u/Addi_Daddy

I know people in north Hammond who kept their power throughout the entire storm and aftermath. Then yesterday out of nowhere, after NIPSCO trucks were seen in the neighborhood, they lost power and are still without it. The trucks have not been back.

Is it possible that NIPSCO really is so stupid that they are taking parts from working poles and transformers to fix damaged ones, only to leave new people in the dark? Or is it just a massive coincidence?

Joseph S. Pete

A century ago, people flocked from Eastern Europe, the South and all over the world to the steel mill town of Gary, which had risen overnight from the sandy shores of Lake Michigan to make the metal that built up America in the 20th century.

Rev. William G. Seaman aspired to bring faith to a rough-and-tumble town filled with rough-hewn shanties, saloons and liquor-swilling steelworkers.
He built the towering nine-story City Methodist Church that loomed over downtown Gary and was compared to Europe's great churches. The castle-like Gothic cathedral grew into the largest Methodist church in the Midwest, with thousands packing the pews, but ended up abandoned like so much of the Steel City a half-century ago.

The long-abandoned City Methodist Church at 577 W. Washington St., which some have called God's forsaken house, has drawn urban explorers from across the country. The striking limestone structure has been a backdrop for Hollywood films, including in the Transformers and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. It was featured on the show "Life After People" as an example of urban decay.

The City of Gary had made it a highlight of architectural tours in the past and secured a historical marker in 2019. The city had explored options for salvaging at least some of the dramatic houses of worship forged by immigrant craftsmen, including turning it into a European-style ruins garden.

A University of Notre Dame study proposed preserving the iconic bell tower that rises over the sanctuary, making it the centerpiece of a proposed City Renaissance Park.

The redevelopment commission spent $112,000 earlier this year to hire the Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm Bailey Edward to determine if the tower could be stabilized while the rest of the crumbling church was removed. It was the determined entire church will now come down.

"Unfortunately, it will all be demolished," City of Gary spokesman Steve Segura said. "The property is unsafe and not recoverable, especially with a school across the street."

Bids were due this week for contractors to raze City Methodist Church and the dilapidated St. Mary's Mercy Hospital. The entire church will come down, Regional Development Authority spokesman Dave Wellman said.

Gary was left with thousands of abandoned buildings after U.S. Steel's Gary Works laid off thousands of workers in the 1970s, and the city suffered white flight after it became one of the country's first large cities to elect a Black mayor. The city has recently stepped up its efforts to demolish blighted buildings, for instance, removing many long-vacant storefronts along Broadway and architecturally notable buildings like the Memorial Auditorium. The city is poised to tear down the H. Gordon and Sons Department Store, and its blight removal efforts were just highlighted this week in a Wall Street Journal article.
"It’s sad to see it finally coming down," said photographer Joey Lax-Salinas, who had often photographed City Methodist Church. "It almost doesn’t seem real, considering it has stood vacant for so long. It would be great if someone might come in at the eleventh hour to save the bell tower portion."

Seaman's folly
Closed in 1975, the long-vacant church has now been a sanctuary of silence for longer than choirs sang praise there. It has long been seen as a symbol of urban decay and the economic decline of a one-industry town in the buckle of the Rust Belt.
"It's a beautiful building that's long been admired by photographers," Indiana University Northwest Professor of History Emeritus James Lane said. "Its bloom and decline mirrored that of the city, and when white people started abandoning the city."

The benefactor of much of Gary's early development as the largest city founded during the 20th century, U.S. Steel helped fund the ornate church, which had a school, gym, theater, music studio and cafeteria. Elbert Gary, one of U.S. Steel's founders and the namesake of the City of Gary, donated the organ.
The Chicago architecture firm Lowe and Bollenbacher designed the church, which was built for $800,000 or around $14.9 million today. The massive building was too expensive for its shrinking congregation to maintain or for another church to take over and run it. Some questioned the size and grandeur, calling it "Seaman's folly."

But it flourished, especially after the Calumet Region's steel mills ran around the clock during World War II. Many of the parishioners were supervisors at Gary Works and other more affluent people who then lived on the north side of Gary in neighborhoods like Horace Mann, which produced a Nobel Prize-winning economist, former South Shore Arts Executive Director John Cain and other high achievers, Lane said.

The church grew a congregation of more than 3,000 during the 1950s and became a meeting space for many community events.

