Founded in 1906 by the United States Steel Corporation (U.S. Steel), the city of Gary, Indiana was once considered a city of opportunity for immigrants, African Americans coming from the South, and others looking for work in the steel mills. At its peak in the 1950s, Gary had a population of nearly 180,000 (Indiana University, n.d.) with over 30,000 residents employed by U.S. Steel (Wolfe, 2012). When steel manufacturing in the United States began to slow, Gary entered a period of radical decline. Its population has now fallen to just over 80,000 and its poverty rate is 38% (US Census Bureau, 2010). There are 6,500 abandoned buildings in the city and one in four parcels of land sit vacant (van Dyk, 2016).