Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thursday, 8 Oct 1992 22:29:28 CDT
From: <U56503@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
Subject: ==> Clinton/Gore On Rebuilding America's Cities

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information in the public interest which does not imply that it
is the opinion of UIC.  Contact 75300.3115@compuserve.com for
further information.
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    CLINTON/GORE ON REBUILDING AMERICA'S CITIES



While Americas great cities fall into disrepair,
Washington continues to ignore their fate.  Private
enterprise has abandoned our cities, leaving our
young people with few job prospects and declining
hopes.  Our nation cannot move forward until our
cities become centers of expanding opportunity and
engines of economic growth.  Prosperous cities are
the key to vital regional economies, and to safe
and healthy suburbs.

Bill Clinton and Al Gore believe it is time for a
new partnership to rebuild Americas cities -- a
partnership between people and their government to
expand opportunity and solve problems, so that our
cities will once again be the pride of our nation.
Americas cities should be places where hard-working
families can put down roots and find good jobs,
affordable housing, decent schools and safe
streets.  Hope and opportunity -- not mean streets
and drug pushers -- must prevail.

To rebuild America's cities, the most important
thing we can do is to implement a national economic
strategy that pulls us out of the recession and
gets our country moving again.  We can only
revitalize our cities in an expanding economy.
America's cities cannot afford four more years with
a federal government that neglects their needs.



The Clinton/Gore Plan

Turning around our cities: three principles

*    Opportunity: We can't rebuild our urban
     communities with handouts alone -- We need a
     massive expansion of opportunity.  The federal
     government should create conditions conducive
     to economic recovery through a national
     economic strategy, targeted incentives and
     grants designed to revitalize the urban
     economy, and measures that empower city
     residents to take advantage of newly created
     opportunities for expanded education, job
     training and child care services.  In return
     for federal assistance, the cities will adopt
     comprehensive strategies leading to
     revitalized urban centers; take advantage of
     opportunities created by the federal/municipal
     partnership to attract business and expand the
     urban economic base; and play a key role in
     the empowerment of urban residents as the
     primary provider of education, housing, and
     crime prevention.

*    Community: Community groups and local citizen
     organizations will be the backbone of our
     urban improvement efforts.  To restore our
     cities, we must create a new partnership
     committed to excellence and community service.
     The federal government must get involved
     again, working together with state and local
     authorities in this endeavor.  Non-profit
     organizations also have a role to play.

*    Responsibility: We must recognize that no
     matter how hard we work to make the
     federal/municipal partnership a success, we
     will make no progress unless individuals take
     responsibility for their own lives, working
     tirelessly to overcome challenges and solve
     problems in their families and communities.

Investment  in communities

*    Target funding and Community Development Block
     Grants to rebuild Americas urban roads,
     bridges, water and sewage treatment plants and
     low-income housing stock, stressing ready to
     go  projects.  Require companies that bid on
     these projects to set up a portion of their
     operations in low-income neighborhoods and
     employ local residents.

*    Create a nationwide network of community
     development banks to provide small loans to
     low-income entrepreneurs and homeowners in the
     inner cities.  These banks will provide advice
     and assistance to entrepreneurs, invest in
     affordable housing, and help mobilize private
     lenders.

*    Create urban enterprise zones in stagnant
     inner cities, but only for companies willing
     to take responsibility by hiring inner city
     residents.  Business taxes and federal
     regulations will be minimized to provide
     incentives to set up shop.  In return,
     companies will have to make jobs for local
     residents a top priority.

*    Ease the credit crunch in our inner cities by
     passing a more progressive Community
     Reinvestment Act to prevent redlining  and
     require financial institutions to invest in
     their communities.

*    Create a City Assistance Flexibility program
     to allow cities to direct the use of 15
     percent of the federal assistance they receive
     to meet their own community priorities and
     fund their local revislatization strategies.

