One thing President Obama will sense right away when he arrives in Lorain County Friday is that this is largely a blue collar area with a strong heritage in manufacturing, shipbuilding, autos and farming. 300,000 people are spread out in mid-size cities, Lorain and Elyria…the historic college town of Oberlin… and bedroom suburbs like Avon to the east and Amherst to the west.
You can get a good sense of what Lorain County has become by recalling what it was. Palma Stipe has fond memories of childhood visits to Broadway Avenue, in the heart of downtown Lorain 50 years ago.
PALMA STIPE: We would spend all Saturday morning down there. We would have lunch at Woolworths. I remember Kline's department store, and going to the summer movies --- there were three of them: Ohio Theater, the Palace, and the Tivoli.
Broadway today as a ghost of its former self --- block after block of buildings, including churches - vacant and boarded up. While some traditional retail still exists, there's now a wig shop where the Woolworth's used to be…and a popular furniture store has been replaced by a tattoo parlor. The entire area feels grey and largely abandoned.
The industrial heart of Lorain sits several blocks south of downtown…along 28th street. Fifty years ago, the sprawling US Steel plant and a number of other steel-related companies hummed along the dozen blocks of this thoroughfare. There were also a number of bars and cafes, catering to the workers of multiple shifts. Frank Detillio grew-up in that neighborhood and he recalls his mother telling him to get the garden hose every morning to wash down the front porch, which was coated with red and black soot blown from factory smokestacks. He says, back then, 28th street was bustling.
FRANK DETILLIO: We used to stand out in the front yard and play in the evening, and every fifteen minutes there would be a bus --- full bus --- traveling down 28th street, going to the gate to go to work.
Last week, the Lorain County Commissioners approved a plan to slash the local transit system - leaving only two fixed routes. 32 out of 41 bus drivers will lose their jobs. Upwards of 800 steelworkers have been on indefinite layoff for over a year due to the recession. That comes on top of thousands of other local layoffs from dozens of companies that have downsized, moved or closed up, over the past twenty years --- including a huge Ford Assembly plant, on the west side of town.
The White House says President Obama is coming to Lorain to reinforce its commitment to bringing good-paying jobs to Ohio. It's something he promised on his last visit here, during the 2008 presidential primary campaign, when the city's unemployment rate was 7 and a half percent. Since then, it's risen as high as 11 ½ percent before improving a bit recently to 9 ½.
Frank Detillio...the kid who grew-up on 28th street…is now the president of the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce. He says one of Lorain's first industrial casualties was the internationally known Thew Shovel Company, which closed it's operations in 1979.
FRANK DETILLIO: There were people who were unemployed for ten years that thought that Thew Shovel would open up again.
Folks there know now that those big employers aren't coming back; they have moved on; but some observers say the county, including its leaders, were slow to adjust to the new era of global competition.
Nick Kowalczyk is a Lorain native, a former reporter for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, and now assistant professor at New York's Ithaca College. He gives an unvarnished account of the unraveling of his hometown in a book he's writing.
NICK KOWALCZYK: First of all there was the flight of manufacturing flight. There was also a lack of vision and integrity among city leaders --- local politicians were very arrogant and concentrated on maintaining power and fighting with each other and neglecting the city. And you had citizens who were hard working, blue collar people who were never in control of their destiny. They were at the mercy of boards of directors of companies far away.
People have been struggling here with "forces beyond their control" a long time and many have become disheartened. Cheri Campbell sees that a lot. She
works the reference desk at the Lorain Public Library.
CHERI CAMPBELL: These people, they're some of the hardest working people you're going to meet. Even with the potholed streets and the spiraling crime rate, they love their town. But, it's hard to stay here, when you don't have the jobs. You need the jobs. You need…I hate to say, hope.
Many people are talking about "hope" in the form of so-called "green energy" jobs. Fred Wright, who heads the Lorain County Urban League, says he's heard that federal funding for green jobs is in the pipeline, but hasn't seen it yet. His agency has gotten some money from Washington to help homeowners with foreclosure.
FRED WRIGHT: We are a HUD-certified housing counseling agency, and we've received some stimulus funds through our national Urban League office. There's been some stimulus money for utility assistance. But, by and large, there has not been the influx of stimulus money that I would have liked to have seen.
There's another source of federal funds that area officials have high expectations for --- something that could would give Lorain County a foothold in the growing electric car market. Chemical giant BASF recently won a grant from the Department of Energy that would partially fund a facility in Elyria, to produce a key component of Lithium ion batteries. It's a trace of hope, after decades of decay.
Writer Nick Kowalczyk also sees some promise, just north of Lorain County. He thinks that another way to improve the local economy is to build a tourism industry around Lake Erie.
NICK KOWALCZYK: There is opportunity there for tourism. But first there needs to be a commitment to rehabbing neighborhoods and the downtown. But, I do believe the answer is in that lake and in that river.
That's an idea that resonates with lots of people. Ralph Bruening who works for the Lorain Port Authority told the Plain Dealer, "We got more open lakefront than anyone" in Northeast Ohio and a lot of it is developable.
Good ideas are plentiful. What's missing is money to move them along and help these places reinvent themselves. Librarian Cheri Campbell and Lorain County Urban League President Fred Wright hope the President's visit will make a difference.
CHERI CAMPBELL: There was a lot of excitement here about the prospect of the President coming, but it's got to be more than just a nice, "Hello, I feel your pain."
FRED WRIGHT: I would like him to put communities like this high on the totem pole. We tend to think that all of the areas that are pertinent to our country are the Chicagos and the Los Angeles' and the New Yorks, but there are more communities that are of this size in this country than any place else.
Over the next two days, we'll have more reports on how Lorain County businesses and families are faring… and the message they want to send to President Obama, when he hosts a community forum at Lorain County Community College, this Friday.
