Is Merrillville in decline? (Gary, Portage: rentals, public schools, tax)

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by svillechris

Drive around Merrillville for a while this weekend north of Route 30 and away from the mall area...then tell me it's not struggling.





For years Merrillville has accepted kids into their school district who actually live in Gary but are using a friend or relative's address. They're notorious for this, ESPECIALLY when it comes to athletics. So I would think this has something to do with Merrillville's high free/reduced lunch number.

EVERY city has poverty! Every city has poor people! What you drive around and see is not statistical. If you base everything you know off of what you see then go take a drive around New York City's Bronx and try to call the whole city struggling. Please.

[Chuckity]

Originally Posted by midwest1

Another personal attack....feeling a bit inadequate there Chuck?

Can't offer any facts?

And for what it's worth I am not FROM the North Shore, just raised there. My Mother is from Kentucky, and my Father is from Pennsylvania.

And regarding the North Shore itself, it is in no way racist. It has way way more East Asians, Indians, Middle Easterners than the Region. And the lack of a substantial black population is all about geography. Black Chicago is a largely south side (and later west) story. Blacks never lived on the north side in large numbers historically, and that largely explains the absence of blacks in the northern suburbs.

Koreans started out on the north side and moved to the northern suburbs...that doesn't mean NWI is filled with loathing of Koreans.

Do me a favor. Go drive around the region right now. Merrillville specifically. Take some pictures. Talk to some people. Get some boots on the ground.

Oh that's right. You can't.

You don't even live here.

Buh bye.

[midwest1]

Ever hear about Streetview? No need to waste gas in this day and age.....

[subject2change]

There you go. Keep dropping the little yellow guy at random points in Merrillville (google maps will outline the town if you enter that in the search). Stay north of route 30, since that's the area in question. Go east to west, north to south. See how many decent looking neighborhoods you land in, vs. streets of dumpy little houses that quite honestly could have been the old part of Dyer. I'm not seeing anything so bad. It's probably there, but anything that looks as derelict as what some people are saying has to be a small percentage of the town.
Now, what constitutes a town declining can't always be seen on street view, but it shows some exaggeration by some posters imo.
Groups of people, and young white people do it too, walking in the street, are annoying. They don't mean a town's in decline. Thinking back to when I was young, I did it too on occasion. Just one example of doomsday bs.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by Chuckity

Do me a favor. Go drive around the region right now. Merrillville specifically. Take some pictures. Talk to some people. Get some boots on the ground.

Oh that's right. You can't.

You don't even live here.

Buh bye.

I wasn't aware that one has to live in a city to have an opinion about it.

[Chuckity]

Originally Posted by Northwest Indiana

...however, one issue I do see is the fact that over 50% of students in the district are on free/reduced lunch for an area where the median household income is over $50k...something is going on.

This.

I don't get it.

13.5% of Merrillville families are on SNAP.

10% are in poverty.

But 59% of Merrillville students receive free/reduced lunch.

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by Chuckity

This.

I don't get it.

13.5% of Merrillville families are on SNAP.

10% are in poverty.

But 59% of Merrillville students receive free/reduced lunch.

You don't have to be in poverty to receive reduced lunches. You should look into the criteria into qualifying for reduced or free lunches, it's actually not as low as you might assume.

[Chuckity]

Originally Posted by ColdAilment

You don't have to be in poverty to receive reduced lunches. You should look into the criteria into qualifying for reduced or free lunches, it's actually not as low as you might assume.

Okay then.

48.5% of Merrillville students receive free lunches.

The numbers still do not make sense.

[svillechris]

On the topic of Merrillville schools...

Lew Wallace High School in Gary will be closed as part of the Gary School Corp's consolidation plan that was recently revealed. Lew Wallace is in Gary's Glen Park neighborhood, on the south side of the town, bordering Merrillville, and just a short drive down Broadway to Merrillville High School. Anyone who's familiar with the connection between Gary and Merrillville communities knows that at least some of the students who will be forced out of Lew Wallace will end up at Merrillville. Some will certainly go to West Side, others to charter schools, others to Merrillville. Food for thought.

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by ColdAilment

You don't have to be in poverty to receive reduced lunches. You should look into the criteria into qualifying for reduced or free lunches, it's actually not as low as you might assume.

You are correct. There are a lot of children in Merrillville schools involved in the foster care system. These children, no matter their family income or placement income situation will qualify for lunch assistance, textbook assistance, etc. however, this also reinforces my point that Merrillville also has to deal with many social issues that they were not prepared for.

Also, in regards to property upkeep, this is evident other places as well. It is not just a racial thing. Look at Lowell for example. The neighborhood bordered by E Commercial Ave to the north, Belshaw Rd to the south, Clark St to the east and Joe Martin Rd to the west looks very run down in parts, especially the area where there are duplexes. However, that neighborhood is about 90+% White. I would never live there and I know many others who are White and would never live there as well. It's not always about color.