Economy
Meet Indiana's First African-American Female Mayor
Karen Freeman-Wilson, the newly elected mayor of Gary, faces an uphill battle but a low bar for success
GARY, Ind. — On one side of the Indiana Toll Road lies the hulking U.S. Steel industrial complex whose founder, Elbert H. Gary, gave the city of Gary his name, and generations of residents their jobs.
On the other side lies one of the bleakest urban landscapes in the country, blighted by abandoned buildings and empty lots, like the weed-strewn field next to the public library downtown, which is set to close as a budget-cutting move.