"The real tragedy of City Methodist was that William Seaman had a grand vision," Lane said. "He wanted the church to be an ecumenical place. He wanted Seaman Hall to be the center of religious and cultural life. It hosted IUN. It was a big fundraiser for Methodist Hospital. It has exchanges with African-American ministers. It had African-American choirs. Some thought he was too friendly to minorities. He was seen as too spendthrift. It had several thousand members, but they were all white, and by the 1970s, there were only a few old white people left. The church went from being active and jam-packed to largely empty."

City Methodist Church welcomed Black people but was segregated. It did not adapt as the community changed around it.

"By the time it closed in the 1970s, there were a lot of Black churches like St. Timothy's that were doing very well," Lane said. "But they integrated in the 1950s and 1960s. By then, it was too late. The neighborhood went from mostly white to Black in the blink of an eye. I interviewed a florist who lost most of his customers overnight. The parishioners who lived in that neighborhood moved out. Black residents went to other churches with Black ministers and Black congregations."

Hollywood came calling
The Great Gary Arson swept through the downtown in 1997, causing extensive damage to the City Methodist Church. The fire damage gashed open the building, exposing it to the elements and the freeze-thaw cycles that accelerated its decline. The sanctuary roof started to collapse years ago, and holes have started to open up to the basement.
Lax-Salinas, also an author of books like "Fading Ads of Indiana," said he had hopes the city could salvage at least some of the building, saying the arch columns looked as solid as the Roman Colosseum.

Before Gary reached a verdict of demolition for City Methodist Church in Gary, the landmark drew photographers, artists, filmmakers, historians and preservationists.

"I think it’s a missed opportunity for Gary not to save at least the bell tower portion of it. It’s centrally located downtown and could become a park for small gatherings or festivals, like a farmers market," he said. "Unfortunately, these thoughts and plans should have been laid out decades ago with some sort of plan in place."

The architectural marvel has drawn people for music videos, wedding photos and urban exploration videos over the years. Its image has been splashed all over YouTube, Instagram and art fairs across the Midwest, including in Chicago and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
"I think the church became so popular among photographers because you just can’t find buildings like these that have been abandoned for such an incredibly long time. Shamefully long. No building should stand vacant and decrepit in a downtown city district for more than four decades. The ease of access to the building was no doubt its lure," Lax-Salinas said. "Unique in its architecture, the building was hardly secured over the years, making it easy for photographers and vandals to make it a temporary place for themselves."

City Methodist Church was so visually dramatic it was used as a setting for many films and television shows, including "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," 2010's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and Netflix's "Sense8," which was made by the directors of "The Matrix."
"Hollywood came calling because they likely also saw the uniqueness of having a structure in this shape without having to build it like a set," Lax-Salinas said. "They had permission to do what they wanted, knock down walls when needed, etc. The Transformers movie took a big hole in the main level wall that separated the sanctuary from the school portion. No doubt, the church is currently the crown jewel of all urban/ruin photography in Northwest Indiana, and its dethroning will be felt within the photography community for years to come."

Its influence will continue
The Decay Devils, one of the Region's leading preservation groups, came together after they encountered each other exploring and photographing the historic church.
"City Methodist is also where Decay Devils began. Before the nonprofit, the trips, tours, books, grants, and preservation projects, it was simply a group of friends meeting there to create. That building became the foundation for everything we've accomplished since," President Tyrell Anderson said.

The Decay Devils have worked for years to save the nearby Union Station and other historic structures in Gary. Anderson also now works to save notable buildings around the state while serving on the board of the Indiana Landmarks statewide preservation group.

"For me, City Methodist Church was a place of inspiration. I've created some of my favorite photographs and artwork there, and it was always a peaceful place to meet other creatives who shared a passion for history, architecture, and storytelling. Some saw decay, but I saw beauty," he said. "For the urban exploration community, City Methodist was almost a rite of passage. People traveled from around the world just to experience it. It wasn't simply about abandoned architecture. The church inspired photographers, artists, filmmakers, historians, and preservationists alike, often serving as their introduction to Gary's larger story."

In 2014, Gary fenced off the church to try to deter people from entering after the sanctuary roof collapsed more than a decade ago while an Indianapolis television news crew was filming there.
Pedestrians often pass by. It's next to the Genesis Towers, the 21st Century Charter School and newer homes along Washington Street.

Though City Methodist has stood empty for more than half a century, there are signs of life around it everywhere. Lane said he was once interviewed there by a film crew from England that stopped shooting whenever school children would pass by outside because it broke the illusion of it being a completely abandoned place.

