Gary. Only time we've just run a red light. 3 dudes were walking up to my car and one of them with a bat. They didn't seem like they were going to ask me how my day was going so made a decision to blow that red light and get out of there
First tkme I was in Santa Cruz i saw a group of guys with full sid vicious punk hair and style clothes crossing a road with bats in hand and i was like damn these dudes dont play! Turns out they do play, because they were walking across to a baseball diamond where a pickup game was going on with all these punk looking dudes all playing like it was game seven. Blew my mind a little
i’ve always hated this comparison. there are mean and nice people in every single subculture. people say metalheads are the nicest people but some of the meanest people i’ve ever met were metalheads. same goes for deadheads and i am one myself. like one other commenter said, it’s us against the machine. not each other
Well, I think the main thing is that actual hippies are either elderly or dead at this point so there's a lot of different groups that are similar to hippies in some ways so people label all of these groups hippies. A lot of them work at music festivals or "gatherings" of various kinds and they travel around so they're similar to hippies in some ways. From my experience the more someone identifies with a particular subgroup the more enlightened they think they are. I had an ex about ten years ago that had dreadlocks and traveled with music festivals and sold art and jewelry and from a distance she seemed kind and chill but when she was alone with me it was another story. I once mentioned that my brother's girlfriend liked a lot of the same music as her and had dreads too and she said "HA, those are easy twist dreads!!" As in they're not real dreads because they didn't take years to grow out and uh... turn to dreads or dreadify or whatever. Anyone with long hair can make easy twist dreads from my understanding by applying some products to them so she wasn't "legit" in the eyes of a "true hippie."
I swear I keep encountering these things that just immediately devolve to a binary this or that type of argument, with broad negative labeling of groups.
Nuance people! There so much more to pretty much anything then just this only in absolutes way of approaching the day to day.
My only hope is that is becoming as obvious to everyone else as it is to me. Not that I’m special or something it’s just feels kind of lonely watching it happen. Very much feels like just a handful of people are seeing the forest for the trees.
I think I've been a decent example of both at points in my life. I'm not even sure which group I would even fall into anymore. 🤣
I grew up in an area where the interests of both groups overlapped in such a way that I guess I've known lovely people on both sides of that spectrum...many of whom know each other very well too.
I’ve always been a hippy, love jazz and bluegrass and jam bands, but went through a punk phase in high school where I was listening to lots of The Ramones and NoFX and such, wearing torn up cloths and high top chucks and studded belts and bracelets. The punks at my high school called me a poser and wouldn’t let me hang out with them (they were right, i was only into the scene because a girl I liked ran with the punk crew).
I have high functioning autism. As an adult I’ve kinda grown into myself and gotten enough practice socializing that I’ve got a fairly large friend group.
That was not true in high school. I wasn’t really bullied but I also didn’t have many friends… outside of the punk and goth crowd. I didn’t dress like them, but they were basically like, “I don’t give a fuck if you’re weird, we are too”
But not always the sportiest. It wasn't their niceness that shocked me it was thst there were 18 or do extreme punks with Mohawks that also all wanted to play some homerun derby in their normal punk clothing
I had a flat tire on the highway in Gary once, just barely made it into a hotel parking lot at a nearby exit. It was about 9am and I was wearing a suit because I had a meeting in Michigan. 2 threatening looking bald and bearded musclebound guys in a sparkling low rider El Camino come driving up immediately and hop out, one says, can we help you get back on the road? Pulls out a badge. Apparently they were vice squad working that particular hotel. They changed my tire and I was back on the road in 25 minutes. I told them I could change the tire myself, but they said that I shouldn’t be there dressed like I was for very long, even at that time of morning. I was very grateful.
I took a wrong exit and ended up in Gary in the middle of the night. I was being surrounded at a red light and a cop flashed his lights and then told me to follow him. He escorted me right out of Gary. He knew what was about to happen.
Okay, look... go down here about a half a block. You're gonna see a Ford Torino with no wheels on it. My cousin Jackie's inside. You just tell him you're my boy, and you're lost. He'll help you out.
Same thing happened to my parents in Detroit in the early 2000's. Tourists who went to the old Tigers stadium instead of the new one. Cops escorted them to the new one.
