They sound at times like a cross between urban versions of the old television show "Queen for a Day" and glossy city travel brochures.

The double image of heart-rending hardship and rosy prospects is presented in the applications filed by Baltimore and other cities competing for hundreds of millions of dollars in the federal empowerment zone program: All plead poverty while touting their civic resourcefulness.

And all have no shortage of ideas for solving their problems, offering a potpourri of proposals for urban revitalization.

For example:

* Atlanta has a plan for its inner-city residents to manufacture prefabricated housing for South Africa.

* Boston has a consortium of medical institutions ready to build a support facility it says will generate $500 million in goods and services.

* Chicago wants to set up large-scale food co-ops it says could employ 500 people and capture some of the estimated $1 billion a year spent on food in the zone.

* Detroit is touting a multimillion-dollar pledge by automakers to add workers, donate vacant facilities to the city's school system and increase purchases from local minority businesses.

* Houston is stressing a commitment by local companies to provide $5 million in scholarships to disadvantaged youths.

Baltimore's application calls for the creation of a "state-of-the-art" ecological-industrial park, with a $30 million resource-recovery facility that would convert recycled tires and other solid wastes into oil.

The plant, modeled on one in Nova Scotia, would be constructed on a 1,300-acre industrial wasteland in Fairfield in South Baltimore. It would employ up to 80 zone residents at a "living wage" or better, according to the city's application. An additional 50 residents would do continual sweeps of neighborhoods, collecting illegally dumped waste to be recycled.

Besides Fairfield, Baltimore's empowerment zone encompasses the University of Maryland Medical Systems, the Sandtown-Winchester community in West Baltimore and the area around the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in East Baltimore.

Baltimore's proposal, like those of other cities, includes a variety of smaller-scale projects. Among them is a joint business venture between the University of Maryland Medical System and the quasi-governmental Council for Equal Business Opportunity Inc. The proposal envisions paying specially trained residents to provide medical transcription services previously done by outside firms.

In all, 78 cities are competing for designation as one of six federal urban empowerment zones. Each selected will receive $100 million in federal funds and tax breaks for businesses in the zones.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said at his weekly briefing Thursday that he is pushing the city's proposal with Clinton administration officials every chance he gets and that he has talked to the state's congressional delegation about joining the lobbying.

"We think we have a very good proposal, but I also know about some of the other ones. . . . It's tough," the mayor said.

Teams of federal officials have begun initial reviews of the applications for empowerment zones, the Clinton administration's major initiative for aiding distressed areas.

Winners, expected to be announced by the end of the year, will be selected by a group of 18 top federal domestic officials, chaired by Vice President Al Gore. By law, one of the six empowerment zones must be in an urban area bordering two states and another must be in a city with a population of 500,000 or less -- requirements that make Baltimore ineligible for two slots.

"One of the criterion will be whether or not the plans have a reasonable chance of success," Henry G. Cisneros, secretary of housing and urban development (HUD), said at a recent news conference.

HUD is not allowing public examination of the applications, some of which are "literally 5 feet of paper," Mr. Cisneros said.

But, at the request of The Sun, a half-dozen of the cities that applied provided a copy of their applications or a detailed summary.

All the documents catalog the dimensions of urban distress.

Baltimore, for example, cites a poverty rate of 41 percent among the 72,362 residents that live in its 6.8-square-mile zone. Atlanta points to a 57.4 percent poverty rate among residents of its zone; Detroit has 47 percent; Houston has 42 percent; and Pittsburgh, 41 percent.

Chicago's application minces no words about the city's problems.

"In the communities of Chicago's Empowerment Zone, poverty is intractable, unemployment is pervasive, ill health is devasting and alienation is all-encompassing for the majority of people who live there," it says.

But the applications also ooze optimism about the cities' abilities to build on successes and strengths.

Citing efforts ranging from urban homesteading to the Inner Harbor, Baltimore says its "greatest strength is to serve as a continuously evolving urban laboratory."

Boston says it is "a community of innovators and dedicated activists."

Atlanta notes its role as the birthplace of the civil rights movement and its selection as host of the 26th Olympics. "Unlike any other American city, Atlanta has a date with destiny in the summer of 1996," it says.

Each city boasts commitments of hundreds of millions of dollars in nonfederal loans and grants if it is designated as a zone.

Baltimore lists $800 million in cash commitments and in-kind services, including $130 million from the state and $10 million from private foundations. Houston says "a minimum" of $255 million will be raised. Atlanta says it has a "combined total of over $1 billion in resources." Detroit says it has received "almost $2 billion" in commitments.

Because of the federal government's insistence on a role for the community, all the applications stress grass-roots participation. Many offer similar proposals.

One is to make greater use of schools as community resources.

Baltimore, for example, proposes dividing its zone into "village centers" of no more than 9,000 residents and having one school in each center providing early-morning, evening and weekend educational, recreational and cultural activities. "The extended school hours will offer an alternative to the streets as a center for leisure activities," the city says.

Chicago is proposing a similar program it calls "lighted school houses," with projects that "might include adult literacy classes, English as a Second Language and technology training." Detroit has "The School as The Heart of the Community" program, and Pittsburgh has "After School Safe Places."

The "information highway" -- one of Vice President Gore's favorite themes -- also figures in several applications.

Baltimore says the Johns Hopkins University and the Enoch Pratt Free Library are ready to collaborate on a proposal to connect residents through computers in the village centers to "important databases dealing with zone issues, such as education, health care, public safety, economic development and community services."

Chicago proposes a neighborhood computerization project designed to provide access to zone residents and organizations through community computing centers. Detroit wants to set up JOBnet, "Detroit's Employment Information Super Highway."

In housing, Baltimore is proposing to have community-based groups manage scattered-site public housing programs, and to create a consortium of community, government and financial groups to acquire rental properties from absentee landlords and manage them themselves.

Pittsburgh, too, is proposing to decentralize its management of public housing and to acquire properties from absentee landlords.

Applicants are emphatic about the difference the designation as an empowerment zone would make.

"The Empowerment Zone," says Detroit, "will 'Jumpstart the Motor City.' "

And Baltimore?

"Designation as an Empowerment Zone," says Baltimore, "will enable us to realize a greater impact . . . with proven, innovative programs."

EMPOWERMENT HIGHLIGHTS

Here are highlights of the empowerment-zone application being filed with federal officials by Baltimore, which is competing with several other cities for about $100 million in federal grants.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

* Create an ecological-industrial park in Fairfield, with a plant to convert solid waste to oil as the centerpiece.

* Develop neighborhood businesses, such as a program to have community residents provide medical transcriptions for the University of Maryland Medical System.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

* Allow zone residents to access databases on education and jobs through computers in neighborhood centers.

* Open at least one school in each neighborhood at night and on weekends for educational and recreational activities.

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

* Begin community-based management of scattered-site public housing units.

*Set up a $20 million mortgage pool to help zone residents buy or fix up homes.

PUBLIC SAFETY

* Deploy "mobile police stations," similar to those used as command posts at special events, in high-crime and open-air drug markets.

* Provide low-cost mortgages as an incentive for police officers to live in the zone, and allow those who do to take home their squad cars.

HEALTH AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT

* Develop neighborhood family support centers.

* Establish a Youth Jobs Program to give zone children after-school work.