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CLEVELAND. In 1978, after Cleveland became the first major American city since the Depression to go into default, even Clevelanders began telling Cleveland jokes. Sample: What's the difference between Cleveland and the Titanic? Cleveland has a better orchestra. Now, however, the city can also boast about the enthusiasm of Mayor George Voinovich, which has helped trigger a new civic pride and a modest building boom. Standard Oil Co. of Ohio is constructing its new headquarters near Lake Erie. At 46 floors, it will be the state's largest office building. New towers are rising for Ohio Bell and the Medical Mutual Center, too. But despite the signs of life, Cleveland's manufacturing base has weakened; 84,000 blue-collar jobs have been lost since 1968. As in most other big cities, young people, especially blacks and other minorities, are suffering disproportionately. The youth unemployment rate has risen to 38%, from 24% in 1979, and, for minority youth, to almost 53%, from 33%. Says Voinovich: "Keeping people alive has become our No. 1 responsibility. Everything else we want to do has been pushed down the list."
While trying to attract new industry, local officials are also struggling to spruce up the city. City planners estimate that Cleveland (pop. 574,000) will need to invest at least $1.2 billion just to repair and rehabilitate its roads, bridges and water system. Plagued by school-system deficits, the city is facing a shortfall of $20 million next year. But the ever optimistic mayor insists there is a greener future beyond the blue-collar blues.
DAVENPORT. Shortly before Christmas, an anonymous donor sent checks for $4,000 each to eight Catholic parishes in Iowa's Davenport area with instructions to use the money to hire unemployed parishioners. The giveaway was about the only good news to come out of Davenport (pop. 103,000) in 1982. The city is part of an industrial oasis on the border between Iowa and Illinois, surrounded by fertile farm land and overlooking the Mississippi River, that includes Iowa's Bettendorf and Rock Island and Illinois' Moline. The Quad Cities region, as it is called, has a 17.5% unemployment rate now, but only two years ago the area was booming, seemingly insulated from the country's economic ups and downs. However, high interest rates and low crop prices hit farmers hard at the same time that the national economic malaise was drying up the market for the Quad Cities' most important industrial products: heavy construction equipment and farm implements. The cities' major employers, Deere, International Harvester, J.I. Case, Caterpillar and Alcoa, have laid off thousands of workers. On Jan. 4, some 1,800 people showed up to apply for 250 jobs at a packing plant in nearby Joslin, Ill. Says Congressman Jim Leach, who represents Davenport in Congress: "The Quad Cities will never recover until agricultural prices go up and inflation goes down."