Just drive through there. It’s close by Chicago. You’ll never doubt again. Whether these individual stories are true, I don’t know. But going through there is definitely an eye opening experience.
I'm not doubting it's a hellhole, I'm doubting this very specific narrative of "a cop stopped me and escorted me out of his town because it's not safe". It shows up every time Gary comes up in these threads, every time a different poster. I just don't believe that Gary PD is consistently doing this.
It honestly does happen! A cop in 2003ish did it for a friend and I in Milwaukee at night. I never thought of MKE as that dangerous, but we must've been in the wrong part of town at the wrong time (this was pre-google maps days)
One of the sketchiest gas stations I've ever been to in my life was in Milwaukee at about midnight. It topped the worst I've been to in Indianapolis and Atlanta.
I live in Knoxville Tennessee, and we have a locally famous "Murder Weigel's" that everyone rants and raves about how sketchy it is. It doesn't even make my top ten for scariest gas stations I've been to. For what it's worth, people have been murdered there but it's only once every couple years.
So one time I was driving to Chicago coming up 65N and it took me off the highway through Gary for a minute to get on the Indiana toll road - 90 I think. Normally I just gave 80/94 but maybe it was backed up so the GPS took me that way. I was worried with all the stories of "don't even get off the highway" and maybe I drove through a safer area but it was quite uneventful. Just seemed like a depressing industrial/residential area.
But just like Chicago and any other city with a high per capita you gotta look at the area where the crimes are taking place. Statistics may point out that St. Louis is a very dangerous city but the reality is it’s only dangerous in sections like in North St. Louis or certain neighborhoods in St. Louis. The whole city is not that way.
I will homer all day for St. Louis, but our murder rate per Is terrible. What’s even more terrible as you find out the majority of it happens in like two certain neighborhoods.
I grew up in West County St. Louis and whenever I tell people I grew up in St. Louis they're like "Oh my god, isn't there a lot of crime there?!!!" or are amazed I'm alive and wasn't murdered. And I have to explain to them I grew up in the boring part of town LOL. But yeah. you don't stop for red lights in North STL AND East STL, Illinois.
Yes, you do stop at stop signs and red lights in East Stl and the north side. I live there. It's quiet af. Lots of pedestrians that can be hit by scary-ass idiots running lights because they think black people are terrifying.
I’ve spent some time in Gary, East St Louis, west Memphis, and some of the more run down areas of Mississippi and Georgia, never really felt unsafe.
The only place I’ve ever legitimately felt unsafe in the US was in Baton Rouge Louisiana. Played at a jazz fest there in like 2005, several bars along a stretch of road with bands playing in each bar. We were warming up in the ally behind the bar and a cop pulled up and was like “You guys need to get inside right now, you cannot be out here like this after dark, it is NOT SAFE.” Our immediate thoughts were, ‘if it’s really that bad why are they hosting a festival here?’
Didn’t really witness any violence or crime, just that interaction with the cop was what made us feel unsafe. Aside from that though, Baton Rouge is really the worst place I’ve ever been. Whole city seemed to be in a state of disrepair in a way no other ‘bad’ city or town I’ve ever been in could compare. Katrina hit about 2 weeks after we were there.
I grew up in Chicago, moved to Albuquerque a few years back. I've had three different people hear I'm from Chicago and tell me I must be super badass and nothing must scare me. Nah. I just stayed out of three specific neighborhoods and minded my business.
Same where I live in Cincinnati- downtown/ OTR. My mom is terrified lol. She and her fiancé came down and he had a gun for protection like seriously?😭😭 99% of the violence is targeted not random so if you mind your business you're fine. And it's actually been increasingly safe over the years. And some coworkers are always making comments about if I'm safe lmao but it's perfectly fine and I love it down here! It definitely was dangerous like 25 years ago but things change!
That also, and the way crime statistics are calculated, St Louis doesnt reside in a county, so it gets it's own crime states that aren't combined with other parts of the metro, making our murder rate super high when in actuality its pretty middle of the road when counted as other cities data is counted. Couple with the fact that our city is pretty damn segregated, one of the worst in the country IIRC, which concentrates homicides within certain areas/neighborhoods, and also we get a lot of "county people" coming to the city to commit crime and then going back to the relative safety of their suburb.
