The Union Station pause damages Gary’s psyche

Reading that the Gary Union Station project is on hold was more than a fleeting headline. The news added to the litany of Gary projects announced with great fanfare only to become burnt toast before the promised opening day. The disappointment leaves physical scars on Gary’s landscape and damages the psyche of its citizenry, already skeptical of buying hope in Gary.

The damage is done beyond Gary’s borders. Robert Knight, Jr., a member of the Gary diaspora now living in San Francisco, writes on social media, “Anything the city announces, I add ‘we shall see.’”

Illinoisan Valencia Renee Dantzler, or Mother Diva, has invested in Community Street Brunch Giveaways at the Jackson home. The news rekindled her feelings of not getting support for her positive news making and tourist attraction agenda. The former mayor, she writes, “screwed me over on getting the permit for Michael Jackson’s birthday” celebrations.

From his home in Gary, Cullen Ben-Daniel adds, “Robert Knight, Jr., you are exactly right! . . . I’ve been in Gary for almost 50 years. I’ve seen so many plans for developments and revitalization schemes and projects that were supposed to ‘turn Gary around’.”

What made the Union Station project stand out from others was that it is driven by a locally based, culturally oriented group, a group with a litany of success.

Similar groups have played a significant role in the redevelopment of Washington, D.C., as published in “Non-Profit/Cultural Investors Make A Difference In D.C. and Gary,” as part of the 10-article series, “Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are: Renovating IN Gary, IN.” The series was featured in the Gary Crusader and Port of Harlem magazine.

While many cities face similar struggles as Gary, the City Built on Sand has remained a mystical oddity of sorts. Despite a new, but now shuttered convention center, baseball stadium, national park, casino, and upgrades to the four major highways that cross the city, gentrification has not made Gary a rest stop, nevertheless a home—until now, it seems—and the Decay Devils’ Union Station seems to be a part of that change with a private, culturally oriented group leading a project.

Similar to Decay Devils’ Tyrel Anderson of Gary, Studio Theater’s Joy Zinoman of the nation’s capital had a dream. The stylish Washingtonian magazine identified Studio Theatre’s 1987 move to 14th and P Streets, NW in the nation’s capital as one of the “50 Moments That Shaped Washington, D.C.”

When founder and former artistic director Zinoman moved the regional theater into an old automotive space in1987, the sidewalks were littered with hypodermic needles and condoms, sex workers prowled the sidewalks, mansions just around the corner wasted away, and there wasn’t even a 7-Eleven.

Today, Studio Theater has expanded, residents and visitors shop on the area’s streets for goods and services from furniture and nightclubs to restaurants and fitness centers. The average home price is $823,000, and upscale grocers Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s compete for customers.

Private investment begets private investment. Zinoman’s project is just an example of the private, culturally led dreams that have brought redevelopment to all eight wards of the city, from the wealthiest to the poorest.

The news of the Union Station hold immediately conjured up the destruction of another private investment, the culturally infused Nations Restaurant, in downtown Gary. Very oddly, the Gary Housing Authority wrestled for the project’s building, pinned the investment down, and won the space. The trophy: a lot that remains empty five years later.

While Gary was tearing down 18 recently built but never-occupied housing units at 700 Broadway, the city of Washington, D.C. was opening The Clara in the most underserved ward of the city. The 81-unit housing complex will also house America’s Islamic Heritage Museum. The project is the first large multi-family and retail development undertaken by two Muslim-controlled organizations, Masjid Muhammad and Medina LIFE CDC, in partnership with several city agencies, which contributed about 50 million dollars, and two banks.

Then, the news of the casino opening in Terre Haute, Indiana, added more to the damaged psyche. Though the casino is a spawn of a Gary outlet, its accompanying hotel will open in May 2024, while the state’s No. 1 casino, which is in Gary, is still waiting for the birth of its promised inn.

While Gary was losing Union Station, D.C. was sealing a deal with another private investor that will keep the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals in downtown D.C., which already practically has been rebuilt. To garner initial private investment, D.C. approved $515 million toward the project, and the total projected cost of the renovations exceeds $830 million.

Some say Mayor Anthony Williams, (1999 – 2007) D.C. coddled private investors. However, coddlers keep getting elected and re-elected probably because people feel the result of an impeccable array of city services. The city’s population now hits 689,545, a 14.6-percent increase since the 2010 Census. This increase represents the seventh-highest growth rate in the nation.

Washingtonians are not moving into town, renting, or buying property out of charity, they are buying hope that their lives and investments will be better.

Interestingly, Redfin describes the Gary and Washington, D.C. housing markets “as somewhat competitive.” The median sale price per square foot in Washington, DC is $522, up 4.4 percent since last year. The median sale price per square foot in Gary is $57, up a significant 10.7 percent since last year. Most of these home sales are made to private investors, and the question becomes how to continue to attract private investment.

We hope that the Union Station project is revived with a roar and that whatever project comes next, it becomes a roaring success, too. Such projects will not only be good for Gary physically but for the damaged psyche of a citizenry already skeptical of buying hope in Gary.