WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) – People here were buzzing for days over a cryptic announcement from the mayor’s office that promised, “Something UNBELIEVABLE is about to happen in Wilkes-Barre.”

They wondered: What could Mayor Tom Leighton possibly be planning? After all, the last unbelievable thing that happened in this struggling former coal town was in 1972, when Hurricane Agnes caused a flood that destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

On June 9, after nearly a week of rampant speculation, nearly 1,000 people showed up to hear what Leighton had to say.

It was a pep talk.

Apparently, Wilkes-Barre is so down on itself that the mayor felt compelled to tell people to buck up.

“The biggest obstacle that we must overcome,” he declared, “is the negative attitude of a small, but pervasive, segment of our population.” He continued: “We must reverse this negative attitude. We must be taught how to believe again.”

And with that, Leighton unveiled a new slogan – “I believe …” – that has since shown up on buttons, keychains and signs distributed by the mayor’s office.

Political and business leaders applauded the mayor’s pluck, and “I believe …” posters popped up on a few windows.

But workaday Wilkes-Barre rolled its eyes.

Some had been expecting a major new employer promising hundreds of jobs, retailers to fill the empty storefronts downtown, maybe even riverboat gambling along the Susquehanna River.

“I believe it was a joke,” said Jerry Chromey, 45. “A total joke.”

In Mayflower, a hilltop section of neatly kept singles and twins, someone erected a large cardboard sign in front of a burned-out house that said, in big black letters: “WE DON’T BELIEVE.”

If Wilkes-Barre’s working class is skeptical, it is because history hasn’t exactly been kind to this once-prosperous city in a valley about 100 miles north of Philadelphia.

Anthracite coal mining ended abruptly in Wilkes-Barre (pronounced WILKS-behr-eh) in 1959 when the Susquehanna breached a mine, killing 12 men and flooding the region’s vast underground network.

Thirteen years later, Agnes wiped out downtown, and despite a huge urban renewal project afterward, it has never really come back.

Shoe factories and silk mills closed, jobs evaporated, and the population plummeted to just over 40,000. Today the biggest employers in the city include hospitals, health insurers, universities and the government.

The last mayor, Tom McGroarty, rode into office nearly a decade ago with plenty of enthusiasm and ideas. But he was unable to deliver on many of his promises. By the time voters kicked him out of office in 2003, the city was $10.8 million in debt, its credit rating was shot and a political Web site had named him the worst mayor in Pennsylvania.

And yet, despite residents’ glum outlook, signs are everywhere that Wilkes-Barre is coming back.

Some $150 million worth of development is taking place downtown, including a 14-screen movie theater and a state office building. A shuttered landmark, the Sterling Hotel, is about to get a makeover, as is the riverfront. Luxury homes are being built on former minelands.

Crime is down.

The mayor’s most difficult task may be convincing a jaded populace that good things are happening.

“You have the perception out there that Wilkes-Barre is done, it’s dead, it’s never going to come back. It is going to come back,” the 45-year-old businessman said.

Stephen Barrouk, president of the local chamber of commerce, believes a renaissance is happening right under people’s noses.

“The people here have been fed false promises for so long that they have developed an unhealthy skepticism,” Barrouk said. “It’s unfortunate, but I can fully understand it.”

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