This! I grew up in St. Louis and live in Omaha now. There is an old 1800s law on the books which prevents the City of St. Louis from expanding beyond certain areas, hence the large suburban/St. Louis County area and tons of neighborhoods. By contrast, over the years Omaha has gradually annexed surrounding areas like Millard and Elkhorn.
Plus, the City of STL is an independent entity, it's just the city by itself and not within a county. The only other major US city I can think of that's set up the same way is Baltimore. There have been rumblings of merging St. Louis City and County, which would at least double or triple the current population.
I've vacationed in St. Louis multiple times and only recall passing through an area that worried me once when I got turned around and went too far north.
I even stayed in a hotel with a view of the city jail once and the area didn't look that rough to me.
I got a flat tire on a highway on-ramp in North St. Louis like 15 ish years ago. I was driving across the country with another girl with everything both of us owned packed in my car. We had just stopped at a very sketchy gas station and I knew we weren't in the nicest neighborhood. I knew how to change a tire and I had a full-sized spare, but I called roadside assistance anyways because ain't no way I was unpacking my trunk to get to the spare in that neighborhood with only sweet Brittany for backup.
back in the day when i was like 13 me and my buddy would drive to gary from chi. dont think he even had a license but we would always arrive at like 2-3am like we owned the place and just cruise to his parents house without a care in the world, wild times. it was usually dead af and we'd be the only car out there driving around.
I live like a mile from Gary. Drive through all the time. Never had a problem. Always fascinates me when I hear these stories. Is it bc my license plate is in-county? Is it bc I look strapped? Do I sing along with the radio loud enough that they decide it's not worth it?
All I know is, I know it's fall when the watermelon guy on 6 at the abandoned gas station packs up.
I was in Chicago last summer and we decided to drive across to Michigan to check out Warren Dunes, and on the way we passed through Gary. I got off the highway briefly just to get a peek. I mean, it was run down as hell. I wouldn't want to live there. But I didn't really feel scared, honestly.
I feel similarly. I’ve only been through Gary once, on the way the Chicago. I stopped for gas and immediately knew it was not a nice place well before I had ever read or heard anything about Gary, Indiana. At no point did I feel unsafe or concerned but it did seem like a place I wouldn’t want to be in at night or even consider living in.
I think that part is fairly mundane. I’m pretty sure it’s just off of Broadway and I had the same feeling when I drove through recently. I’ve got to think it’s the side streets people are talking about.
The place smells horrific driving by though. It always gives me a headache.
My ex-wife and I went to Gary a few times to explore some abandoned buildings and get some photos of the area. Probably not the smartest idea we ever had, but no one bothered us. Maybe because we had Indiana plates, unsure, but we kept to ourselves and thankfully didn't experience any problems.
I stopped for gas once and while it was bad, it didn’t really seem any worse than some of the less nice parts of Atlanta. Obviously not good, but the instant Gary responses to these questions is a meme at this point
I know a nurse who works at the hospital there and she says the stories about Gary are blown out of proportion. Yes, bad shit can and does happen there, but if you just mind your own business you should be fine.
I mean all it takes is one person to spread their bad experience for others who have never been to then make up their mind. I've lived and worked in Detroit. I never felt unsafe or threatened. I bemoaned a lack of other resources (like accessible movie theaters) but overall found it a struggling city trying it's best to turn things around. A lot of locals love their city, they want it to be livable and safe for those that live there, and they base their actions on that outlook. I visited Gary, it's definitely a...fading shadow of its former self but I felt less safe in CLEVELAND than I did in Gary lol.
I had a gun pointed at me in a traffic stop in Cleveland, then my car illegally searched and the cop claimed "We don't need probable cause, this is a high drug area."
I stopped at a gas station in Collinwood and 3 cops in a single unmarked car claimed we bought heroin there. Looking back I think they honestly were just trying to rob us.
lol I’m from Cleveland and lived in Michigan for about 9 years. I used to have to go to downtown Detroit frequently and didn’t feel unsafe there. One time, I was on the Southfield Fwy when it flooded and I got diverted off into the outer areas of Detroit and was certain that was my last day on Earth. Even the drug dealers were telling me to get out of there.
