Word: east
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...labor force is unemployed. One-fourth of the 82,000 residents receive some kind of public assistance. Relations between the city's 38,000 whites and its 44,000 Negroes are abrasive at best. Though little organized vice survives and the once famous red-light district is deserted, East St. Louis has one of the worst crime rates of any U.S. city its size. There were 47 murders in 1968 and 15 so far in 1969. Only the brave dare walk its streets after dark...
Micawberism. East St. Louis has always been something of an illusion. From the Missouri side of the river, it looks like a throbbing industrial center. Actually, most of the industry is situated beyond the city limits, in a warren of privately incorporated company towns that draw on East St. Louis's cheap labor sources but contribute nothing to its support. A magnet for Northbound Negroes ever since World War II, the city is overburdened with unskilled workers whose families have strained the welfare system and glutted the schools. When large plants like Swift, Armour and Alcoa pulled...
Unable to meet burgeoning budgets from a shrinking tax base, East St. Louis has survived for the past 15 years by the euphemistically named ploy of "judgment financing." While borrowing from banks, which invariably have to sue for repayment, the city has remained a step ahead of its creditors by taking advantage of an Illinois law that permits it to float bonds without public consent. This kind of Micawberism has driven the city so deep into the red that debt service accounted for 35% of 1967's property-tax revenues and threatens to devour more than half...
Politically, at least, the outlook for East St. Louis seems to be brightening. A predominantly black committee, chaired by Negro Bus Driver Harold Brewer, has petitioned for a referendum returning the city to an aldermanic form of government by 1971. This could end the rule of Mayor Alvin G. Fields' moribund Democratic machine and give the black majority a real voice...
...East St. Louis, these relatively minor developments are cause for at least quiet celebration. All represent movement, and for a city at the very bottom of the urban heap, that can only mean improvement...