THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509020518
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
I'm going home to Cleveland this morning, glittering pride like a patriotic fool.
For the first time in nearly two decades, I feel like I'm really going someplace.
``Don't come back to Cleveland,'' Mama begged after my sisters and I graduated college. We knew she wanted us near. But, she said, ``There's no opportunity here.''
In the mid-1980s, a trip home to Cleveland could gray my soul. It hurt to see my brothers struggle to find decent-paying jobs; to see grown, muscled men who had hauled steel swirling ice cream cones at McDonald's.
Each time, I came back to Hampton Roads puzzling over Chesapeake residents who grumbled about growth.
Now, across the country, they're calling it ``Comeback Cleveland!''
Out of the ashes of urban decay, from the brunt of a national joke, Cleveland rises.
And it rocks. And rolls.
Tonight at the Gateway Sports Entertainment Complex in the heart of downtown, Aretha, Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Berry will sing praises to the $92-million Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which gleams like a strange gem on the shore of Lake Erie.
May it draw a million visitors a year.
I won't be at the concert. I'm too cheap to buy tickets at $30 and up. And there are family matters to tend to.
But I feel the fervor just the same.
It has been a long time coming.
Cleveland's decline began in the mid-to-late '60s with race riots on the east side.
Then in 1969, the oily Cuyahoga River combusted.
The fire was funny to folks outside city lines. ``Burn on big river,'' Randy Newman sang. But long after the dirty, brown smoke cleared, we Clevelanders were deeply embarrassed.
Then in 1978, another infamous distinction: The first U.S. city to default on loans since the Great Depression.
That same year, Mayor Dennis Kucinch faced a recall election.
Meanwhile, steel mills cut back. Men lost jobs and homes.
Now, the Indians are No. 1! After decades!
In a city still racially polarized, blacks and whites at the new stadium yell like hell. ``Go Indians!'' They're crying, screaming for Cleveland to make it.
In Hough, site of a riot, Community Development Corporations invest in blighted neighborhoods. In 1994, CDCs built more than 650 homes throughout the city.
In the Flats, popular eateries and construction bustle along the edge of the river that burned.
To be sure, there are still plenty of problems. Housing stock is decrepit. The state stepped in to run Cleveland schools this year. High-wage jobs are too few.
But I'm telling you, it's still enough to make a sister-girl homesick.
In case you can't go to Cleveland, here's some local fun:
A Scholarship Banquet in Honor of Dr. L.D. Britt on Friday, at Scott-Dozier Hall, Norfolk State University, $25. The Sentara Norfolk General trauma chief will be honored with a $20,000 scholarship in his name.
The Wallops Black History Club on Saturday, Sept. 9, 5 p.m., NASA Wallops Flight Facility gymnasium, Wallops Island. Hear gospel singing and three speakers on ``Where Does The Afro-American Go From Here?'' Call 824-4833.
Enjoy! by CNB