A group of impassioned Region citizens again said "No" to a proposal for development in Northwest Indiana — this time in the economically beleaguered city of Gary.
Now it's up to the naysayers to help draft an alternative plan for bringing money and jobs to a city that's been wandering in its own desert of blight for years, dying of thirst for such an opportunity.
On Wednesday, the Gary City Council voted to keep an immigration inmate detention center from being built and operated in the Steel City.
Private company GEO Group hoped to build the detention facility and bring more than 200 jobs to parcels of land across from the Gary/Chicago International Airport.
In a lively, at times anger-filled meeting during which two protesters were removed by police, the council blocked variances to allow the proposal to move forward.
People heard the words "detention center" — synonymous with prison — and said "No" to a Gary site. The city's elected leaders listened.
That's our process, and folks had every right to voice their opposition to this plan.
However, those same protesters — and the elected leaders who said no — now owe it to the city to seek alternatives that would equal or exceed the GEO proposal's economic benefits.
GEO estimated the facility would have been an $80 million investment in Gary, creating hundreds of jobs and generating $1 million in new tax revenue and $1 million more in local contracting opportunities.
Gary is an economically depressed, crumbling hulk of the booming steel community it was so long ago.
Its struggles don't just affect its own residents — who deserve better. Gary's misfortunes pull like dead weight on our entire Region's progress.
That means Northwest Indiana planners, developers and citizens from outside Gary's borders also need to remain actively engaged in the process of seeking alternatives.
And the leaders and people of Gary need to welcome outside support.
A hard line of "No" may save a populace from an unwanted development. But then the responsibility falls on the naysayers — not just to return home and retire their picket signs but to flip the signs over and begin drafting alternative proposals on the back.
They owe it to themselves — and the rest of us — to turn their passionate protestations into proactive planning.
We cannot afford to be this "Region of No" that so often characterizes us. We're better than that, and our children deserve brighter future fortunes.
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