The Legacy Foundation and the City of Gary, Ind., are working together to develop new technology that will enable residents to address blight in their neighborhoods. The technology is an important step in a collaborative plan to restore trust and create a healthy civic environment that will make Gary ripe for redevelopment.

Gary has all the challenges of a former steel town undergoing the double whammy of greatly diminished tax rolls and the recent housing recession. Unemployment is high, population is dwindling and it’s estimated that one-third of the homes in the city are unoccupied or abandoned.

City leaders take heart, however, in the 2011 election of Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, a Harvard educated attorney and Gary native, to the city’s top executive post. Now, Legacy and the City of Gary are developing new ways for philanthropy to partner with government and restore trust and credibility to city operations. 

“Part of the issue is trust with local government. Because of the political history in Gary, there’s a barrier to people believing that this administration is different,” says  Tina Rongers, 
Interim Vice President
of the Legacy Foundation.

 “If we build a strong tool, the message that we’ll send to the banking community is that local government is a reliable source of information and that the city is actually managing a process to identify and resolve housing issues” says Rongers. We’ll be saying  'There’s a plan in place to deal with blight.'”

In one project, Legacy and the City came together to apply for a Knight Community Information Challenge grant. They were awarded $80,000 total with Legacy providing  $40,000 of the 50-50 match. 

The grant’s focus is to bring resources online to help residents understand the status of vacant properties in their neighborhoods. 

“At the end of the grant, we’ll have an online neighborhood tool that will enable residents to know the status of the house next door and what’s intended for it in the future – essentially the timeline for that,” Rongers says. 

Looking at government reinvention, data integrity

As part of that, the City of Gary is reinventing its internal processes to enhance and streamline the quality and integrity of internal data. 

“We are trying to identify ways to magnify the power of the system,“ Rongers says.

The partners initially looked at using existing data tools like Civic Insight (which I wrote about before in this column) but decided that the quality of city data might not be ready to support it. The first phase of the project — which is under way now — is to fully understand data integrity. Once the key metrics have been identified, they’ll be put online in a visual format. For instance, the city could produce a map of a neighborhood that will show where the vacancies are.

“We’ve been doing lots of talking with Code for America, Civic Insight, Local Data and the Smart Chicago Collaborative,” Rongers says. “We are getting some really good feedback on thinking through what the options are.”

The KCIC project is part of a larger strategy by the City of Gary to improve processes. It’s a pilot that they hope they’ll be able to replicate with other city services. 

“What we are establishing together first and foremost is a process of collaboration, bringing together public, private and non-profit partners to solve problems.  That is our common interest,” Rongers says.

Gary’s larger plan leverages resources of the three partners for greater impact in a strategically selected geographic area on the city’s north side, which has a concentration of abandoned parcels.  

The Gary Northside Redevelopment Area — which is a defined area that includes six neighborhoods — will be the focus of  the collaboration that will also include the EPA, HUD and the DOT.

“Currently we have on ground consultants doing analysis in three of the communities — Miller, Glenn Ryan and Aetna,” says Rongers.

Strong Cities, Strong Communities

As part of the federal Strong Cities, Strong Communities Initiative, Gary, will receive assistance from federal inter-agency teams who will work alongside city leadership, community organizations, local businesses and philanthropy to support the city’s vision of economic growth. The goal is to target resources where they are most needed and develop a community of learning.

The city of  Gary is the quarterback for the partnership.  Students from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy are assisting with the survey work, helping to create a rating system for the condition of the vacant properties. Other partners include IU Northwest, Purdue University Calumet  and Ivy Tech.

Communication with private sector players like banks is open but it’s not expected they’ll have an active role until a redevelopment strategy has been developed. Banks and other businesses haven’t been sure where to begin. With energy directed toward the six neighborhoods, and with additional public sector and community foundation support directed at creating a good data stream, a plan of action can begin to emerge.   

“I think this is a due diligence phase,” says Rongers, “laying out where the opportunities are.”

Legacy has also just launched Neighborhood Spotlight, a program that uses the principles of Collective Impact to bring a community development model to Lake County. Legacy received an additional $70,000 from Knight to design this program. 

The foundation anticipates allocating upwards of $1 million over the next three to five years to identify partners who can leverage those dollars for community investment.

“The collaboration that is happening in the Gary Northside neighborhoods at top level,” says Rongers.  “We think it can be replicated at the grassroots – to talk about how collaboration can advance community change. “

To start, Legacy will select one or two communities and assist them in building capacity, quality of life planning, a shared agenda and target list of projects. They’ll also be building a platform — online and in the communities — where residents can share their experiences and create a narrative of change.

“I see Neighborhood Spotlight as a missing link,” Rongers says. “We have a lot of framework in northwest indiana but in Lake County, we are missing a community development framework, finding ways to engage citizens and then also connect them with top leadership and the business community in a meaningful way.” 

How to get started working more closely with your city

Tina Rongers says community foundations seeking to establish a more collaborative environment should consider these points:

• Have a conversation with the city administration about what its priorities are.
• Explore common interests.
• Ask whether  any particular neighborhoods have synergy with ideas.
• Find out who else is interested.
• Expand the dialogue to see how you can pool resources.
• Reach out to federal government agencies and regional entities to expand the dialogue.
• Begin to look at new ways of working together to effect positive change.