Posted 10/27/2008

CAN A PRESIDENT OBAMA SAVE CLEVELAND?

Will Barack Obama be able to save the rustiest buckle on the Rust Belt?

It will be a tall order to save one of our most rapidly decaying cities.

John D. Rockefeller made his billions in Cleveland when it was the fifth largest city in the nation. Then it declined with the Great Depression. But shortly after World War II, it rose again as an industrial center, nicknamed "the sixth city." The Cleveland Indians won the World Series and the Cleveland Browns dominated pro football.

But now the industries are gone and the city has sunk down to rank only 44 or so. Its athletic teams don't win very much despite new, glittering stadiums.

Once its people could boast about living in a low-crime city. But now Cleveland's crime rate ranks fourth highest in the nation. Where Cleveland once boasted a bevy of lush department stores like Higbe, Halle and the May Company, today the city is without a single department store.

Can Obama save this rapidly rusting city?

He'll need a lot more than Rust-Oleum.

During the post-war boom, Cleveland had the highest family income in the nation. An "executive house" in Cleveland was more expensive than four similar houses in Los Angeles. Today, a house in Los Angeles is more expensive than four similar houses in Cleveland.

When I asked my cab driver what had happened to Cleveland, he said, "All the rich people have left."

Attempts at downtown renovation have made some streets more attractive, but once-beautiful Euclid Avenue between Ninth Street and the Public Square has been shut down and abandoned.

Cleveland gets a lot of press out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But the city is more rocky than rockin' – and the roll is all downhill.

But the worst portent of future disintegration is the educational system.

While Cleveland can boast a fine university (Case Western Reserve) and a good one (Cleveland University), the secondary school system is pig iron under water. Budgets are shrinking under a tightening tax base, good teachers are let go, classes are overcrowded and very little learning is taking place.

And in the midst of all this, the West Side is at war with the East Side over tax revenues. It's like two drunks fighting over a deck chair on the Titanic as it slips into the ocean.

New data indicates that most kids don't even attempt to finish high school. Of all the Cleveland kids who start high school, 66 percent drop out. Cleveland's dropout rate is the third highest in the nation. If we turn the statistic around and look at graduation rates, Cleveland ranks 47th out of the 50 primary school districts surveyed.

During his campaign, Barack Obama talked a lot about rebuilding America's infrastructure. To Obama, infrastructure means roads, tunnels and bridges.

But these things are unimportant compared with the infrastructure of human capital. If that is allowed to continue to rust out, building roads, bridges and tunnels will not help one bit.

In a global world of increasing sophistication, who will hire a high school dropout?

In a world of global competition, who will locate his business in a city of dropouts? IBM is building two huge research and development centers – in China. The company never even considered Cleveland.

"Spreading the wealth" will not help Cleveland or Detroit or Columbus or other cities like Cleveland.

A President Obama is going to have to figure out how to spread his high-powered initiative and ambition to the ninth graders of America.

Hopefully, he'll be able to do it.

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