Brit Reacts to America’s Most Dangerous City

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Hi guys, welcome back to the channel.

[00:00:01]Today, I'm checking out Gary, the USA's most dangerous city.

[00:00:05]I think it's going to be like a vloggy type video, so I've been enjoying these longer ones. I know some people are wanting the short ones, so I will still be doing the shorter videos, too, as I know they are easier to watch obviously if you don't have half an hour to sit and watch a video.

[00:00:19]Um not sure what to expect. I think Gary is in Indiana. Um yeah, I think I imagine there's going to be probably a lot of crime, maybe a lot of drugs. Um yeah, but it'll be interesting to check it out. If you enjoy this kind of content, guys, let me know in the comments below.

[00:00:33]Have a Don't have a fantastic day cuz you haven't watched the video yet.

[00:00:37]Leave a like and subscribe if you're enjoying this content, guys. Let's go.

[00:00:41]All right, everyone. I am in Gary, Indiana.

[00:00:45]Let me show you on the map real quick just to give you an idea.

[00:00:48]You can see the blue dot.

[00:00:50]Gary is a suburb of Chicago.

[00:00:53]Right there on Lake Michigan.

[00:00:57]Now, um no town or city has been disparaged and maligned in my comment sections as much as Gary. Okay. Uh common comments are well, it's bad, but it's no Gary, Indiana. Or this place is Beverly Hills compared to Gary, Indiana.

[00:01:20]So, of course, here I am. Okay, so it's got a bad name. I am.

[00:01:23]I've got to see it for myself.

[00:01:25]Now, the story is pretty simple when it comes to Gary.

[00:01:29]This town was founded by a company, a steel mill.

[00:01:34]Uh early 1900s.

[00:01:36]Okay.

[00:01:37]The town is even named after the guy who ran the steel mill.

[00:01:41]His name is Albert Henry Gary.

[00:01:46]Anyway, it was very successful, so successful that the Russians even made an exact copy. Oh, wow. In this town.

[00:01:55]Uh I can't say the name of it, so there it is on the screen.

[00:01:58]The entire town was based its survival was based on the steel mill, and that collapsed.

[00:02:08]And when it did, the town collapsed. Up to that >> So, it's kind of similar to like the videos we've been doing, um, in the Appalachian, um, area with the mines. So, I guess once once the big industry collapses, these people aren't Yeah, it's there's there's kind of no need for people there. And people that do live there have no jobs and things like that.

[00:02:30]>> point the city was thriving.

[00:02:32]Uh, 180,000 people lived here. It was a major city.

[00:02:37]But, uh, today there are about 69,000.

[00:02:42]Wow.

[00:02:42]>> 61% of the population is gone, and much of the city lies in ruins.

[00:02:50]I read that there are about 13,000 abandoned structures, including homes.

[00:02:56]>> It does look really like like still. Like there's not a soul.

[00:03:02]in this city.

[00:03:03]Some of the other numbers aren't much better.

[00:03:06]32% poverty in this town, and for children 17 and under it's a lot worse.

[00:03:13]54% of the children who live in this town live at or below the poverty line.

[00:03:19]Wow, that's not good.

[00:03:20]So, some of the other numbers real quick before we really start diving into the town.

[00:03:26]Median age is 37 years old.

[00:03:30]Gender breakdown 54% female, 46% males.

[00:03:35]12% of those females are widows.

[00:03:39]Now, the street that I'm about to get on right now is Broadway. It's the major street that runs through town.

[00:03:47]And as I tell you more I'll just show you this part of the city as we drive towards downtown.

[00:03:57]It's empty, isn't it? As we go, you'll see a lot of what I'm talking about.

[00:04:02]These empty buildings, the the decaying infrastructure.

[00:04:08]But anyway, some of the other numbers before we start really exploring, um one that sticks out is only 30% of the population is married Okay.

[00:04:18]>> versus 50% of the rest of the country.

[00:04:21]The race breakdown, here it is. 78% black, 9% Hispanic, 10% white, the remaining 3% is other.

[00:04:33]Okay.

[00:04:34]Now here's the incomes of the town and I'll compare it to the US average to give you an idea of what we're looking at here.

[00:04:44]Per capita income in this town is 19,500.

[00:04:48]Wow.

[00:04:49]>> That's $375 a week.

[00:04:51]By comparison, the US average is 38,300.

[00:04:56]That's quite a big difference. That's quite a big difference. Median household income is 34,100.

[00:05:02]So that's everybody that lives in a household 15 and up who makes income or makes money.

[00:05:09]That median income is $655 a week per household.

[00:05:14]>> Wow. US average is 69,700, which is $1,340 a week. So again, incomes here are about half That is bad. of what the US average is.

[00:05:31]Now at this point, I'm just going to drive into the city center.

[00:05:38]Tell you a few more things. It is really like there's nobody walking. It's like the buildings don't look great.

[00:05:47]Let's see the median home value in this town is 70,600.

[00:05:55]And I will take a look at a lot of the homes here before I leave. Uh US average is 281,000.

[00:06:03]Okay.

[00:06:04]>> So, home values here are about 25% of the rest of the country.

[00:06:11]Uh let's talk about the elephant in the room.

[00:06:14]Crime in Gary.

[00:06:16]What it's most notorious for.

[00:06:19]I reckon it's high.

[00:06:20]>> first of all, the overall crime rate is 4,100 per 100,000 people. That compares to 2,300 for the rest of the US. So, overall crime here is about twice higher. Wow.

[00:06:35]>> really bad here is homicide, murder rates.

[00:06:40]That is Okay. I'm not going to Gary. s.

[00:06:46]What Gary is known for.

[00:06:49]Now, I'm going to pull over here and we'll dive into that. Okay.

[00:06:55]I'm just going to show you the city center as we come in.

[00:06:59]Yeah, I'm pretty much in the downtown now.

[00:07:02]There's a lot of things to see here, so I will show you those. But, um Like these ones up here. Let me find a spot and I'm going to tell you about the murder rate in this town.

[00:07:14]Yeah, right here on the other side of the street is city hall. That's a nice building.

[00:07:18]Uh I like the dome at the top of it.

[00:07:21]The city's founder, he actually ran US Steel.

[00:07:25]They have a statue of him here.

[00:07:28]Yeah.

[00:07:29]Elbert Gary.

[00:07:33]Wow. All right. Uh and then there's the steel mill right there.

[00:07:39]The entrance to it.

[00:07:43]All right, I'm uh going ahead towards the steel mill here.

[00:07:47]Okay, this will be interesting.

[00:07:49]The northern section of town is Yeah, it's just the steel mill.

[00:07:58]I'm going to drive up here and see uh how far I can go in here.

[00:08:07]Oh, wow.

[00:08:08]You can't actually drive in.

[00:08:14]All right.

[00:08:16]Yeah, this is far as I can go.

[00:08:19]So, I better turn around.

[00:08:32]All right. Uh here we go.

[00:08:35]Now, the chart I'm showing you is of the cities in the United States with the highest murder rates. Okay. And you know, sad to say, but it's the usual suspects.

[00:08:45]Okay. New Or- So, you've got quite a bit up there.

[00:08:49]Orleans number one with 74.3 per 100k.

[00:08:54]Got St. Louis at number two with 68.2.

[00:08:57]Baltimore number three.

[00:08:59]Detroit number four.

[00:09:02]Memphis number five.

[00:09:04]I'm pretty sure none of this surprises anyone.

[00:09:07]>> [laughter] >> But, these are the 75 largest cities. So, uh what if you include all cities that have over 100,000 people in population?

[00:09:20]Well, it changes a little bit.

[00:09:23]Um you got Jackson, Mississippi at number one now. I think we we did well. You [clears throat] haven't seen it yet, but I did a video in Jackson, Mississippi.

[00:09:35]Check that one out, guys, if you haven't seen it yet. If it is out I actually don't know if it's out yet. It might not be, but keep an eye out for it if it's not.

[00:09:41]With 88. What is it? 88.

[00:09:45]8.

[00:09:47]Birmingham, Alabama, moves up into third place with 72.9.

[00:09:53]Now, you still don't see Gary on this list because Gary only has 69,000 people. But, if you were to include Gary, where would it place? Interesting. Where would it place?

[00:10:04]>> Gary's murder rate is 76.3 per 100,000 people. So, if it was listed among the US largest cities, it would be number one.

[00:10:18]Wow.

[00:10:19]>> put it on the list with cities over 100,000 people, it comes in number two.

[00:10:26]Right behind Jackson, Mississippi.

[00:10:28]Jackson, Mississippi, by the way, has been the murder capital for 2 years running.

[00:10:35]Just to let you know. Definitely not going to Jackson, Mississippi. Oh.

[00:10:39]When I see the comments people make about Gary, and of course I think to myself, can it really be that bad?

[00:10:48]Yeah, probably is based on these numbers. Yeah, I guess facts don't lie, right? Numbers don't lie, but it's hard because when you see it from an outside perspective, it's really hard to imagine what life is like daily there.

[00:11:02]But, uh what does it look like here? What does it actually look like?

[00:11:08]What will I actually see as I explore the town?

[00:11:12]Well, going to do that right now. So, I'm going to head back into Gary.

[00:11:17]And, uh we're going to look around the city.

[00:11:21]Okay.

[00:11:22]Now, as you drive through parts of the city, you see a lot of exactly what you expect to see.

[00:11:32]Buildings disintegrating where they sit.

[00:11:34]Yeah.

[00:11:40]Something to show you over here, though.

[00:11:45]Oh, this Um I wouldn't be able to drive down here. This This would creep me out like a little back alley.

[00:11:53]The buildings look so worn down.

[00:11:55]>> this looks really bad here.

[00:12:01]But let's see up in front of me here and to the right you can see that in blue.

[00:12:10]Hey.

[00:12:10]>> It's modern new housing.

[00:12:13]That looks nice. That looks better. So, there are signs of life here.

[00:12:20]Woo.

[00:12:22]This road could use some work, but anyway.

[00:12:25]Um Yeah, up here to my left is modern new housing as well.

[00:12:33]Looks like uh condos maybe.

[00:12:36]Yeah, you can see them right there.

[00:12:37]Actually real nice.

[00:12:39]Mhm.

[00:12:41]Now up ahead of me is this church. Let me get closer to it and I'll tell you a bit about it.

[00:12:49]>> park? I guess though Now I'm going to put you can't change who lives there, right? So, you can change the out the outside of the houses and stuff, but >> Coaching City Methodist Church an astonishingly beautiful, but decaying building.

[00:13:08]Built in 1926.

[00:13:10]Uh you can't miss it. The Gothic architecture.

[00:13:16]Uh but it has been empty Oh, wow. No one uses it.

[00:13:19]>> Uh I think uh since the 1970s I read.

[00:13:23]You can tell how incredibly beautiful it was at one time and was the largest church in the Midwest at one point. Wow.

[00:13:37]It's just incredible.

[00:13:40]I can't believe that that they haven't like kept that like they haven't tried to put like preserve it. That it's in this condition.

[00:13:52]Let me see if I can get another look at it.

[00:14:02]Uh whatever this building is it's sitting empty right next to the church.

[00:14:09]But uh here we go.

[00:14:14]That is something to see.

[00:14:19]It's sad.

[00:14:27]Isn't it? It's beautiful though. I feel like it has so much potential. It's incredible.

[00:14:36]I'm out on foot now.

[00:14:39]Uh the fence has been torn down so you can just uh walk in here.

[00:14:46]So how about if I do that?

[00:14:51]Should we go see the inside?

[00:14:54]Let me uh give you a good look.

[00:15:01]This was once so magnificent.

[00:15:04]Such a shame.

[00:15:11]Anyway, let's go take a quick look inside, shall we?

[00:15:22]Wow.

[00:15:25]Acknowledge me.

[00:15:30]It's just a shame that it's been left like that.

[00:15:35]This is incredible.

[00:15:58]I mean I don't know that I'd be going in considering it's like got things falling all over the place and stuff, but I guess this is where is a preacher would give his sermon.

[00:16:18]It's just astonishing, isn't it?

[00:16:22]That there's something like this.

[00:16:25]Mhm, just sat there.

[00:16:30]All kinds of weird noises in here.

[00:16:33]Sounds uh haunted to be honest with you.

[00:16:38]Let me take a look through here.

[00:16:45]I mean it's brave doing that cuz also anybody could be in that building. I'll just keep the camera on so you can see everything.

[00:16:57]Yeah.

[00:16:59]Not going up those stairs.

[00:17:02]It's a fireplace here.

[00:17:07]Let's look at one last area here.

[00:17:13]Wow.

[00:17:14]Wow.

[00:17:17]You can see just how grand this was.

[00:17:25]It's absolutely insane.

[00:17:27]>> if cuz they're building the new housing um structures and things if they'll um kind of bring it back to life again or if that'll probably cost them way too much money, maybe. I don't know.

[00:17:54]Make sure you get a good look at everything.

[00:18:07]Incredible.

[00:18:09]All right. Well, I'm going to get out of here and get back in the Bronco.

[00:18:25]Yeah, there's so much of this here. Mhm.

[00:18:30]So many like just abandoned buildings and I wonder if they'll tear them down and um build the new housing and things on them. Let me know if you guys know anything about it.

[00:18:41]It's an empty building.

[00:18:46]All the glass broken out.

[00:18:52]It would seem like a place homeless would hang out in.

[00:18:55]Maybe they do. But I will tell you this.

[00:18:59]>> Uh I have not seen any homeless here.

[00:19:03]I scouted the town out yesterday.

[00:19:05]Looked around a bit.

[00:19:08]Saw no homeless. Now, Now pretty cool here.

[00:19:11]It's about 39°.

[00:19:14]That's 4° C for people all over the world, including Canada.

[00:19:20]Just want to make sure my Canadian friends know I did not ignore them.

[00:19:25]But anyway, yeah, it's pretty chilly.

[00:19:29]And if there were a lot of homeless, that's one of the, you know, if I was homeless, that's one of the places I would be going to, but I don't really see it a lot here.

[00:19:40]I'm not sure what Indiana's laws are concerning that.

[00:19:45]Anyway, there's uh yeah, downtown.

[00:19:50]Uh today is Thursday, by the way.

[00:19:53]It's the middle of March.

[00:19:55]It's about uh it's about 9:00 a.m.

[00:19:59]It's early still.

[00:20:00]>> There's a lot of wind. It's early, so it could be that it's just quiet because it is early. to see, so I got started early.

[00:20:08]Uh a lot of traffic lights here no longer function. You're seeing a couple there.

[00:20:16]All right, let's see. I'm back where I started from.

[00:20:20]Just go look around some more. Okay.

[00:20:23]Huge sections of the city look just like this.

[00:20:31]Businesses that are no more.

[00:20:37]Oh, these are some homes. Do the people live here? Yeah, they must be.

[00:20:44]Uh abandoned homes.

[00:20:51]Oh, some of them are boarded up.

[00:20:54]You can see a lot of places in the city where the homes and the businesses have been torn down.

[00:21:05]And uh well, nature has taken back over. Yeah, I guess this is where a house used to be, right?

[00:21:19]And then, you know, another house will pop up.

[00:21:29]Uh there's a great old theater here. Uh I'm going to take you to that right now.

[00:21:33]Show it to you. Okay. Yeah, now here's this theater.

[00:21:38]Uh it's called the Palace Theater.

[00:21:40]Built in 1926.

[00:21:46]Is that still in use? No?

[00:21:47]>> it's not in operation now.

[00:21:49]>> Oh, that's a shame. But um it was designed by the guy who at the time was considered the greatest at designing theaters. Oh, it's a shame though that that it's not in use cuz they could do that up. Surely that wouldn't cost too much more.

[00:22:05]>> in the world.

[00:22:07]I can't remember his name. I didn't write it down.

[00:22:10]Um but anyway, uh you can see that it was once incredible.

[00:22:19]Now, despite there being 70,000 people here, there are no Walmarts.

[00:22:25]Wow.

[00:22:25]>> But there are some great grocery stores.

[00:22:28]You guys always ask to see them.

[00:22:31]Here's one here.

[00:22:33]Save More.

[00:22:34]There's a few others in the town as well.

[00:22:39]Okay. I can't believe there's no Walmart.

[00:22:42]As far as I can tell, there are no hotels.

[00:22:47]At least not major chains. I mean, would you want to stay there?

[00:22:52]My wife and I had to stay in nearby Merrillville, which is about nine eight nine miles down the road.

[00:23:00]Really nice modern town.

[00:23:03]Aw, this is a shame. Look at that one.

[00:23:06]>> That one is really just abandoned.

[00:23:08]These.

[00:23:11]Oh, no.

[00:23:18]Sad, cuz like that looks like such a big family home. And to think like people used to live there and have their Christmases and birthdays and things. So sad.

[00:23:30]In really good condition in other parts of the country.

[00:23:34]Uh these are half million dollar houses.

[00:23:37]Or more.

[00:23:52]That's That's a terrible thing.

[00:23:57]That uh this has happened here.

[00:24:01]It is.

[00:24:03]Uh that one caught on fire, it looks like. Wow.

[00:24:10]But there were cars in the street, so people do still live on the street. They must do.

[00:24:25]Mixed in though.

[00:24:26]Here in the neighborhoods, there are homes that are well taken care of.

[00:24:32]And uh are are beautiful.

[00:24:35]That's nice.

[00:24:39]Yeah, it's a beautiful home. That's nice.

[00:24:50]Now the homes that I am approaching now are uh very unique architecturally.

[00:24:57]Okay.

[00:24:58]Some of the more interesting homes ever built.

[00:25:02]These are called Thomas Edison concrete houses.

[00:25:07]Uh he patented the design.

[00:25:10]These homes are built with a single pour of concrete.

[00:25:16]Wow.

[00:25:17]They Now they're pretty tough to build.

[00:25:19]You can imagine it would take a lot of work to get uh the areas that you fill the concrete in just right. Yeah. So that you could pull up your concrete truck and make one single pour. But once you did that you had a house. They look so cool.

[00:25:40]These didn't really catch on across most of the country, but US Steel really liked the idea.

[00:25:46]And today there are still about 70 of these Oh, cool. uh in the city of Gary.

[00:25:54]That's a nice Absolutely gorgeous.

[00:25:58]Yeah, you'll come on streets where the homes are all well really well taken care of.

[00:26:04]>> Yeah, this this is like a good street.

[00:26:07]So it's important to show that Gary is just not all abandoned buildings.

[00:26:16]There are places of beauty here, too.

[00:26:18]There are beautiful streets, residential streets.

[00:26:22]Uh this is one of them.

[00:26:23]That is a nice street.

[00:26:27]Uh here's some more of these Edison homes.

[00:26:36]Really fascinating idea, isn't it?

[00:26:39]Just to get the uh entire house framed out show up with a concrete truck Yeah.

[00:26:48]and Some more of that. build an entire house in a short period of time with your concrete truck.

[00:26:59]>> all abandoned.

[00:27:04]I hate to see them in this condition though. These are uh historical homes.

[00:27:11]Uh they should be taken care of, but they're not sadly.

[00:27:19]I'm sure the uh city of Gary just doesn't have the money.

[00:27:22]I got that is what it is. I hate to >> Probably why most of these buildings aren't looked after is cuz they just don't have the money for it.

[00:27:27]>> See that.

[00:27:31]Yeah, you just drive through downtown here and then you'll see a home just kind of sitting out here by itself in a sea of trash.

[00:27:42]Yeah.

[00:27:46]Just sitting empty.

[00:27:49]Wow.

[00:27:51]How much rubbish is on the street?

[00:27:52]>> all this trash, too. That's crazy.

[00:27:59]Uh it's just so much of it.

[00:28:02]Wow, is nobody picking that up?

[00:28:07]Uh uh I'm just always shocked when I see trash thrown on or just thrown on the ground like this. Nobody picks it up.

[00:28:17]>> Mhm.

[00:28:19]So bad.

[00:28:23]I know many people of Gary take pride in their city, but honestly they should clean that up.

[00:28:32]Am I wrong? I don't know. No, I think people should pick it >> I say?

[00:28:37]I don't get it.

[00:28:41]Yeah, these are um These are being left here to uh left to die.

[00:28:51]I'm surprised I am really shocked at how many um abandoned homes there are.

[00:29:24]All right, I'm on a street called Jackson Jackson Way, I think.

[00:29:28]I did not know he lived in You can probably guess why.

[00:29:34]Uh this street is where the home of superstar Michael Jackson Oh, really?

[00:29:42]grew up in.

[00:29:43]Oh, he grew up in Gary. Wow, I did not know that.

[00:29:46]>> the entire family.

[00:29:49]Uh if you know anything about the Jacksons, you know that they uh came out of Gary, Indiana. I did not know that. So, I'm approaching his house. Cuz of course, when you come to Gary, you have to uh come to this place.

[00:30:08]I'm showing you the >> now or street that he lived on.

[00:30:16]So, you can imagine a young Michael out here goofing off.

[00:30:21]Uh here's the home right here.

[00:30:23]A- As I understand it, the home next door uh is part of the property as well, even though they didn't live there.

[00:30:34]Okay.

[00:30:35]But anyway, uh let's get out and take a look, shall we?

[00:30:39]Yeah, it's very small.

[00:30:44]Oh, wow.

[00:30:46]I was reading about the house. Um It was built in 1949. Okay. His parents paid $8,500 for it uh in 1950.

[00:30:59]672 square feet. That's not that big.

[00:31:02]>> one bathroom.

[00:31:04]And um I think we all know that the Jacksons were a large family. Mhm, how do they fit in that?

[00:31:11]>> It's hard to imagine.

[00:31:15]All those kids in this tiny little house.

[00:31:21]Really is.

[00:31:22]Uh Yeah, it's crazy.

[00:31:28]>> small.

[00:31:30]But uh it's interesting to see that kind of greatness coming out of such a uh humble place. Mhm.

[00:31:37]It is really tiny. Like, how do they fit in there?

[00:31:41]The neighborhood here.

[00:31:48]I'm surprised there's no plaque on it or anything.

[00:31:56]Jesus saves in bright neon. You can see that from Broadway, the main street.

[00:32:13]That's pretty cool.

[00:32:18]Oh, this looks sad.

[00:32:19]What? Cat.

[00:32:23]Oh, there you go, guys.

[00:32:24]Wasn't even looking for a cat in this video.

[00:32:28]But there he is.

[00:32:31]Amongst the trash, hanging out.

[00:32:33]>> gosh. Anyway, uh let's see.

[00:32:36]Let's see, how much are they paying for gas here in Northern Indiana?

[00:32:43]Many of you always want to know.

[00:32:46]There it is.

[00:32:47]$2.44 a gallon.

[00:32:50]Uh, they have a baseball park.

[00:32:53]Okay. I believe for the local semi-pro team, the RailCats.

[00:33:00]Nice.

[00:33:00]>> nice, beautiful, new park.

[00:33:06]Looks nice.

[00:33:09]Yeah, you can see it. It looks real nice, doesn't it?

[00:33:11]>> got some really like nice little areas.

[00:33:13]It does.

[00:33:21]You go from that to this, though.

[00:33:27]Um, one block off Broadway.

[00:33:32]It's crazy.

[00:33:36]You can see, um, Oh, that was a nice home at one time.

[00:33:48]It just looks bleak, doesn't it?

[00:33:50]It does look so >> Yes, I know the weather doesn't help, but Looks It does look dull. You drive through areas of this town and it genuinely looks uh, post-apocalyptic.

[00:34:03]Look at that house.

[00:34:15]Big houses.

[00:34:17]Reminds you of Detroit quite a bit.

[00:34:21]That's a big house. Oh, just >> These are huge homes.

[00:34:30]Wow.

[00:34:33]Yeah, they're just everywhere here.

[00:34:48]Geez.

[00:35:08]Can this city be saved?

[00:35:12]I don't know, guys. Can this city be saved?

[00:35:17]Don't know. Let me know in the comments below, guys, what you think. I think with a lot of money, it definitely could be, but it's Who's got the money and where you going to find the money?

[00:35:25]Um yeah, I think that is the bottom line.

[00:35:28]It's really sad to see so many beautiful homes with such big potentials um just sat there left to just to rot away. It It is It is sad. And that beautiful church as well.

[00:35:38]Um let me know your thoughts in the comments below, guys. Have a fantastic day, and I'll see you in the next one.

[00:35:42]Bye.