Teleconference on Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities

The President. Hello, can you all hear me? Governor Jones?

Gov. Brereton Jones. Yes, sir.

The President. Mayor Harris?

Mayor Elihu Harris. Yes.

The President. Mayor Campbell?

Mayor Bill Campbell. Yes, sir.

The President. Mayor Daley?

Mayor Richard M. Daley. Here.

The President. Mayor Cleveland—Cleaver. Mayor Cleaver?

Mayor Emanuel Cleaver II. Here.

The President. Mayor Steineger?

Mayor Joe Steineger. Here.

The President. Mayor Schmoke?

Mayor Kurt Schmoke. Yes, sir.

The President. Mayor Menino?

Mayor Thomas Menino. Here.

The President. Mayor Archer?

Mayor Dennis W. Archer. Here, Mr. President.

The President. Mayor Rendell?

Mayor Edward Rendell. Here.

The President. Mayor Webster?

Mayor Arnold Webster. Here, President.

The President. Mayor Rendell, that's the weakest "here" I ever heard out of you. Are you sure you're there? [Laughter]

Mayor Rendell. You don't want us to tell you what's happening here. You don't want to get into it. [Laughter]

The President. Mayor Giuliani?

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Hello, Mr. President.

The President. Is Congressman Rangel there with you?

Mayor Giuliani. Yes, he is.

Representative Charles B. Rangel. Hello, Mr. President.

The President. Watch him close——

Mayor Giuliani. Former Mayor Dinkins is here, also.

The President. Oh, great. It's good to hear your voice, Mayor.

David Dinkins. Thank you.

The President. Mayor White?

Mayor Michael R. White. I'm right here, Mr. President.

The President. Mayor Lanier?

Mayor Bob Lanier. Here, Mr. President.

The President. Jerry Rickett from Kentucky?

Jerry Rickett. Here, Mr. President.

The President. Willis Brumfield——

Willis Brumfield. Yes, sir, Mr. President.

The President. ——from Leflore County?

Humberto Rodriguez?

Humberto Rodriguez. Good afternoon, Mr. President. Kika de la Garza's here.

The President. It's great to hear all of you. And I want to congratulate you for being selected as empowerment zones and supplemental zones and enhanced enterprise communities. As I'm sure you know, we had 500 applications from people all across America who wanted to be a part of this program, and yours were the best. I hope you're all very, very proud of what you have done.

I want to thank the Vice President and Secretary Cisneros and the others in our administration who worked on setting up the genuinely competitive process to honestly review all of these applications. And I want to thank you for your participation, as well as all the others.

I know the Vice President wants to say a few words, but let me say that when I ran for President in 1992, I advocated setting up these empowerment zone ideas. I advocated seeing if we could have a partnership between the National Government, grassroots communities, and the private sector to get investment going in places where too many people have been left behind. And I believe that we can do it. We are not only making this announcement today, I want you to know we're going to stay with you all through this process. We're going to work hard with you. And we're going to make sure that all of us do our part to have a success.

[At this point, the Vice President congratulated the winners and praised the efforts of Secretary Cisneros and Secretary Espy.]

The President. I wanted to say just a word about a couple of things that were done. If I might—I wish I had time to talk about all these projects—but I wanted to say a special word of appreciation for Detroit getting more than $2 billion in private sector commitments to help revitalize the city, including a commitment by the auto companies to train and hire residents of empowerment zones, as well as local banks investing over a billion dollars in homeownership and small businesses in the zones. That made a big difference because, after all, we've got to know that the private sector is going to carry the bulk of the load. And Mayor Archer, I want to congratulate you on that.

Mayor Archer. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

The President. And I also wanted to say something about the mid-delta project in Mississippi. You know, that's very near my home State and where I grew up. And I know a lot about the conflicts that have existed too long in the communities there. And I thought the spirit of cooperation that was manifested in the black and the white communities really made a big difference to me and to all of us when we reviewed this application. If you can keep that going, we're going to change a lot of people's preconceptions about what it's like in the Deep South, and we're also going to give a lot of people jobs and opportunities who don't have it. I want to congratulate you, Willis Brumfield, and all the people who worked with you on this application.

Mr. Brumfield. Thank you, Mr. President, and we are committed to see this on through to success.

The President. I know you'll do it.

I wanted to say, too, just a word about the joint projects, the one that won the empowerment zone and the other—that's Philadelphia and Camden and the other one in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas. We believe that regional cooperation is very, very important. And I want to congratulate the mayors of Philadelphia and Camden, here on the phone, I know, for showing the potential for regional cooperation across State lines. And I also want to congratulate Mayor Cleaver of Kansas City for what he did. I thank you for what you did——

[Mayor Cleaver of Kansas City, MO, said that he and Mayor Steineger of Kansas City, KS, intended to make the program work across State lines. Philadelphia Mayor Rendell said that Philadelphia, PA, and Camden, NJ, would also take a regional approach. Mayor Steineger then thanked the President for his initiative.

The President. Thank you, Mayor Steineger.

I wanted to say a couple of more words. Chicago had over 200 organizations participating in the application. I've always thought that Chicago had the advantage of still having an enormous strength in its grassroots communities, but when I saw that 200 organizations had participated in the application process, that certainly is evidence of it. And it's a real tribute to Mayor Daley, to the leadership that you and others are providing out there.

Mayor Daley. Mr. President, I want to thank the community organizations, our fine elected officials—Senator Braun is here—former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, who fought for this—elected officials providing not only jobs but economic opportunities for the people within the empowerment zones.

