Racine, Haunted City: Look What Happens When Industry Flees.

• Author: Bybee, Roger
• Position: Essay

In 1917, my mother's parents packed up their meager belongings in St. Louis and loaded them and their little children into a railroad freight car headed to the then-bustling industrial mecca of Racine, Wisconsin. Once they arrived, my staunchly socialist maternal grandfather found the industrial work he sought so desperately. As it happens, my paternal grandfather was also a socialist factory worker in Racine.

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The Depression hammered Racine, and my family. My mom had to drop out of high school to support her siblings. My paternal grandfather, who got fired three times for his activism, saw his home foreclosed on.

During the upheavals of the 1930s, Racine was a hotbed of working class radicalism. And it became one of three Wisconsin cities--along with Milwaukee and Sheboygan--that elected socialist mayors.

A lot has changed since then.

These days, no one is moving to Racine to seek factory work. From a peak of 31,900 manufacturing jobs in 1979, Racine has lost 13,500 factory jobs, 42 percent of its industrial base. Two members of my extended family even "scabbed" as replacement workers during a 2004-2005 labor dispute at CNH (formerly Case), though their father has been a longtime union activist.

Poverty in Racine now stands at 20.7 percent, and hunger gnaws at residents. "The Racine County Food Bank is in danger of running out of food this winter because of heavy demand from food pantries in recent months," the local paper reported in November. "The Food Bank, which supplies food to local pantries and meal programs, has seen more than a 30 percent increase in the amount of food it's giving out compared to a year ago." Food Bank Executive Director Dan Taivalkoski said in May that the organization's pantry wasn't emptied last winter only because "the community really came through with food and monetary donations. But the need is not going down."

Crime is one of the only growth industries. The 125-year-old Rainfair clothing plant, scene of historic strikes in both the 1930s and 1990, has been torn down and the jobs shipped off to China after the firm was taken over by LaCrosse Footwear. In Rainfair's place sits a gargantuan, windowless, cream-colored "Youthful Offenders Facility." As Racine's factories have been emptied out, jails and prisons have been filling up. The county jail's capacity is being expanded, at a cost of $29.1 million, to 860--about a sixfold increase since 1980.

Inner-city Racine bears a haunted look...