the area, probably the busiest and one of the most up to date technology wise as both Methodist campuses tend to be a step ahead of the other hospitals in that regard.

Amberlina posted this, "I just don't see why you would merge Gary with these other cities and possibly spread the disease that is Gary."

That is another problem, to make reference to the city i.e. the people being a disease, all while coming from Lake Station (AKA known as East Gary). In the end hate can and will only breed hate esp. when it comes from those living in glass houses as there isn't anything desirable with Lake Station. Also a city that has always had those types of overtones towards certain groups.

There is a lot of history that a lot of people just try to glance over or not even acknowledge and Gary's downfall wasn't done by them alone. The democratic machine was one of the biggest players in that. The same business owners that pointed the finger all while burning their businesses in downtown for the insurance money as they sleeked out the back door is another. Lastly, when your major employer goes from 35000 employees to 4700 in a matter of years generally means you are about to hit an "all hell breaks loose" scenario.