Tom leaves out two other important factors.
One is the labor union problem. Ohio over the years has been under the thumb of such big unions as the Auto Workers, the Steel Workers, the Rubber Workers and — most importantly — the Teamsters. All of these unions had close ties to organized crime and that added another dimension to the ordinary problems of union corruption and militancy. Matter of fact, the Teamsters — operating out of Cleveland — controlled the national Teamster organization and pretty much served as the bankers for OC nation-wide.
The other problem is the virulence of black-white politics in the big and middle-sized cities. Though African-Americans came to power relatively early in national terms in Cleveland, there has never been the relatively normal give-and-take of political relations between the races here.
