West Side Leadership Academy

In Gary, "West Side" may also refer collectively to the neighborhoods west of Broadway, including Westside, Downtown West, Brunswick, Ambridge Mann and Tolleston.Westside (also spelled West Side) is a neighborhood in west-central Gary, Indiana, USA, bounded by the Cline Avenue expressway on the west, the Norfolk Southern railroad on the north, Clark Road on the east and 25th Avenue on the south. It lies directly east of the Hessville neighborhood of Hammond. Within Gary, it adjoins the neighborhoods of Brunswick, Tolleston and Black Oak. In 2000, Westside had a population of 6,153, which was 63.3% African-American and 31.9% white, with 10.1% Hispanic ethnicity.Much of the neighborhood's acreage is devoted to industrial and institutional uses, including a landfill. Westside's housing stock is concentrated in the northeast and southern areas. In 2000, its 2,340 housing units were 92% occupied and 60% owner-occupied. Most development in the area occurred after 1960, giving it a younger housing stock than most other Gary neighborhoods. In 2007, the neighborhood had the third highest housing values in Gary, behind Miller and Ambridge Mann.The 1964 comprehensive plan for Gary had designated the entire Westside area for industrial use, but "the area was invaded by speculators, who built isolated housing tracts". Construction continued into the 1970s, including some affordable housing projects. Westside and Miller were the only neighborhoods in Gary to increase population between 1970 and 1980, when Westside's population reached 6,368. However, crime soon became problematic; in 1984, when Westside was still largely middle-class, the Jewel supermarket serving the area closed because repeated thefts and robberies. Today, retail business in Westside is quite limited, except for a retail cluster near the Burr Street exit of the Borman Expressway, on the boundary between Westside and Black Oak.Westside has an elementary school and West Side High School. There is an 8-acre city park, Seberger Park, near the neighborhood's southwestern corner.

Brunswick is a neighborhood in northwestern Gary, Indiana, just south of Gary Chicago Airport. It borders Hammond and East Chicago to the west, and the Gary neighborhoods of Ambridge Mann to the east and Westside to the south. The borders are defined by the Indiana Toll Road on the north, Chase Street on the east, the Norfolk Southern railway on the south and Cline Avenue on the west. As of 2000, Brunswick had a population of 4,442 people, which was 84.6% African-American and 7.7% white. Like many Gary neighborhoods, Brunswick was a segregated white community until the early 1970s, when massive white flight occurred.As of 2000, the neighborhood's housing stock had a 90% occupancy rate and a 68% owner-occupancy rate. It was dominated by single-family homes, with 10% consisting of multi-family dwellings. The neighborhood is the site of a major shopping plaza, with additional commercial development clustered along U.S. 20. There are two private elementary schools, West Gary Lighthouse and Aspire Charter Academy, and one public elementary school, Brunswick Elementary. Brunswick was formerly served by its own post office. However, the Brunswick Station post office was closed in February 2011, and its operations were merged into those of the post office in Tolleston. Brunswick is served by its own branch of the Gary Public Library, which was established in 1959 but only moved into a dedicated space in 2003.Transportation connections in Brunswick include rail, highway, and air. The Gary/Chicago International Airport is located directly north of the neighborhood, and the neighborhood is served by the Clark Road station on the South Shore Line. The Cline Avenue expressway runs just west of Brunswick, and also affords access to the Indiana Toll Road which runs north of the neighborhood. At surface level, the neighborhood is traversed by U.S. 20, and is served by the buses of the Gary Public Transportation Corporation. Remnant areas of dune and swale habitat exist in Brunswick. Examples include the 110-acre Ivanhoe nature preserve operated by the Nature Conservancy, and the Clark and Pine Nature Preserve operated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which has the highest concentration of rare and endangered species of any Indiana nature preserve. The neighborhood is home to a 49-acre city park, Brunswick Park, which also incorporates areas of remnant dune and swale.The sewage treatment plant of the Gary Sanitary District is located in Brunswick, near the Grand Calumet River.

The Hammond Circus Train Wreck occurred on June 22, 1918, and was one of the worst train wrecks in U.S. history. Eighty-six people were reported to have died and another 127 were injured when a locomotive engineer fell asleep and ran his troop train into the rear of a circus train near Hammond, Indiana. The circus train held 400 performers and roustabouts of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.

Gary/Chicago Airport station is a South Shore Line train station located in the Brunswick neighborhood of Gary, Indiana. It is located on Clark Road about 1.1 miles (1.8 km) southeast of the Gary/Chicago International Airport terminal. The station has a single side platform on the north side of the two-track line. It is a flag stop.