Empowerment through economic opportunity

*    Expand and improve job training by requiring
     every employer to spend 1.5 percent of payroll
     for continuing education and training, and
     make them provide the training to all workers,
     not just executives.

*    To ensure that no one with a family who works
     full-time has to raise their children in
     poverty, we will increase the Earned Income
     Tax Credit to make up the difference between a
     families earnings and the poverty level.

*    Change the current welfare system to make
     welfare a second chance, not a way of life.
     We will empower people on welfare with the
     education, training, and child care they need
     for up to two years so they can break the
     cycle of dependency.  After that, those who
     are able will be required to work, either in
     the private sector or through community
     service.

*    Require that any corporation receiving a
     multimillion dollar federal contract create a
     mentorship, after-school employment, or summer
     employment program for urban and rural
     disadvantaged youth.  This will expand
     horizons and create incentives for kids to
     stay in school.

A national crime strategy

*    Fight crime by putting 100,000 new police
     officers on the streets of America.  We will
     create a National Police Corps and offer
     unemployed veterans and active military
     personnel a chance to become law enforcement
     officers here at home.

*    Set standards for crime emergency areas.
     Hard-hit communities will be eligible for
     federal matching funds to assist in the war on
     crime, if they create a comprehensive crime
     control plan that measures results and adopts
     proven anti-crime measures, such as
     community-based policing to put more police on
     the beat, and "boot camps" for first-time
     non-violent offenders.

*    Pass the Brady Bill, which creates a waiting
     period for handgun  purchases, to keep
     firearms out of the hands of criminals; ban
     assault rifles like the so-called "Street
     Sweeper" which have no legitimate hunting
     purpose; limit access to multiple round clips
     like the one used in the tragic killings in
     Killeen, Texas.

*    Give public housing residents the opportunity
     to organize themselves to eliminate drugs and
     weapons from public housing projects and
     support efforts like Operation Clean Sweep in
     Chicago, which helps residents take their
     housing back from gangs and dealers.

*    Provide funds for a safe schools initiative to
     help violence-ridden schools hire security
     personnel and purchase metal detectors; help
     cities and states use community policing to
     put more police officers on the streets in
     high-crime areas where schools are located.

Rebuilding our urban infrastructure

*    Target funding and Community Development Block
     Grants to rebuild America's urban roads,
     bridges, water and sewage treatment plants and
     low-income housing stock, stressing "ready to
     go" projects.  Require companies that bid on
     these projects to set up a portion of their
     operations in low-income neighborhoods and
     employ local residents.

*    Allocate greater resources to "intelligent
     vehicle" and roadway technology to reduce
     traffic and make more efficient use of current
     transportation resources.

*    Increase the decision-making role of
     municipalities and community development
     groups so they can allocate a greater share of
     their transportation funds for mass transit
     systems; require cities to undertake more
     comprehensive planning before allocating funds
     to guarantee that transportation dollars are
     actually spent meeting the goals of their
     revitalization plans, and prevent money from
     being used for conflicting purposes.

*    Ensure that federal matching fund rates
     provide incentives for programs that repair
     existing facilities and increase efficiency,
     instead of simply building more and more
     roads.

New hope for affordable housing

*    Increase the ceiling on Federal Housing
     Authority (FHA) mortgage insurance to 95
     percent of the price of a home in an average
     metropolitan area, to make it easier for half
     a million American families to buy their first
     home.

*    Make home ownership possible for lower-income
     Americans through federal support of
     low-income, long-term housing buy-out programs
     like Tampas innovative "Resurrection of
     Affordable Housing Program" in which condemned
     houses are purchased, restored, and sold to
     low-income buyers through a package of
     long-term subsidized financing.

*    Require the Department of Housing and Urban
     Development (HUD) and the Department of
     Justice to aggressively enforce existing civil
     rights laws to open up housing currently
     closed by discrimination.

*    Maintain the mortgage revenue bond program to
     make affordable housing a reality.

