Gary attorney Tony Walker wants the City Council to adopt a dress code banning low-slung pants. He even drafted the ordinance and offered to represent the city for free if anyone challenges the constitutionality of the ordinance.

That's how strongly Walker feels about the gangster style of dress and what it means for Gary's economic development hopes.

"Frankly speaking, working families desiring to raise their children with strong American values are not likely to purchase a home in a neighborhood where youth(s) roam about mimicking the dress of prison inmates, nor would such a community attract shoppers or business owners evaluating locations for a new enterprise," Walker wrote in a letter to the Gary City Council.

I have to chuckle when I think of the saggy pants because I remember Richard Ligon, who ran for sheriff in 2006, telling me that he counseled youths to hitch up their pants -- and for a very good reason. Teens with saggy pants look suspicious to police, and if the youths run from the police officers, they might trip over their pants.

Now that's an amusing visual!

I see Walker's point about saggy pants as a visual deterrent, although I'm more concerned about all the dilapidated houses and the visual deterrent to development they offer. The city needs help from the federal government to get these eyesores -- and magnets for crime -- razed.

But what Gary needs most of all to improve its economic development prospects is to get its finances in order.

The "reprieve" the city is getting from Wednesday's ruling by the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board means its taxpayers are going to be burdened more than taxpayers elsewhere in Indiana.

For the city to recover, it must cut its budget not just by the $11.25 million -- spread across the civil city and various sister agencies -- required by the state board but by the full amount necessary for the city always to live within the property tax caps in effect elsewhere in Indiana.

Problems with crime, infrastructure and other issues aside, why would anyone want to buy a home or open a business in a city where the property taxes are higher than anywhere else in the state?

Gary's bloated local government has made the cost of living there unappetizing for people shopping for value.

I want Gary to experience the turnaround it needs. An unhealthy core hurts the entire region.

Get the spending -- and thus the taxes -- under control, and Gary could finally be on the road to recovery.

Editorial Page Editor Doug Ross can be reached at (219) 548-4360, (219) 933-3357 or Doug.Ross@nwi.com. The opinion expressed in this column is the writer's and not necessarily that of The Times.