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Inside the auditorium of West Side High School, Mayor Eddie Melton addressed hundreds of Gary residents on Tuesday, outlining his administration’s accomplishments and the pressing issues facing Gary in his first State of the City address.
“You know what we’ve been through as a city,” Melton said. “I truly believe we can and will restore the heart and soul of this city.”
The mayor, in his vision for the city’s future, highlighted economic development and neighborhood revitalization as crucial areas of focus.
“Our city cannot be revitalized or be maximized without stable neighborhoods. … We cannot attract new residents,” he said, citing the work done in the Aetna neighborhood as a model for other areas.
Four months to the day since his Dec. 30 inaugural address, Melton once again took the stage at West Side High School before an energetic crowd. Residents filled the auditorium, eager to hear the new mayor’s plans.
Latrice Farmer, 40, was particularly interested in Melton’s plans for economic development and education. “Education and employment are two of the reasons people left Gary,” Farmer told Capital B Gary. “Mayor Melton has been a longtime advocate for Gary Schools, and I’m looking forward to his vision.”
When asked about his thoughts on the mayor’s speech, Gary resident Raymond Davis Sr. said it met his expectations.
“It was a good update on the progress,” he said. “Kind of understanding the direction the city is going in. The progress that’s been made and a vision for how we’re going to move forward.”
While his inaugural speech was an aspirational exercise in forecasting, Tuesday’s address was a self-directed analysis of his first 100 days in office. Just days before taking office, Melton unveiled a broad and ambitious 100-day plan, highlighted by public infrastructure and economic development. The plan, which sits atop the city of Gary’s homepage, was a main focus of Tuesday’s speech.
In the four months since taking office, Melton has taken advantage of the groundswell of support he received during his campaign, converting part of that energy into a massive cleanup effort supported heavily by residents.
Later in Tuesday’s speech, Melton turned his attention to public safety.
“We can’t arrest our way to a safer Gary,” he said. Melton reports the city has seen a decrease in homicides this year.
Most residents were encouraged by the mayor’s remarks, but after decades of promises from new administrations, some are adopting a wait-and-see approach.
“It was the same speech since 1968,” 72-year-old Gary resident Rufus Purnell said. “All the mayors, it’s the same speech. Seeing is believing.”
Skepticism like Purnell’s is emblematic of a city that has seen multiple administrations over decades fall short of fully improving Gary’s diverse assortment of issues, most notably the city’s economic situation.
Increasing Gary’s dwindling tax base remains a large challenge for the nascent administration. Gary, which once had nearly 200,000 residents, has seen its population decline to just under 70,000, according to the most recent census. This decline has left the city with a tax base that struggles to fully support its 52 square miles.
According to Melton, nearby Hammond, a city 20 square miles smaller than Gary, employs nearly five times the number of general services employees.
“There’s a lot of reason behind that,” Melton explained. “It’s our tax base, of course. It’s the low collection of revenue we bring in because of our taxes.”
The mayor’s speech was the culmination of an afternoon featuring a celebration of Gary’s youth from the city’s charter and public schools. Local officials, including the entire Gary Common Council and several county officials, attended the event.
This story has been updated.