Have you lived in or visited Indiana? Tell us about it!
Anderson
Madison County, Indiana, USA (North America) – December 2018 — I live in Anderson. It is a city in Indiana located about 35 North of Indianapolis. I have lived in Anderson off and on since around 1989. The only time I left Anderson was when I was in the Army. I moved around the country for about 4 years, but other than that, I have lived in Anderson. When we first moved there from Indy, it was a thriving city due to the GM factories still being open. Several years ago, all the GM factories shut down and sent the worker overseas. This has seriously affected the city both economically and in appearances. The city has much higher crime, drug, an unemployment rates than ever before now. It is for the most part, dirty, run down and over ridden with drug addicts and there is a relatively high rate of crime compared to how things used to be. I do not like living here, even though we are employed and function in society well. Every time I go out into the city, I am approached by people asking for money and other things. It makes me uncomfortable to go out around town here now because of this. I have seen people attempt to rob others in parking lots and such. If it were up to me, we would have moved out of this area a very long time ago, but my husband is originally from here and does not want to move. There are employment opportunities here, but many of the residents rely heavily on government assistance and in my opinion, lack the drive and the skills to seek out these jobs. I really want to move.
Elkhart, Elkhart County, Indiana, USA – January 2018 — The town I am writing about would be Elkhart, Indiana. I was born close by, in Michigan, in 1983. I lived in Elkhart from when I was in 3rd grade until 11th grade, this would have been throughout the entirety of the 1990s. The area in general is what I would call working class, to poor class. I’m sure there are pockets of “money” just like there are rich folk everywhere, but the city, and whole North-Central Indiana landscape, is dominated by working class folk, and the “culture” of the class of drug is unfavorable, it’s all about methamphetamine’s and crack-rock (cocaine). I started working for a pizza place when I was 16, and stayed there until I was 20, advancing to the level of shift manager as soon as I was of age to do it for the company.
After staying 4 years and maxing out at less than 9 dollars an hour, I moved into the factory/manufacturing setting there for work, which is vibrant in the area. I worked for a couple of different factories, and at both it was the same as far as drug use goes: every break a good third to half of the workers would be smoking meth or snorting something. Every lunch the same thing. It was nearly impossible to take a #2 at work, because the stalls were always “occupied”. Definitely widespread, and not restricted to the places I personally worked for. Theft, property crimes, invasions, assaults, muggings, all prevalent. After dark, (going back to being a child again) it was definitely an area that you did not wander too far from home.