Word: highes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...square knew that their numbers were dwindling and that their protest was turning into a minor sidelight to a power struggle. A few days ago, in a flash of their earlier exuberance, they erected a "Goddess of Democracy" at the northern end of the square. The 30-ft.-high sculpture, fashioned from plaster-covered Styrofoam and bearing a marked resemblance to the Statue of Liberty, drew contemptuous comments from the government -- and admiration from thousands of onlookers...
Time was when East St. Louis enjoyed a modicum of blue-collar prosperity. In the '40s and early '50s it ranked second only to Chicago as a national rail and stockyard center. But almost all its industry has left, driven out by high crime rates and property taxes. Thousands of jobs have gone with the factories, leaving the city a pocket of nearly hopeless poverty in the generally economically well-off St. Louis metropolitan area, and quite possibly the worst-off urban center in America...
There has not been a municipal audit since 1985, but estimates of current debt run as high as $40 million. The city's mercurial third-term mayor, Carl Officer, 37, has gone so far as to propose selling city hall and six fire stations to raise cash, assuming anybody would buy them. City employees routinely get paid a month or more late...
Antiquated city pumps break down all too regularly, backing up raw sewage into East St. Louis High School and forcing the cancellation of classes. At the Villa Griffin public housing project, a persistent pool of sewage on a playground, dubbed Lake Villa Griffin by angry residents, led to the filing of criminal charges against the city to force sewer repairs. When Mayor Officer failed to appear at a hearing on the matter, a county judge clapped him into jail briefly for contempt...
...operate a studio in the city in the late 1960s. Heptathlon gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee recalls a happy childhood there and still returns occasionally from the West Coast to visit friends. But today the hottest ticket in East St. Louis is a ticket out of it. The two high schools produce perennial state champions in football and basketball, putting - a few gifted athletes on the road to college, hoping for stardom in the N.F.L. or N.B.A. For other youngsters, there is profit in peddling crack but not much else...