Gary/Chicago International Airport (ICAO: KGYY, FAA LID: GYY) is a joint civil-military public airport in Gary, in Lake County, Indiana, United States. It is three miles northwest of the city center of Gary, and 25 miles (40 km) southeast of the Chicago Loop. It is operated by the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority, the basis for which was formed by the Chicago Gary Airport Compact signed in 1995. Nearby highway connections include I-90, I-80, I-94, I-65 and the Chicago Skyway. Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 4,353 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 1,633 in 2009 and 2,143 in 2010. It is in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which called it a non-primary commercial service airport based on enplanements in 2008 (between 2,500 and 10,000 per year) but would be categorized as general aviation based on enplanements in 2010.

In Hammond, Indiana, where 165th Street meets the border of Gary, a barrier or dike was constructed in the early 1980s to keep toxic flood water out. The once controversial barrier remains there to this day.

Black Oak is a neighborhood located on the far southwest side of Gary, Indiana. As of 2000, Black Oak had a population of 4,216, which was 84.7% white. It is Gary's only majority-white neighborhood, and the most recent neighborhood added to the city. Black Oak was annexed in 1976, under the administration of mayor Richard Hatcher. Prior to that, Black Oak had been an unincorporated area informally associated with nearby Hammond, and the area has Hammond telephone numbers. Located in Gary's southwest corner, Black Oak adjoins the town of Griffith and unincorporated Calumet Township; within Gary, neighboring neighborhoods include Glen Park to the east and Tolleston and Westside to the north. The neighborhood's northern boundary is formed by 25th Avenue, just north of the Borman Expressway; its eastern boundary is formed by Grant Street. Most of the neighborhood lies within the floodplain of the Little Calumet River.Because of its former status as an unincorporated region of the county, Black Oak is served by the Lake Ridge Schools Corporation, which also covers Calumet Township, rather than the Gary Community School Corporation. Similarly, it is the only neighborhood in Gary served by a branch of the Lake County Public Library rather than the Gary Public Library. Private schools in Black Oak include Gary Academy and the Black Oak School for the Deaf, both of which are K-12 schools. The housing stock in Black Oak is dominated by single-family and mobile homes. As of 2000, occupancy was 88%, and owner-occupancy was 70%. Black Oak is the only neighborhood in Gary where mobile homes make up a significant fraction of total housing. Thanks to its late date of annexation, it is also the only neighborhood where most development predates the neighborhood's becoming part of Gary.Poverty levels in Black Oak are similar to Gary as a whole; a 2005 study found that Black Oak residents faced obstacles to purchasing healthy and inexpensive food that were similar to those facing other Gary residents. Commercial development in Black Oak is concentrated at the neighborhood's eastern boundary along Grant Street, location of Gary's largest retail complex, the Village Shopping Center. Black Oak has numerous expanses of wetland and undeveloped floodplain land near the Little Calumet River. It is the site of Lake Etta County Park, the only county park located entirely within Gary; in addition, a bike trail runs along the south bank of the Little Calumet. However, environmental degradation is a serious problem, with frequent illegal dumping. The neighborhood includes Lake Sandy Jo, a Superfund site used as a toxic waste dump from 1967 to 1975, when it was closed by court order. Lake Sandy Jo was fenced off in 1986, and remediation by the EPA was completed in 1994.

WIND (AM 560) is a radio station based in Chicago, Illinois, broadcasting its conservative talk radio format on 560 kHz. Studios are located in suburban Elk Grove Village, while it transmits from a four-tower array in Griffith, Indiana. WIND is owned by Salem Media, a company specializing primarily in Christian radio. Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, transmitter power, and the surrounding region's flat land, WIND's daytime signal provides at least secondary coverage to much of Illinois and Indiana, as well as southeastern Wisconsin. At night, WIND's coverage into Indiana and central Illinois is reduced, as its nighttime pattern concentrates its signal in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.

Gary station was a railway station in Gary, Indiana. It was located at 5th and Chase Streets, initially serving the Pennsylvania Railroad.

William Merritt Chase Alternative School is a six-year (7-12) alternative school of the Gary Community School Corporation in Gary, Indiana, United States.

Oliver P. Morton High School is a public secondary school located in Hammond, Indiana, United States. It is part of the School City of Hammond district.

Ambridge was a South Shore Line flag stop located at Bridge Street in the Ambridge Mann neighborhood of Gary, Indiana. The station opened in 1920, and closed on July 5, 1994, as part of an NICTD service revision which also saw the closure of Kemil Road, Willard Avenue, LaLumiere, Rolling Prairie, and New Carlisle.