A New Life for American Steel and Gary, Indiana

Several years ago, I researched the drug and alcohol addiction in every U.S. state and wrote articles about each one. When I got to Indiana, I was shocked by the situation I found in Gary, Indiana at the northern end of the state. As I often do when I write about a city or state, I went to Google Maps to take a look at Gary. It sits right on Lake Michigan and is adjacent to Chicago. I got curious about what that big, empty-ish, industrial area was right on the lake so I did some further study. This is one of the sites of U.S. Steel.

CNN offers a useful quote on this industry: “When World War II ended, no industry was stronger or more important than American steel.” The industry peaked in 1969 and then by 2015, this plant employed only 5,000 people after a high of 30,000 employees in the 1970s.

The Chicago Tribune reported, “In a city where half the jobs were blue collar and where two-thirds of those were in the steel industry, layoffs and plant closings in the 1970s and 1980s were a severe blow.”

From the website www.theconversation.com, “In total, nearly 300,000 steelworkers lost their jobs between 1976 and 1986. In places like Youngstown, and Gary, Indiana, whole communities were left devastated by plant closures.”

As tens of thousands of people became unemployed, the moral climate of the area plummeted. Drug dealing was seen by some as a lucrative substitute for the jobs that had disappeared so trafficking channels were built. As I wrote for Narconon, “Many people moved away from the area to find jobs elsewhere. Parts of Gary, Indiana became abandoned and remained abandoned for decades…As the businesses and employees moved away, crime driven by drug trafficking and distribution moved in. Mexican drug trafficking organizations established channels from Mexico, across the border and into the Chicago area. Semis loaded with marijuana and cocaine come up the Interstates from the Southwestern U.S. and unload into warehouses or other locations.

“Indiana gang members associated to greater or lesser degrees with Chicago gangs take over the retail distribution of these drugs and smaller amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, and Ecstasy. The strength of these associations was recently increased when many public housing projects in Chicago were razed. Many of the gang members formerly operating out of these projects relocated to Gary.”

In 1993, Gary had the highest murder rate in the country, probably driven by turf wars between drug-dealing gangs. According to some lists, it’s now #5.

So when I see this headline, U.S. Steel Invests $750 Million in Iconic IN Plant as a Result of Trump Tariffs, this is the background I think about. A U.S. city that was decimated by the decline of the steel industry.

I could provide more commentary on this issue but I’ll just leave this here and let you draw your own conclusions.

If you’d like to read the whole article I wrote back in 2010, here’s the link: Indiana 2010.