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Transforming Our Neighborhoods: Inside the March 9 GreenRoots Workshop
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
On March 9, 2026, Gary Townmakers hosted the first of two Let’s Transform Your Neighborhood workshops from our GreenRoots Initiative. It was an evening that brought residents, local developers, environmental experts, and community partners together to deepen our shared understanding of brownfields, redevelopment, and the future we’re building in Gary.
This workshop was held in partnership with Jamie Zouras, Jenny Par, and Gillian Chesnut of the Delta Institute, and Beth Grigsby of Kansas State University Technical Assistance to Brownfields (KSU TAB) program. It is the continuation of a year-long learning journey into brownfields education, identification, and reimagination. As Cynthia Williams of Gary Townmakers opened the session, she reminded the room how far we’ve come:
“Gary Townmakers started this journey in 2018 with the goal to restore vibrancy to our neighborhoods. Everything we’ve learned to date has been necessary for our progress. And now, having inventoried brownfields in the Tolleston and Midtown neighborhoods, tonight’s guests will help us understand what to do with what we have learned.”
Why We’re Doing This Work
The GreenRoots Initiative began with a simple but powerful realization: many of the properties we hope to redevelop carry environmental histories of which most are unaware. Conversations with regional partners opened the door to deeper learning, which led to collaborations with the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC), the Delta Institute, Indiana Brownfields Program (IBP), and KSU TABor, organizations that have helped us understand not just where contamination exists, but why it exists and how communities like ours can move forward with remediation and redevelopment.
Understanding Brownfields: A Community Primer
Beth of KSU TAB delivered a clear, accessible overview of brownfields — what they are, why they matter, and how liability and cleanup funding work. She emphasized that Indiana’s Brownfields Program offers free technical assistance and critical incentives, including Phase I Environmental Site Assessments and support for the removal of abandoned underground storage tanks.
She also reminded participants of the stakes:
“Do not purchase a property without first conducting the appropriate inquiry… If you don’t use that process, you may not be eligible for cleanup funds.”
Her presentation helped demystify a process that often feels overwhelming for first-time developers and longtime residents alike.
Change is Inevitable
One of the most powerful moments of the evening came when Cynthia walked participants through the environmental history of Tolleston, a once-legacy town that predates Gary, and where a detailed, parcel-by-parcel inventory of brownfield sites was conducted.
Using historic maps, community memory, and on-the-ground research, she illustrated how decades of clustered, small industry activity shaped the land beneath our feet.
Former coal yards, lumber yards, and fuel oil depots
Dozens of dry cleaners and laundries
Abandoned service stations, sometimes on all four corners of an intersection
Small manufacturers, dairies, bakeries, and meat-packing facilities
Residential lots that once held heating oil tanks, mortuaries, or industrial outbuildings
While many of these sites now appear as abandoned buildings and vacant lots, Cynthia noted:
“Just because a parcel is zoned residential does not mean that it does not have environmental contamination.”
Cynthia explained that “change happened,” and the disappearance of these businesses and industries, beginning in the 1950s, was driven by overlapping national forces that reshaped the American economy. Key forces behind the decline:
Technology and automation made older industries like coal, heating oil, and small manufacturers obsolete.
Corporate consolidation replaced local suppliers with national chains and large regional plants.
Nationalized brands and supermarkets pushed out local dairies, bakeries, meatpackers, and snack makers.
Globalization and offshoring shifted manufacturing and apparel production overseas.
Highway construction and suburbanization redirected people, jobs, and commerce away from neighborhood corridors.
Federal policy and environmental and safety regulations raised compliance costs that small manufacturers and operators could not absorb.
Redlining and disinvestment denied capital to urban neighborhoods, preventing modernization and reinvestment.
This history is essential, not to discourage redevelopment, but to empower residents with the knowledge needed to build safely and strategically with the understanding that change is constant and that building for the future is essential.
Mapping What We Know and What We Need
Delta Institute’s team then guided participants through a hands-on mapping activity. Using parcel maps of Tolleston, they asked residents to identify missing community assets: places where people gather, access services, or rely on daily amenities.
As Gillian explained:
“Learning about all of the community assets around a given parcel can help you decide which to buy, how many to buy, and help prioritize areas for redevelopment.”
Participants added churches, food pantries, small businesses, gathering spaces, and other landmarks that don’t appear in standard datasets. This community knowledge is now being integrated into GreenRoots’ growing redevelopment database for consolidation, analysis, and review.
Visioning 2035: What Do We Want to Build?
To ground the technical work in hope and imagination, the workshop opened with a visioning exercise: Imagine it’s 2035. What’s the best thing that’s been built in your neighborhood in the last 10 years?
Participants shared dreams of:
Mixed-use buildings with fresh markets and workforce development spaces
A thriving commercial corridor
Urban farming and agricultural tourism
Local industries employing local residents
New housing options that meet the needs of families and returning residents
A fully developed entrepreneurship village
Community centers and cultural spaces
These visions weren’t abstract; they were rooted in the lived experience of people who know Gary’s neighborhoods intimately and want to experience a future inspired by, not restricted by, the past.
What Comes Next
This workshop was a turning point. The GreenRoots Initiative will continue to support residents and small developers in navigating brownfield identification and remediation efforts, and will work towards completing inventories of residential sites in Tolleston and Midtown. Our work has led the City of Gary to integrate environmental data into its online Zoning Viewer Map (coming soon), as the data we continue to collect informs future philanthropic, EPA, and state grant opportunities. Lastly, we will publish a public-facing guide to help residents research property histories before purchasing a local site.
As Cynthia reminded the room:
“We know the problems. We know there are resources. Let’s move towards action.”
A Community Moving Forward Together
The March 9 workshop was a powerful reminder that redevelopment is not just a technical process; it’s a community process. It requires history, transparency, imagination, and collaboration. It requires residents who are willing to learn, question, and lead.
Gary Townmakers is excited to walk this path with anyone interested in keeping the momentum going. Join us for Part II and help shape what comes next. Register today at: