The Forgotten City

Four cities. One region. Two dramatically different realities.Drive through Northwest Indiana and the contrast can be impossible to ignore.In The Forgotten City: Where the People Are Left Behind, author Tarelle Seymour takes readers beyond statistics and headlines to document what she witnessed firsthand across Crown Point, Merrillville, Miller, and Gary, Indiana.While new businesses, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, housing, and other developments transform neighboring communities, Seymour turns her camera toward Gary-a city where abandoned homes, shuttered schools, aging buildings, limited resources, and neighborhoods waiting for reinvestment tell a very different story. The manuscript deliberately contrasts Crown Point's rapid development and Merrillville's commercial growth with conditions Seymour documents in Gary.Featuring more than 400 recent photographs, personal observations, conversations, and lived experiences, this visual documentary invites readers to see Northwest Indiana through the author's eyes. Seymour walks the streets, visits neighborhoods, documents buildings and community spaces, and asks a simple but difficult question: Why are some communities moving forward while others continue to be left behind?But this isn't only a story about abandoned buildings.It's about the people who stayed.It's about families, neighborhoods, history, dignity, opportunity, and residents who continue believing their communities deserve a future. Seymour's closing reflections emphasize the strength of residents who remain connected to their neighborhoods and her desire to create a conversation about inequality that goes beyond numbers and charts.Raw, personal, visual, and unapologetically direct, The Forgotten City asks readers not simply to look at Gary-but to look closer.Because a forgotten city is still home to people who deserve to be seen.