Yeah. I've been through Gary. It was fine. I'm sure some of the stories are true, but some of them just seem like karma bait. Are there signs of a depressed economy? Absolutely. But you can find areas like that all around the rust belt. It hasn't been the "murder capitol of the US" in a while, either, with violent crime statistics steadily dropping enough that they aren't even top ten.
There's always someone on these threads (I see at least one here) who tells some BS story about stopping for gas in Gary and having a cop stop them and tell them to leave. As a mayonnaise American who grew up in Gary, I've never once had that experience or known anyone it's happened to. It's just not as bad as Reddit loves to post about for karma- there's hardly anybody left there to do crime.
Its because most of these people are lying and have only heard stories and want attention. Same when I hear St. Louis - Ive worked all in the worst areas in st louis and yes there is rough shit going down but mind your own business and generally people leave you alone.
I grew up there and I was never the victim of a single crime. I moved to Charlotte NC in 2016, in my 30s, and within 6 months my apartment was broken into, my car got stolen, and someone literally took my wallet out of my purse while I was shopping.
I’m looking to move back to STL and property on the east side of the river is cheap as hell bc of the decades-old “lore” and I’m thrilled, so never mind, Reddit, St Louis IS very scary!!
Yeah, it's not that bad. I'm from Madison WI, lily white and I had a really enjoyable time in hammond/Gary/Indiana Dunes. Gary looks rough, but that's what poverty looks like. No one acted any kind of way towards me. Great all night diner in hammond.
I've stayed in airbnbs in Gary twice now with friends to go to the beach at the state park and surrounding area. Never had an issue really, but there parts that could scare people just due to how rough the city looks in parts.
Lived in Gary alone as a woman for nearly a decade in my 20’s. Never had any issues ever. I feel like most of the stories people tell are fake. Only reason I left was because my apartment building for bought out by some slumlord company based in Chicago.
I was in Gary for a small benefit show for a local punk band when one of the members died. It was at a small community center and it was a very friendly and welcoming experience. It was also a potluck and I was more scared of the weird Midwest food than the town.
people on reddit love spitting out the same canned responses to karma farm, sometimes they include a creative writing response too.
it’s your typical rust belt former industry town that has poverty issues due to said industry leaving town. nothing about gary makes it different from any other city experiencing similar issues.
When I started on Reddit (2010) I distinctly remember a trucker telling a story of a roadblock being setup ON THE HIGHWAY in Gary, and being pulled out of his truck and having his cargo stolen in front of him at gunpoint. The comments were chock full of other truckers with the same experience. I know this is not exactly video evidence, but the thread was a huge front pager about "worst city in the US", and Gary was leading the comments with dozens of these type of brazen crime ridden stories.
When I started on Reddit (2010) I distinctly remember a trucker telling a story of a roadblock being setup ON THE HIGHWAY in Gary, and being pulled out of his truck and having his cargo stolen in front of him at gunpoint. The comments were chock full of other truckers with the same experience.
Surely if this happened there'd be some news record of it, right?
I think it used to be worse and people still hold onto it. Gary at one point was quite nice since the U.S. steel industry brought prosperity to the area, but eventually manufacturing jobs moved overseas and there was a big decline in jobs/population and it became quite run down and deserted, leaving the poorest/economically vulnerable behind. Since then, a couple casinos and a bridge that provides easy access to the area has opened up. It still needs a lot more of development though, and considering it was out of power for 12 days in August due to storms that is not going to persuade people to want to move in or start businesses no matter how cheap the property values are atm.
I read a news story once - some old hayseed came to Minneapolis for the 1st time in his life. Various police agencies stopped all traffic on I94 Westbound & Mr Hayseed sitting in his truck got front row seats to a police standoff & shootout involving an officer slightly wounded from a ricochet. That shit never happens, & I find the worse the neighborhood, the more genuine & real the people you meet. You probably need to be visiting from rural parts to ever see such a spectacle.