*    Continue and strengthen the HOME Program, by
     giving more authority to local administrative
     officials.  Congress created the HOME program
     in 1990 to provide additional decent rental
     housing for low-income Americans, but limited
     localities' choices in utilizing HOME funds
     for new construction at the Bush
     Administration's urging.

*    Permanently extend the Low Income Housing Tax
     Credit.  This innovative provision helps
     attract private investment in housing for
     low-income renters, and develops housing that
     would otherwise not be built.  More than
     120,000 homes a year are produced with the
     credits help.

*    Preserve our nations enormous investment of
     billions of dollars in public housing since
     the second World War  by ensuring that
     adequate funding for maintenance and upkeep is
     included in the HUD budget.

Fighting homelessness

*    Transfer ten percent of HUD and other
     government controlled housing to community
     non-profit organizations and churches to house
     the homeless.

*    Use housing available at closed military bases
     for homeless people, with a preference for
     homeless veterans.

*    Develop targeted strategies to help different
     homeless populations  those who need
     supported living environments, those who need
     residential alcohol and drug treatment, and
     those who simply can't afford to house their
     families.

*    Hold a Housing and Homelessness Summit with
     urban leaders and mayors to create a new
     consensus for poverty programs, funding
     levels, and federal assistance for innovative
     housing crisis solutions.

Empowerment through education

*    Fully fund Head Start, to insure that our
     children arrive in school ready to learn, and
     the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
     program, as well as other critical initiatives
     recommended by the National Commission on
     Children.  These programs are proven successes
     that save us several dollars for every one we
     spend.

*    Expand innovative parenting programs like
     Arkansas' Home Instructional Program for
     Pre-School Youngsters, which helps
     disadvantaged parents work with their children
     to build an ethic of learning at home that
     benefits both.

*    Increase Chapter One funding to allow schools
     greater spending flexibility so they can
     reduce class sizes and make other local
     improvements.

*    Give teenagers who drop out of school a second
     chance through a Youth Opportunity Corps; help
     communities open youth centers where teenagers
     are matched with adults who care about them,
     and given the opportunity to develop
     self-discipline and skills.

*    Dramatically improve K-12 education by
     establishing tough national standards and a
     national examination system in core subjects
     like math and science, leveling the playing
     field for disadvantaged students, and reducing
     class sizes.

*    Provide every parent with the right to choose
     the public school his or her child attends, as
     they do in Arkansas; in return, demand that
     parents work with their children to keep them
     in school, off drugs, and headed toward
     graduation.

*    Expand health services and health education
     programs in schools to provide primary and
     preventive services and to fight teen
     pregnancy and AIDS.

*    Bring business, education leaders, and labor
     together to develop a national apprenticeship
     system that offers non college-bound students
     valuable skills training, with the promise of
     good jobs when they graduate.

*    Give every American the right to borrow money
     for college:  Retain the Pell Grant program
     but scrap the existing student loan program
     and establishing a National Service Trust
     Fund.  Those who borrow from the fund will be
     able to choose how to repay the balance --
     either as a small percentage of their earnings
     over time, or by returning to serve their
     communities as teachers, law enforcement
     officers, health care workers, or peer
     counselors helping kids stay off drugs and in
     school.

*    Give every adult American a chance to learn,
     to read and write, and to get a high school
     diploma with adult literacy initiatives.

Affordable, quality health care

*    Establish a national health care plan that
     controls exploding health care costs to
     guarantee every American, including the
     working poor who currently do not receive
     health insurance through their employers,
     affordable, quality health care.

*    Enact reforms, like controlling drug costs and
     establishing health networks, to decrease the
     strain on municipal health resources
     associated with the AIDS crisis, and cut the
     enormous health care costs of our city
     governments.

*    Improve health care access in urban areas
     through school- and community-based clinics to
     provide improved preventive care.
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,talk.abortion