RARE is the wedding, funeral, confirmation, ordination, commencement or polka party that is not attended by Cleveland's Republican Mayor Ralph Perk, a third-generation Czech. He presides over a city of some 65 different nationalities, and he is deferential, in turn, to every one. His finance director is a second-generation Slovak, his utilities director a naturalized Lithuanian. The city properties director is of Polish stock, and the head of human resources happens to have a family tree rooted firmly in the Ukraine. At a recent Serbian picnic, Perk appealed to the pick-nickers'...
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