East St. Louis: staying alive

TO MOST Illinoisans, East St. Louis is the last thing they see from the car window before they cross the Mississippi on the way to St. Louis. For others, East St. Louis is a set of grim statistics: industrial decline, middle-class flight, poverty, unemployment, political scandal and crime. Neither of these views does justice to the achievements or the disappointments of a town that has long practiced the hard art of survival.

Back in the 1920's, East St. Louis was tough, hard-working and segregated. Irish, Slavic and eastern European whites and southern blacks worked on the railroads or in the meat packing plants and other heavy industries located in tax enclaves outside the city limits. There was both racial and labor strife, and East St. Louis had the reputation of being a "bad" labor town.

After World War II, whites began leaving the city, and poor blacks entered in great numbers. By the 1950's, technological changes and the replacement of rail and waterway transportation by trucks began to erode Metro-East's manufacturing base. Some industries moved; others just folded. Between 1950 and 1970, manufacturing employment dropped by about 50 percent. And in the 1970's, commercial establishments also fled the city, reducing the tax base and making East St. Louis ever more dependent on federal money. (In 1975, $13 million of the city's $20 million budget came from the federal government.) During the same period, racial violence accelerated the flight of whites and middle-class blacks from the city.

Today, East St. Louis is a poor cousin to St. Louis, but it sits on some of the most valuable land in the Midwest. Its port and industrial sites are becoming more important now, and it is also part of the nation's second (after Chicago) largest railroad switching center. If East St. Louis can master its problems, the key will be the river and rail improvements now underway.

When the new $500 million Alton locks and dam are completed, river traffic will increase, benefiting port cities like East St. Louis (which became a foreign trade zone last year). Construction of the Alton locks and dam, which began in April, will end the long delays barge traffic now suffers. The railroad relocation project, known as MARGE (Metro Area Rail Gateway Enterprise), would eliminate delays (up to four days) in getting freight cars across the river and make it easier for east side motorists to get around in their own cities. Most important of all, MARGE would free 1,000 acres of valuable riverfront land for redevelopment. Parks, marinas and perhaps new residential areas are possible, along with port and industrial sites.

MARGE is a many-sided venture involving the U.S. Railroad Administration, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), and a host of local governments on each side of the river, including East St. Louis. Getting the railroads to agree on a relocation plan, allocating jobs and contracts so that east-side communities and minorities get a fair share; deciding who will own the riverfront land, how it will be developed and how the benefits will be distributed — these are major problems that will require landmark solutions. MARGE also has a landmark pricetag. Planning alone (land use options and IDOT's environmental impact report are due at the end of this year) will cost about $3 million. Moving the railroads will cost another $3 to $5 million.

But East St. Louis is not just sitting around waiting for MARGE. "There is a new climate in the city, one of going out after improvements," says Rep. Wyvetter Younge (D., East St. Louis). One reason for this is the new mayor, Carl Officer, 27, who completed his first year in office this May. A protegt of Secy, of State Alan J. Dixon, Officer comes from a respected East St, Louis family, has a business background and does not need to use politics to get rich. He has brought in young professionals to staff city offices and has credibility with reformers, business interests and state officials. He has also endorsed President Carter.

Another positive force in East St. Louis is Target 2000, a coalition of business, labor, community and religious leaders established in 1979 to improve the quality of life in the city. The catalyst for Target 2000 was a speech by Charles Marshall, president of Illinois Bell Telephone (IBT) at the East St. Louis Urban League's 1977 banquet. Calling for a positive attitude, Marshall challenged leaders from the Metro East area to work together to make East St. Louis a better place to live.

IBT's own commitment to the city began in 1975 when it took over Metro-East phone service and invested $6 million in a new switching system. Unlike other businesses, utilities cannot move away from the areas they serve. IBT's territory consists mostly of the state's major cities and their suburbs. With profits and future growth dependent on the health of these older urban areas, IBT has become a powerful champion of restoration and redevelopment. It's economic division, founded in 1978, works with Target 2000 and in other IBT territories throughout the state.

In 1979, Target 2000 raised funds to restore two swimming pools and administered a summer youth program. In 1980 the city took over the program. In 1979 Target 2000 helped find a warehouse operation to lease some of the buildings in Obear Nester Glass complex (which had closed down with a loss of 600 jobs). This year the Southwestern Metropolitan Port District, which owns the site, is applying for a federal grant for an alcohol manufacturing plant which wants to locate there.

But the all-out effort to keep Hunter

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2/August 1980/Illinois Issues

The state of the State

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East St. Louis: staying alive

Packing Plant in the city probably best illustrates what's happening in East St. Louis. That effort began when Ron Shevlin, business representative of the Laborers Local 100 and a member of Target 2000, found out that Hunter was thinking of moving to St. Charles, Mo.

Because financing was Hunter's number one concern, the mayor's office and the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs put together a joint application for a $20 million Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) to build a new Hunter Packing Plant in East St. Louis. It is the first time a city and state have made a joint application. One feature of the UDAG grant is that upon repayment to the city by Hunter, the money can be loaned again — a revolving fund for economic development.

The total package for Hunter is $56 million in public and private funds, including industrial revenue and pollution control bonds and manpower training programs. Labor representatives also agreed not to strike for the duration of the construction project. If Hunter builds in East St. Louis, it will; save 1,100 jobs. And if East St. Louis gets the grant, it will be a major psychological victory.

East St. Louis is also looking for companies that can pay their own way. One of these, Horizon Communications of Evansville, Ind., will build a $2 million cable TV system in the city. One requirement is that 40 of the 44 jobs must go to East St. Louisans.

The abiding reality of East St. Louis is unemployment. The jobless rate may run as high as 43 percent. This includes skilled workers who were laid off and unemployed youth who need training and motivation. "Cooperation is the only way we can make it," says Artis Talley, the mayor's director of public information. "The era of cooperation is here. No one can do it alone any more — not the feds, not the private sector, not the state or the city." And it will take a long time. "East St. Louis was dying for 30 years," says Sen. Harbor Hall (D., East St. Louis). "It will be a slow slow process to bring the city back again."