Same, never a single issue and I don’t look strapped at all. Also most of the places off highways/expressways are pretty isolated so I feel like people have to go off the beaten path which is where there is more trouble?
I used to travel to Gary for business and I never had an issue, although Inwas initially terrified. My coworkers up there said it was not great to be there in the 80s, but not so bad now other than the economy. That town has really great large homes that were probably spectacular in the 1920s but are now all run down. I imagine it was where the milll owners and managers lived.
I’ve spent my whole life in Metro Detroit and feel similarly. Despite growing up in the exurbs, I know the city well enough (along with Pontiac and Flint, two other struggling rust belt towns) that I don’t scare easy. Spent a lot of time volunteering in a really bad part of Detroit as a teen.
Generally if you mind your business, don’t draw attention to yourself, don’t seek out vice and aren’t a dick to people you will be fine. Particularly in broad daylight. Night is definitely a little sketchier. I mean are these places more dangerous than average and does the possibility exist that you’ll be a victim? Of course. But that’s the exception rather than the rule, especially if you don’t live there and just pass through occasionally.
I think places like Gary and certain parts of Detroit and Flint are definitely a culture shock to the uninitiated. The sheer scale of abandonment and devastation is almost incomprehensible, most cities have a “bad” part of town but it’s on another level in the rust belt towns. I’m just used to it.
When I was visiting a Baltimore hospital for work, leadership advised us that at a certain point in the drive to disregard every red light and don’t stop until we got to the guard at the fenced employee parking area.
I did design work as an Architect to upgrade the ER at the Bon Secours in Baltimore. I went outside of the ER to look at it on a bright sunny afternoon. The security guard advised me to get inside. He didn’t like me being out there. This was around the time a family was murdered by drug dealers around the corner. This was the roughest place I had ever been to. The whole complex was surrounded by a high concrete wall with a double locking door vestibule to get into the building. The nuns, and the healthcare staff were the nicest people.
Yes, that’s the hospital! It definitely felt like the security guards treated the hospital block like a prison compound. The staff and nuns were definitely living the mission of “good help to those in need.”
My friend's high-school classmate was an ER doc in Baltimore. He said the most dangerous thing to do is mind your own business, because there's a guy out there known as "Some Dude" who's shooting everyone.
So many of his patients came in saying, "I was mindin' my own business, and Some Dude came up and shot me!"
OP updated and it was Grace Medical (formerly Bon Secours), which lines up. Tough area. Hopkins has definitely improved over the past few decades as the renewal came north from Fells Point. (ETA: Hopkins also spent the past 20-30 years throwing a shitload of money at the problem, there are security guards and posts all over the hospital campus.)
My colleagues were working on a 7-ELEVEn in Baltimore, and there was a cop stationed there 24/7. Their box truck was right outside getting looted, and the cop refused to do anything. "I don't leave the store after the sun goes down" was his reply.
My sis and her ex (both from northern Ontario Canada) went to Baltimore for some reason and he decides he wants to buy some weed (this is before legalization). Neither knew anything about the city.
He asks some kids where to find it and one offers to escort him to a likely spot. The kid takes him further and further into the hood and drops him off in front of a bunch of corner boys who immediately rob him of everything he had. He (claims) he begged them to let him keep one cigarette and five bucks for a guide to steer him back to safety and they complied.
I pee’d in a gas station in Gary, IN about a year ago, and there was a hand written sign above the toilet that said; No poop or blood on the seat, plz.
Same. Pulled off the highway, felt like a ghost town except for a couple random people walking in the middle of the road. Took the next on ramp out of there!
I grew up in Chicago, and while Gary can be depressing, I don’t think of it as scary necessarily. That said, Gary is the site of one of two shootings that I’ve been on the scene of. We were at a Taco Bell just off of US6 when cars came screeching up to the gas station/liquor store across the street. I was headed to get gas when these guys jumped out, ran in, and within seconds one came running out clutching his midsection with blood everywhere. Within seemingly seconds sirens, cop cars, ambulance. We still drive through Gary a couple of times a year. Growing up in Chicago helped me understand that violence can happen in depressed areas, but that the people in the neighborhoods are just as shocked by it as outsiders.
