I grew up on the far southeast side of Chicago. About ten minutes from the Indiana border. That area used to be okay but Gary had a bad rep even thirty years ago. It’s a cesspool of humanity. The only way to clean would be to fill it.
I moved from Lake County, IN 7 or 8 years ago, lived in Crown Point then. A few years earlier, there was a drug bust in Gary that nabbed a Gary department head and several associates that were selling drugs out of the City Hall basement. Talk about going a bunch of steps further than the usual Gary graft!
About the only significant commercial activity in Gary are steel mills and some associated ancillary business that support them or purchase from them. Donald Trump had a casino at a marina in Gary but I don't know if that is still in existence. They built a new airport (federal $$$ did I imagine)to try and set it up as a competitor (it was a bust economically) to Midway and O'Hare since the eastern Chicago metro region and outliers like South Bend are quite a haul to the other two airports.