With wit and grit, Midwestern communities try to cope
"Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation."
Carl Sandburg's description of Chicago at the beginning of the century was every bit as accurate for the rest of the Midwest. With its raw energy and perpetual motion, the nation's heartland was synonymous with prosperous cities. Over the years, Chicago became identified with hogs, Toledo with glass, Detroit with automobiles, Akron with rubber. Youngstown with steel, Peoria with Caterpillar tractors.Today, however, in the cities that once were flagships of the region, unemployment has risen higher than in any other area of the U.S. Hit first and hardest by the recession, the Midwest may be the last region in the country to recover. Nonetheless, there are signs everywhere of a stubborn spirit and resilience. Here's a sampler of how ten Midwest cities are coping:
CHICAGO. Sandburg's "City of the Big Shoulders" (pop. 3 million) has become schizophrenic. In this updated tale of two cities, one is prospering, the other increasingly depressed. For the latter, officials are trying to speed up a successful shift from heavy industry to a finance and service economy. "Chicago has known for 25 years that its future was not going to be based on steel mills or stockyards," says Louis Masotti, a Northwestern University political scientist. "What is happening is a realignment of priorities and of purpose."
Downtown, new office towers rise in curvilinear splendor. On the West Side, the first of a series of high-tech parks has opened, with two genetic-technology firms as the first tenants. Plans for the 1992 World's Fair are under way. Indeed, a local business publication predicts a spirited upturn this year and says the long-term future looks even brighter. Still, in the other part of Chicago, the old world of smokestacks and stockyards, the recession dominates. The city has lost 160,000 jobs in the past decade, mostly in manufacturing. The steel mills that rim Lake Michigan from Chicago to Burns Harbor, Ind., are idling. Giant International Harvester, long one of the city's most robust corporations, is on the brink of bankruptcy, and the aging Wisconsin Steel plant has closed. Unemployment stands at 12.8%, with 190,967 people out of work More than 20,000 applied for 3,800 temporary jobs offered by Mayor Jane Byrne earlier this month. The state of Illinois' projected $200 million cash shortfall is certain to affect the city adversely.