The President. I'm glad Dan Rostenkowski's there with you. And there's no telling how many times he talked to everybody about that application and reminded us that you had a couple hundred groups working on it. I hear him laughing in the background. I just want him to know that, even though I'm getting older, I haven't lost my memory. [Laughter]

[The Vice President praised Baltimore's efforts to connect empowerment zone residents with major private employers, and Baltimore Mayor Schmoke thanked the Maryland congressional delegation for its hard work. The Vice President then praised New York's cooperative efforts among various levels of government, and New York Mayor Giuliani, Representative Rangel, and former Mayor Dinkins commended them also.]

The President. Well, let me just say a word of special appreciation to Charlie Rangel for one thing he did. When we were—when I brought this empowerment zone idea to the Congress, Charlie strongly urged that we not only have tax incentives but that we have some Federal investment to encourage some State and local investment and to show that the Government would be a partner with the private sector. And I think he was right about that. And I thank him for it. And I think we've got a stronger program today as a result of it.

I also want to say to Mayor Schmoke, I liked hearing—I could hear the smile in your voice. When I saw you a couple of days ago, you looked like an expectant father with worry in your eyes, and I couldn't say a word to you. So I hope you will forgive me, but—[laughter].

Mayor Schmoke. I hope that I didn't look like I was pleading too much. [Laughter]

The President. It's never pleasant to see a grown man cry, but you did a graceful job of it.

Mayor Schmoke. I really do appreciate it. Everybody in the city does.

The President. I want to say a special word before we get off this telephone call about Atlanta, because—[applause]——

Mayor Steineger. [Inaudible]—could have had a crowd here in Kansas City.

The President. Well, I'd have done it earlier if I'd known you were all on the phone. [Laughter]

The thing I want to emphasize about Atlanta is the integration of the social services and the public safety and the physical development of the community to make what they call urban villages, and to do it in a way that coordinates what's being done with the Olympic games. I think that is so important that a city instead of trying to just emphasize everything that's going well and hiding all of its problems is going to try to use the run-up to the Olympics to actually solve its problems and show that effort in a positive way. And, Mayor Campbell, you deserve a lot of credit for that. That's a very impressive thing to do.

[Atlanta Mayor Campbell thanked the President and Vice President and commended Gov. Zell Miller of Georgia on his efforts in education. Philadelphia Mayor Rendell thanked Senator Bradley for encouraging the two-State effort and thanked the Vice President. Cleveland Mayor White then promised a cooperative effort in his area to make the program work and thanked Representatives Stokes and Fingerhut.]

Mayor Menino. Tom Menino from Boston. How are you?

The President. Mayor Menino?

Mayor Menino. How are you doing?

The President. Fine. How are you?

[Mayor Menino thanked the President for his commitment to the cities and Senator Edward M. Kennedy for his efforts. Senator Kennedy thanked the Massachusetts congressional delegation and Mayor Menino. Houston Mayor Lanier thanked the President and assured him that program would work in Houston.]

The President. Let me just say one thing. Mayor Lanier, I really think all of America is in your debt in proving that the crime rate can be reduced in a breathtaking fashion in a relatively short time. And if you can do as much with this assistance as you've done in reducing the crime rate, then we can all come to Houston and learn some things.

And I want to say to Mayor Menino, I've had the honor to be in Boston several times since you've been mayor, and it's wonderful to be in a place with that kind of energy and that kind of togetherness. And you deserve a lot of credit for it. We're looking forward to working with you.

Mayor Harris, were you on the line?

[Oakland Mayor Harris thanked the President for his initiative and expressed hope that the Congress would be supportive.]

The President. Thank you very much. I hope Congress will support us, too. We believe in this, and we're going to keep pushing it.

Mayor Harris. [Inaudible]—he's been very forthright in his commitment to the administration and certainly forthright in his advocacy on behalf of our city. And we hope that you'll extend, as we will, our gratitude for his help.

The President. Let me say right before we sign off, I want to give our friends in Kentucky, Governor Jones and Jerry Rickett, and Mr. Rodriguez and our friends in South Texas the opportunity to say anything they want to say before we sign off.

[Mr. Rickett and Mr. Rodriguez, representatives of rural empowerment zones, expressed their appreciation.]

The President. Let me just say a brief word to you, sir, and to all of you in these rural districts. I also want to emphasize very strongly how hard Secretary Mike Espy worked on these projects. He and I worked for years before I ever dreamed of running for President on the problems of rural economic development in the Mississippi Delta, which is still the poorest part of our country. And then when I had the chance to go to south Texas and a chance to go to eastern Kentucky in the campaign and to see what people were dealing with and what they were working with, it was obvious to me that we needed to try a different approach. And so I want to thank again Secretary Cisneros and Secretary Espy for the work they did and the long effort that all of us have made in the area of rural development, which is too often forgotten. We're really pulling for all of you.

And let me say to those of you in south Texas, you couldn't be better represented than you have been by Kika de la Garza. He talked to me so often about this project. And he cared so deeply about it. And he does deserve a lot of the credit for your success today.

[Mayor Archer and a group of participants in Detroit wished everyone a Merry Christmas. Governor Jones of Kentucky then expressed his appreciation to the President.]

The President. I thank you all. And I also want to send our congratulations to Los Angeles, which could not be on the telephone call today, but we're very proud of them and looking forward to working with them and all the other communities. I really believe that you all are going to do something special and different and really meaningful.

And I wish you a Merry Christmas. I want to give the Vice President a chance to say a couple of words, and we're going to sign off.

The Vice President. Congratulations again. Have a great holiday season, and Happy New Year. You've gotten a jump on a happy new year. Let's make the best of it.

The President. God bless you, folks.