After exploring options to turn the grounds into a ruins garden and preserving the bell tower, City Methodist Church in Gary is slated for demolition.
"Even the ruins are beautiful, the way the sunlight hits those stained-glass windows," he said. "It would have been wonderful to preserve as a ruins garden and at least keep part of it. The ideal situation would be to keep the beauty of it and the facade of the church while making it safe for photographers."
Anderson said City Methodist Church has unfortunately deteriorated to the point where it poses a safety issue to neighborhood children and said any hope of saving the church building for future generations seemed unrealistic.
"As much as I'd love to see it preserved, the reality is that restoring a building of that size requires an enormous financial commitment," Anderson said. "Unfortunately, the funding and development partners needed to make that happen just aren't there. While it's difficult to watch it disappear, I'm grateful for everything it gave me and the countless people it inspired. Its influence will continue through the work we're doing to preserve the stories and places that remain."

More threats from Indiana's army of fascist bootlickers.

If you go to Target this weekend, beware the electronics & technology section. A third-party vendor will try to talk you in to switching to AT&T. These guys work for companies known as "Devilcorp," (otherwise known as "Smart Circle," "Cydcor," and "Credico") who exploit young, naive recruits under the guise of life-changing wealth and entrepreneurship opportunities (even though most of them end up making barely a couple dollars per hour). Additionally, most contracts you sign from these guys will raise your rates or screw up your cell phone and Internet plans.

As somebody who used to do basically the exact same work, I can tell you that the vast majority of in-store solicitations (and door-to-door solicitations) are scams and will end up costing you much more in the long run. These companies scam recruits and customers equally.

edit: These guys are usually at the stores between 10am-7pm.

More evidence of how the Indiana University administration is nothing but a group of fascist bootlickers.

It's that time of year again! Poorly paid reps from pest control companies, security companies, charity collections (which of course don't go to the charity), and likely others will be coming to your door trying to sign you up for something. Nearly all of them use some or all of the exact same tactics that reps from Cydcor, Smart Circle, Credico, Ascenta, and Universal Events use.

I'm assuming Moxie just came to my house. The kid (probably early 20s) was wearing a hat and a blue polo shirt with "M" on them - likely trying to avoid using "Moxie" due to the company's awful reputation.

Things to look out for:

• They will always begin the convo by mentioning how some of your neighbors have already signed with them. They may even name-drop a few of them. This is usually a blatant lie.
• They will mention cheap rates, even though you will almost always find better deals signing up online.
• They have scripts memorized (usually including nonverbal gestures) and are prepared for any rebuttal you give them.
• They will not take only 1 "no" for an answer. They have been trained to get at least 2 "no" responses before they leave, and even then they may try to prolong the conversation.
• Some of them will be riding through your neighborhoods on a hoverboard, segway​, or something similar.

If you are familiar with Devilcorp companies, then you already know the next part. These reps have been programmed to expect plenty of no's, rudeness, doors being slammed in their faces​, and will always be told to keep going no matter what happens to them. They have likely been lied to about how much money they will make or how successful they can be if they make their sales quotas.

Same tactics, same results.

It's that time of year again! Poorly paid reps from pest control companies, security companies, charity collections (which usually don't go to the charity), and likely others will be coming to your door trying to sign you up for something. I'm assuming Moxie just came to my house. The kid (probably early 20s) was wearing a hat and a blue polo shirt with "M" on them - likely trying to avoid using "Moxie" due to the company's awful reputation.

Things to look out for:

• They will always begin the convo by mentioning how some of your neighbors have already signed with them. They may even name-drop a few of them. This is usually a blatant lie.
• They will mention cheap rates, even though you will almost always find better deals signing up online.
• They have scripts memorized (usually including nonverbal gestures) and are prepared for any rebuttal you give them.
• They will not take only 1 "no" for an answer. They have been trained to get at least 2 "no" responses before they leave, and even then they may try to prolong the conversation.
• Some of them will be riding through your neighborhoods on a hoverboard, segway​, or something similar.

These reps have been programmed to expect plenty of no's, rudeness, doors being slammed in their faces​, and will always be told to keep going no matter what happens to them. They have likely been lied to about how much money they will make, or how successful they can be, if they make their sales quotas.

There are also countless articles and videos available that breakdown how these companies can ripoff and scam customers.

Years ago I worked for a company that used essentially the same tactics to solicit customers inside big box stores (especially Sam's Club, Costco, and Kroger).