Daryl Cook and his family have been ingrained in Gary for over 50 years. His memories of a cleaner, more pristine city brought him to a round table on a Thursday night in Indiana University Northwest’s library.
“My grandfather used to have a Cadillac. His brothers had Cadillacs. They lined them up on the street. And I’ve got the pictures on the wall, and you look around at that time, Gary was very clean,” Cook said, remembering a time
Pastor Chester Jones of Macedonia Baptist Church shared similar memories.
“It’s my passion,” Jones said. “I do a radio show twice a month, and my theme is a clean, safe, beautiful city. We have to talk up our city and talk about how good it is. It’s time for us to hop on it and get it shaped up.”
Their reflections were among a few shared during the Glen Park “Love Your Block” session, where residents gathered to reminisce about Gary’s past and collaborate on ways to beautify its future.
Through the Love Your Block Grant, Gary residents partner with city officials to revitalize neighborhoods like Midtown, Black Oak, and Glen Park through community-led beautification projects. Set to roll out this spring and summer; these efforts aim to restore pride in the city’s landscape while fostering collaboration between residents and local government. Recent information sessions emphasized the importance of reimagining Gary’s rich history, encouraging community members to actively shape the city’s future.
Gary is one of 16 cities, including Baltimore, Dallas, and Louisville, Kentucky, to receive a Love Your Block grant, established and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The grant’s major focus is on resident-led neighborhood revitalization projects, which can include anything from transforming vacant lots into gardens to simply removing trash and debris.
“Typically, Lake County and Northwest Indiana [are] always fighting to get resources,” Gary Mayor Eddie Melton told residents in Black Oak.
“It’s typically a fight for us to keep what we have, to fight for more of what we deserve,” he continued. “In Gary, it’s even harder because of our small population and tax base — it makes it even more difficult for us to implement those resources. So when we have opportunities like this, we must take advantage.”
Over the past week, city and program officials hosted the first round of informative workshop sessions with residents in three selected neighborhoods. While each session was tailored to the community’s specific needs, all included interactive brainstorming exercises. Residents used sticky notes to outline their ideas, which were then categorized into key focus areas. Participants then gathered at their chosen tables to collaborate on potential projects, including community clean-ups, public art installations, park and green space enhancements, and graffiti removal.
Prior to each session, Kianna Grant, Gary’s director of constituent services, and volunteer coordinator Tiara Williams gave brief history lessons of the neighborhoods. Residents were encouraged to incorporate the history of their neighborhoods into their projects.
“We feel really honored to have received this grant. Our mission essentially is to improve the quality of life in Glen Park, Midtown, and Black Oak in year one, while empowering all stakeholders with resources and the opportunity to connect through various projects that honor our rich history, enhance the unique character of the neighborhoods, and strengthen community pride,” Grant said.
“We want people to literally love their block and love where they are from.”
Williams touted the city’s combination of energetic youth and the wisdom-filled elders as a formula for success.
“We have young people who are full of energy, creativity, and potential to shape the future of Glen Park,” Williams said.
“We have elders and community wisdom, a strong foundation of history, knowledge, and cultural pride passed down through the generations.”
One of those elders, Gary resident Rufus Pernell, 73, sat with the graffiti removal group at First AME Church during the Midtown session, where the conversation explored the value of art and its place in communities.
Pernell, who also attended the session in Black Oak, supported removing tagging from community spaces but agreed with others in the group that tasteful art is welcomed.
“As long as it’s tasteful, I can get with it,” Pernell told the group, which was led by McKenya Dilworth-Smith, the executive director of the Morning Bishop Theater Playhouse in Miller.
“It’s interesting for me to facilitate this group,” she said. “I’ve been in the arts for as long as I can remember. My mother started the Bishop Theater. Last year was our 40th year; we’re a little bit different in that we use the arts to provide platforms of expression healing. So what I’m doing here is basically facilitating the conversation.”
Under her facilitation, ideas sprouted from the group like freshly planted seeds as residents tossed around ideas ranging from murals that pay homage to Gary’s roots in steel to dedications to the Jackson family, which hailed from the Midtown neighborhood.
Stakeholders from each neighborhood will compete for multiple mini-grants ranging from $500 to $2,000, with the potential for increased funding depending on the project.
Ashley Eaves, Gary’s Love Your Block project manager, let residents know her main role is to support them and make sure their projects are seen through to completion.
“After completing the first three sessions, I really believe that the residents are excited and fired up,” Eaves told Capital B Gary.
“Now that we are under the leadership of Mayor Melton and we have a great team with Love Your Block, to be able to go to the neighborhood, sit down with these residents and help find solutions, that’s the most amazing thing about this program; actually meeting with them one on one, hearing them out,” she said.
In Black Oak, the session began with city officials addressing the stormwater issues unique to the neighborhood. Brenda Scott-Henry, the city’s Director for the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs, laid out an explanation and a plan to move forward.
“This is a very wet area of the city, being so close to the Little Calumet River and being built on wetland. Flooding has become natural,” Scott-Henry said. “We need a large-scale solution to the drainage property here, and we are fully aware.”
Black Oak residents were encouraged to utilize the city’s 311 system to continue to report their issues.
With the initial information sessions completed, second sessions are scheduled for Friday, March 7, in Midtown; Tuesday; March 11, in Black Oak, and Thursday, March 13, in Glen Park, where residents will finalize their submissions.
An announcement of the mini-grant winners is expected on Earth Day, April 22.