Downtown Gary could become a place containing an entertainment district and would have its main streets reconfigured in ways meant to be more friendly toward pedestrians and bicycle riders, according to a vision by urban planners.
Officials with the Merrillville-based Arsh Group made a presentation Thursday at the Genesis Convention Center, where they presented their vision to about 25 local residents – many of whom had participated in sessions during the summer months in which they offered up their views on how to improve the city.
Thursday’s session offered up suggestions for the downtown business district around 5th Avenue and Broadway, along with the nearby neighborhoods of Horace Mann to the west and Emerson to the east.
Arsh Group principal owner Taghi Arshami said planners envision an entertainment district centering around the convention center, although stretching as far east as the U.S. Steel Yard ballpark where the Gary South Shore Railcats baseball team plays its games.
To the north, officials would like to see a transit district, while to the south they’d like to see the 21st Century Career Academy become an educational district for the city.
To bolster transportation passing through the area, planners suggested that traffic along 4th and 5th avenues be altered from the current paths of one-way headed west on 4th Avenue and east on 5th Avenue.
Arshami said both roads would become two-way, but truck traffic would be restricted to 4th Avenue, which would be widened to accommodate their loads.
Meanwhile, 5th Avenue would have bicycle lanes added, along with landscaping and improved sidewalks to create a more sympathetic environment for pedestrians in the downtown area, planners said.
The proposed improvements for downtown would also extend into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Arshami said planners think that Methodist Hospital on Grant Street ought to be the focal point of a medical campus neighborhood for Horace Mann, which the one-time school of that name could be integrated into. He also suggested the restoration of a water pond that once existed between the hospital and the high school.
While Emerson would become more of an industrial section, with limited residential construction. Arshami said all this talk would be part of a long-range plan to be implemented over a 10-year period.
Some thought was also given to other neighborhoods on the north end of Gary – such as the River Shore community from the South Shore line commuter rail tracks to the Grand Calumet River. Project Planner Jay Gianotti said planners would like to see construction of townhomes that play off the river’s presence, and also the extension of a bicycle path along the river that could someday stretch east to the Indiana Dunes.
Arlene Colvin, the city’s Community Development director, said city officials are pleased to have a plan to guide them in their future efforts to make Gary a more livable municipality.
But she said this year’s efforts to develop the plan will benefit more than the city’s north side – since she said the same procedure will be used to develop long-term plans for revitalization of neighborhoods in other parts of Gary.
“We’re attempting to develop neighborhood plans for other areas,” Colvin said. “We hope to implement the process through all communities of the city.”
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
