The road to racism in Northwest Indiana

Crown Point officials eagerly anticipate the day farm fields east of Interstate 65 and U.S. 231 burgeon with a crop of new retail businesses.

But to the Rev. Richard Orlinski, a past president of the Interfaith Federation, that mall would be poison for north Lake County's economy. "All that will do is siphon the jobs and money further away from poor people."

Interfaith, an amalgam of north county churches, has long preached the gospel of investing in the inner cities.

However, stiff-necked developers have in the last year sunk $1.4 billion in new construction, much of it in former south county farm fields. Meanwhile, stagnation and poverty remain the lot of the urban core.

The Rev. Thomas Gannon, director of the Hammond-based Heartland Center, which conducts research on social issues, said proposals for an Illiana Expressway running east-west through rural south county would only aggravate this balkanization.

"When I first came here in 1990, the dividing line was the Borman. Now the dividing line is U.S. 30. That means we shouldn't build it. I'm not necessarily opposed to a new highway, but the new highway carries with it problems that have to be faced.

"Look at the Purdue technology center on Broadway and the (109th Avenue) exit they want to build off Interstate 65 in Crown Point. Why stick a facility like that way out in the country? Build it in the cities where the infrastructure already exists.

"None of this racism is talked about. In this region, it is just beneath the surface," Gannon said.

Lake County Planning Director Ned Kovachevich said, "I have always thought we need to encourage development in the northern cities where the infrastructure already exists.

"I have told (Gary's County Council representatives) Will Smith and Elsie Franklin repeatedly that they don't have to approve all these south county rezonings," Kovachevich said. The council has the final word on zoning in areas outside cities and towns.

County Councilman Larry Blanchard, a Crown Point Republican, said, "I don't look at it as a racial thing, but rather a fact of life. Interfaith was pressing to try to get (the Purdue technology center) moved somewhere else, but really this is centrally located and accessible.

"The cities are in desperate need of good meaningful economic development. I think about that every time I look at the tax rates. The southern part of the county is like 8 percent of the northern county's tax rate," he said.

"I think about that every time I see an article in the newspapers about crime and schools. You have to really face the fact that there is a serious problem with crime, a serious problem with schools. Business and developers are not going to turn to areas like that," he said.

Bill Brown, senior transportation planner for the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, said road projects can indeed cause economic gridlock.

"It's called environmental justice and there are federal regulations that deal with this issue and are part of our planning process," Brown said. NIRPC must approve all major transportation investment in the area.

"We have to balance the needs of moving people where there is a lot of traffic congestion, but also consider the impact on low-income and minority population," he said.

"Through that process we have selected a majority of (road construction) projects that actually are in the northern part of Lake and Porter counties. Interstate 80/94 is our biggest project. We also have projects along U.S. 12 and 20 and U.S. 41.

"U.S. 30 is an area where we have a lot of investment in the long-range plan. Another immediate project is U.S. 6 from Hobart through the south end of Portage."