Northwest Indiana Discussion

I happened to be out in the very early morning hours last week and in my travels, I went through several seperate districts of Hammond.
It's amazing how clean the city is. I didn't see those abandoned houses, but I did see numerous new street lights that have been installed, the streets were clean. Where those lights have been in place, the streets was bright and well lit. If action can be taken about those unsightly houses, and the elimination of abandoned cars in empty lots, the city would have a whole new look. One location that has been pitch black for years, has been Hoffman street coming out of East Chicago, and Sibley east of Calumet. now they are bright and clean along with many other streets too numerous to mention. You have to give credit, when credit is due.

I recall reading that the City of Hammond has demolished 400 homes in the last four years. Now granted there are three times that many that need to be taken down but if you lived near one of those four hundred you would appreciate it.

With 1,200 homes to demolish in a relatively small city, just about everyone lives near a dump. What a wasteland....what incompetence.

Even at 1200 the ratio is about right for any city of its size. Of course you cant see past your Garden of Eden, wherever that may be. If we could get the owners who abandoned these properties to fix them themsselves we could build a sewer retention pond instead of raising Celtic's rates.

no it isn't.

You know better than that ..... 2 completely separate taxing entities. It's like saying that maybe we could hire some more police officers if we just didn't buy so many damn library books or didn't build a school or 11 .... They work completely independent of each other and you know it.

We need to build a retention pond and pay off a huge lawsuit and fine because it has been ignored until now by every Mayor back to the original incident under McDermott Sr.

You would have thought that Daddy could have at least left a note taped to the door to his son ..... "Tommy ... fix retention pond that I didn't get to ..... Love, Dad"

Well hopefully if they dont want them demolished then they could repair them, there choice. Either way someone should take responsability for these homes instead of the city having to threaten or fulfill demolition orders. I guess if you are living outside of Lake County or even outside of Hammond you dont much care what the property looks like but after demolishing 400 homes the city has certainly shown an interest.

There is little motivation for any landlord to fix up a home in Hammond. The city attracts a poor element and is doing nothing to alleviate that problem. Why fix up a rental property when you won't be able to recover the cost (because no rational person with means would set up a household in Hammond) and when you know that the people that are likely to rent the place will simply trash it? Further, Lake County's bottomless appetite for tax dollars will continue to drive away the very people you wish to attract. May as well knock the buildings down and make baseball fields out of the lots.

The city attracts a poor element because landlords fill there basement apartments with drug users and gang bangers while they are living in St. John in there newly built Bi-level. So in the near future they will be living next to the very element they were renting to because section eight applies anywhere.

I guess I am amazed that a city that has razed so many blighted homes and is engaged in such vigorous redevelopment (think those gangbuster (no pun intended) projects at Woodmar and Gateway Plaza) can't attract a better class of people. Why, I read somewhere that after only eight or so years, a beautiful Starbucks is scheduled to open at the site of the old Woodmar Mall (is it going to happen?). Now that McTavern's and LaRosa's are closed down, the sky should be the limit.

I know that if Lake County simply followed in the footsteps of the other 91 counties in Indiana and implemented an income tax that this money would be used wisely. What of the assets that Hammond, Gary, and East Chicago have that almost none of the other 91 counties do (casinos?) Really, how is it that money slated strictly for infrastructure seems to be used for everything but that-well, excluding baseball fields?

What gives?

Soccer fields will be the next recipient of casino revenue. Gotta have priorities people.

Typical ignorant response about Woodmar. The developer is not the city of Hammond just as the development on 41 in Schererville is not Schererville's. Why no comment on that developer.

CP dates back as least as far and does NOT have a ratio like that.

You have your receptor to urban sprawl set to "community organizer" levels.

There is a reason that owners walked away from those properties, just like there was in East Chicago and Gary in previous years. Hint: it has nothing to do with a shortage of baseball fields or a lack of taxpayer-funded take-home vehicles for municipal employees.

Really? All of the photos are less than six months old. That much change huh?


http://www.northwestindiana.com/discussionforum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10556&sid=1345b8541a8e986faa2a31d08121edc5