It's not easy being a city official in Gary, Ind., these days if ambitious urban redevelopment is your aim.
Property tax limitations implemented for the entire state of Indiana have left Gary in a financially precarious spot.
Additionally, the city is one of the few in the U.S. that uses cash-based accounting, a system usually limited to use in very small businesses and not municipalities with budgets greater than $80 million.
Gary currently is under temporary reprieve from full implementation of the state tax caps, an implementation that is scheduled to be applied to Gary in 2012. At that point Gary's property tax revenue was expected to take a significant hit, according to reports. Due to its cash accounting system, there's difficulty determining what the city's one-time liabilities are. In late 2009, the city faced what was reported to be at least $34 million in debts and unpaid judgments to various parties in addition to the upcoming projected structural deficit due to mandatory tax caps
Eager to craft a plan for the future was a motivating factor for Mary Mulligan, the brownfields coordinator for the city of Gary, Ind., when she decided to run for Gary City Council last spring as an “at-large” candidate. Unfortunately, the 18-year brownfields specialist lost in a bid for higher office. Now she's back at the task at hand: To revitalize Gary in attracting new green business and improving the quality of life for residents in this city located in Lake County and a stone's throw ( 25 miles) from downtown Chicago.
Bordering Lake Michigan and best known for its large steel mills, Gary is adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and reported a population of 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state.
Mulligan, who will be the subject of an executive spotlight in Brownfield Renewal come late summer, picked up after the lost election last April and resumed her position as brownfields coordinator within the city's Dept. of Environmental Affairs.
Translated? Mulligan's vision for urban renewal is alive and kicking—it just won't be applied on a city council basis. In fact, her run for council gave Mulligan the motivation to sharpen and refresh the vision established years ago, as she strives to enhance the fortunes of this industrialized 52-square-mile city.
Following are some excerpts from the conversation we conducted with Mulligan in July:
BR: Can you shed a little light on your educational background?
MM: I attended the Univ. of Southern Mississippi as an undergrad and then went on to receive a masters degree from Southern New Hampshire University in community economic development.
BR: Can you provide a glimpse into your role and responsibilities as Gary's brownfield coordinator?
MM: As the city's brownfields specialist, I'm involved with all aspects of brownfields redevelopment, including job training and site remediation. One strengths I developed along the way was to work with people in the public sector. (Her previous experience was working with people in both academia and the private sector.) We have brownfield properties scattered all through the community. Once upon a time we had businesses that were all over the city—commerce was omnipresent. Now, those businesses are gone. It's going to take every aspect of the community to address the brownfield reuse issue and the vacant properties issue.
BR: Where is the resistance or push-back when it comes to economic redevelopment in Gary: Is it from residents who might be skeptical of everything that an ambitious redevelopment entails—beginning with environmental remediation. Or, is the resistance derived from parties that live outside the city?
MM: Definitely the latter. One thing that's become abundantly clear is the hesitation for redevelopment emanates from outside the community (such as from reluctant developers or other professional stakeholders). People in the town say, 'I remember when this (piece of property)used to be this. Community residents all have a belief (parcels) should be cleaned up because leaving them as is, it's just not productive. They grasp the idea that without redevelopment, there's no tax revenue or job creation. They also know that cleaning up abandoned properties means it's no longer an eyesore nor is it a public health threat. The problem is, those outside the community see potential redevelopments as something that's might be too big to tackle, so it ends up being put it on the back burner. We have to overcome this obstacle before we can put Gary on par with other communities.
BR: When you ran for city council, what was your specific plan of action for change?
MM: The belief that it was time for me to step up and be part of the change that I wanted to see. I has three central goals as part of my platform: To promote a vacant properties campaign and other initiatives to improve the community and the quality of life of residents. To that point (vacant properties) we have had systemic population declines both commercial and residential, so this is viewed as an imperative. My campaign platform also was geared: To introduce and promote policy measures and generate revenue and/or program funding for the city. To promote and use collaboration as a means to address and resolve many of the issues the community faces. In order for Gary to move forward, we must do things differently and set higher standards for ourselves. I do know that we can do much better safeguarding the community and improving the quality of life for the people who live here.
To learn more about Mary Mulligan's work in Gary, Ind., as brownfield coordinator, look for the print or web version of the Aug/Sept. issue of the publication.
