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MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL. It has often been named one of the country's most livable locales, and it continues to be so. Unlike many other Midwestern hubs, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul (pop. 641,000) are thriving on a good economic mix. Moving beyond such staples as Pillsbury Co. and the Cargill Inc. grain company, adventurous entrepreneurs are founding new businesses in electronics and biotechnology, making the area a good candidate to become the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. Top-of-the-line boutiques, trendy restaurants, fine art and music flourish amid Minneapolis' gleaming high-rise towers and the restored Victorian houses of St. Paul. Unemployment is 7.4%, the highest since the Depression but still well below the national average.
But the recession has cast its shadow. Residents have experienced a spate of problems in recent months, ranging from such largely symbolic blows as the collapse of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Stadium roof to a deeply worrisome and basic one: the state's deteriorating financial condition. Farm bankruptcies, once practically nonexistent, are on the rise. Growing unemployment has caused state revenues to plummet, and lawmakers have raised taxes twice in the past year. A billion-dollar revenue shortfall in the next two years is predicted for the state. Says a concerned construction worker who has been employed for only twelve weeks in the past year: "I feel like everything is closing in on us all at once."
OMAHA. Grocer Phil Morrison is offering his unemployed customers a 5% discount on their food bills in his three stores on the North Side. "We hope to keep it going only as long as needed," Morrison says. In pinched days as well as prosperous, Omaha folk pride themselves on their friendliness and pioneer spirit. Nebraska's largest city (pop. 312,000) has a 7.7% unemployment rate, up from 4.9% last year, high by Omaha standards, but lower than in most other major Midwestern cities. Once better known for the rank odor of the stockyards, which occupied most of the south side, than for any other attribute, Omaha began nudging its economy into new avenues years ago. Today, only one of every eight jobs in the area is related to manufacturing. Its largest employer, the Strategic Air Command of the U.S. Air Force, provides more than 13,000 fairly recession-proof jobs for military and civilian workers. Other large firms, such as the Union Pacific Railroad Co. and Mutual of Omaha insurance, have kept their work forces essentially intact.
ST. LOUIS. When the 1980 census figures were revealed, St. Louis seemed to be down for the count. Statistics showed that during the 1970s its population (453,000) had dropped more, proportionately, than any other major city's—a finding that cost St. Louis millions of dollars in federal aid.
Jolted by the news, the city launched a booster campaign that has helped it endure the economic slump. A downtown building boom has catapulted it into the nation's top six cities for new construction. Projects under way include a four-story mall that will be the largest enclosed shopping center in the country.