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Mike, I can't say I disagree with some of your points. You know, I never really looked at what happened in Gary as racial as a lot of people do. I was born in Gary in 1953, attended Edison and moved in 1966, after 7th grade. We moved strictly because my parents got tired of their son getting the crap kicked out of him for lunch money and their daughter from being pressured into girl gangs. For racial bias or hatred to be the cause for us to leave, that would mean that my parents would have acted differently if those who beat the hell out of me and pressured my sister were white. Would my parents have stayed and said, "It's ok that you're getting robbed, they're white kids?" So much hatred. I was raised in the church, and I was never scared by or hated someone because of their color. I didn't even want to move, I wanted to stay in Brunswick with my grandmother. I hated leaving the only home I knew.

@zyzomis moi non plus je n'habite pas loin. Connais qqes spots sympas! A bon entendeur!

I was born in Gary in 1956 and graduated from West Side High school in 75, from IU Bloomiington in 79 and left Gary after briefly working in Crown Point in the IT department of the county government complex in 84. To really understand Gary you have to explore its history from both the white and black perspectives. The relative rapid rise and fall of Gary would be a fascinating tale if approached respectfully without succumbing to racial bias and sterotyping. The industrial ecomomic engine drew the diverse population there but the factors that caused the city to thrive then decline so precipitously would be a fascinating study. The dawn of globalization and the computer & technology age in the late sixties and early seventies combined with decades old institutions of racism and racial politics at the city, county and state level spelled disaster for the city. Could this dismal fate have been avoided or at least greatly mitigated?

This is crazy. There are some really racist people on this site. I greatly appreciate it.

George, I was six in 68 and went to Ivanhoe. I think my sister Rosemary was the last graduating class at Edison. I know the name Baldazo, was it one of them who was murdered along with Mike Cortez on Grant street by the two Gary policemen or were Baldazo one of the cops?

Correct George, West Side did open in 1968, in the fall...... for the 1968-1969 school year. Making the 1st graduating class 1969.

Hi- would anyone like to come in to radio station & talk about the history of Hellingly mental hospital/asylum? Please email if interested

I won't contest the origination of the word "tacos" cause I was just a kid and I concede the fact that taco has been around a while. Heck, I still tell my kids I invented the cheeseburger! But you brought up an interesting name "baldazzo" service station. I still know the Baldazo family (with one Z).
Rick, I did not know that Edison's last graduating class was 1968 (Wayne H), so maybe my oldest brother didn't graduate from Edison. Not sure and I will leave it at that. There was much confusion during the opening of the new West Side HS for me. Wikipedia sez they opened 1968. I was 8yrs old at the time. Martin Luther King was very much active during that time. And Richard Gordon Hatcher was elected for Mayor. I hated those years of my life from 1969 to 1972. To me, that is when Gary started to fall......

certaine partie du bâtiment s 'éfondre et plus grand chose à visité

We moved to Gary from Pittsburgh. Attended Horace Mann for 4th Grade, then moved to Glen Park. Glen Park Elementary was at 38th & Broadway. From 7th grade on attended Lew Wallace. Gary was good for bike riding. I biked from Glen Park to Horace Mann for a typing class in the summer before my Freshman year, 1956. I biked down to the dentist in the 700 block on Broadway. My dad had a restaurant supply store at 11th & Broadway. There was a great Jewish deli on Washington Street in the 600 or 700 block. The Tivoli Tap had great pizza & italian beef sandwiches. I enlisted in the Navy (submarines) in 1963. When I was discharged in 1971 I came back to GAry to finish college at IU Northwest, then moved to Florida. I remember taking the bus with my mom, brother and sister to MIller Beach, transferring at 5th & Broadway. There was a fountain in, or very near, Gary National Bank that a friend and I went for a sundae a couple of times, and left without paying. There was a drug store at 5th and Johnson, I think. I knew the owner's son. There was also a bakery on 8th Ave between Broadway and Massachusetts St, and a 5 and dime store across the street .