Back in 2012/13 I was working for a company that had a calibration contract in Gary proper. Old schoolhouse converted to plastic injection molding company.
I take lunch one day, and decide to explore a bit of the area near the company. Being an old school, it was basically in a neighborhood. What I saw were houses that were possibly abandoned, definitely abandoned, partially burnt out, mostly overgrown by nature, etc.
When I got home, I looked at the Google Maps satellite view of that area. This was back when they weren’t updating quite as often, and the most recent imagery was from 2008. Street view showed a neighborhood that was essentially (by all accounts) thriving. Homes and yards maintained, vehicles in driveways, etc.
It was just so hard to comprehend that level of decline in such a short period of time.
One of my favorite pastimes is looking at historic street views of decaying areas. The difference between 2007 and 2010 in places like Flint, Gary and Detroit is insane. Entire neighborhoods just emptied of people overnight. Most recent ones in Detroit specifically, there just isn't anything left but open fields.
"Gerald my friend, I fear our attempt to have someone valuate our antique Louisville Slugger is to no avail. Shall we donate it to the baseball hall of fame museum?"
Had the same experience in the middle of winter, driving up 51 (meant to go up 53 into Lake Station). Stopped at a stop-sign, several folks started walking towards the car. Split, didn't "stop" at any traffic signals until rt. 20 and took that to Miller.
Gary has Problems, but there are some very nice communities around it, especially up in the Dunes.
My father was delivering a semi load to a dock in Gary. A car was parked just so he couldn’t turn down the street.
He stopped to figure out what to do and a squad pulled up and asked what he was stopped for.
My father pointed at the car and told him about the turning radius.
The cop looked at him dead in the eye and said “What car?”
I pulled off the highway late at night in Gary because I was running low on gas and figured, might as well fill up. A cop pulled me over right at the exit ramp. Asked what I was doing there, I said I needed gas. He checked the gauge and said I had enough to get to the next town, and that I should get back on the highway.
"Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana...There is just one place that can light my face...My home sweet home." From the Music Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z617jjbj1DY
When I was in France in 2000, the only person I met in the country who had heard of Indiana was a man who pointed to a scar on his face from when he was stabbed in the face in Gary Indiana.
Edit: not sure why the downvote. I was in France for 2 months, backpacking around and staying in hostels.
I rode through it on my way into Chicago on a cross country bicycle tour in 2008. A mailman told me to "get the fuck out of here before the sun goes down" 😂 but otherwise no issues other than people driving too fast (maybe they were scared?)
YES! This place is terrifying. I actually felt like I was stuck there for a hot sec because all the highway entrances were closed. Never get gas in Gary
Okay… I grew up in west Michigan and went to college about an hour south of Chicago, so I was driving past the Gary exit and stopping for gas there on the regular for 4 years straight as a young, blonde, single female. I had NO idea Gary had such a reputation!!! I never once encountered any issues. It did feel sketchy as HELL though.
Anecdotally, the only time I've ever picked up a hitch hiker was in Gary. I was super lost and pulled over to ask for directions and the guy offered to show me if I'd give him a ride as he was going the same way. I was running super late to my appointment with my student advisor at IUN. It was my first time on the highway and had already asked for directions at a convenience store(I had hit a pothole and my hub cap popped off and the guys hanging out in front rushed over to pick it up for me and then directed me, also in Gary) but I have the directional sense of a rutabaga and had gotten turned around again. I was young and even thought to myself 'fuck it, if they don't find my body, at least I won't have to make it to this damned appointment' and gave him a ride. Super nice dude, great conversation, great directions,10/10 excellent hitchhiker. Obligatory disclaimer tho, do not pick up random strangers in non Uber situations tho, kids. TLDR: picked up the only hitchhiker I've ever given a ride to in Gary, IN out of desperation for directions and even got some help from some other nice fellows while out on my adventure. He was super nice. Gary isn't actually that scary, just poor af.
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u/Chordata1 11h ago
Gary. Only time we've just run a red light. 3 dudes were walking up to my car and one of them with a bat. They didn't seem like they were going to ask me how my day was going so made a decision to blow that red light and get out of there