Statement Announcing a Program for Rehabilitation of Urban Areas Damaged by Riots

THE NEIGHBORHOODS of our cities torn by the disturbances of last spring and before still bear the marks of violence and destruction. Little rehabilitation or reconstruction has taken place. Months, and in some cases years, have passed--months of planning, argument, and frustration-but the wreckage of the riots remains: fire-scarred, boarded-up buildings, vacant retail stores, and rubble-strewn vacant lots.

This is the overwhelming evidence of a survey, recently undertaken by Secretary George Romney at my request, of those cities which have suffered riot damage. More than 20 cities were surveyed. The 10 with the worst remaining damage are Newark, Baltimore, Washington, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. I have directed Secretary Romney to assemble a program designed to initiate and coordinate prompt Federal, State, local, and private action in as many as possible of these 20 cities. I have made funds available to do so.

The idea for such an effort grew out of my visit to 7th and T Streets, Northwest, in Washington, D.C., earlier in the year. I was shocked by the sight of those rotting, boarded-up structures, barely 30 blocks from the White House. I had ordered a program of immediate Federal aid using HUD's interim assistance and neighborhood development grants for the District of Columbia. I wondered how many of our other cities across the country were in a similar state, and I directed Secretary Romney to do this survey, with representative photographs, which I present to you today.

This is a pictorial essay on the impotence of modern government at all levels. No wonder our citizens are beginning to question government's ability to perform. There could be no more searing symbol of governmental inability to act than those rubble-strewn lots and desolate, decaying buildings, once a vital part of a community's life and now left to rot.

Little has changed--and not always, or even chiefly, for lack of Federal aid as such. The survey shows that many of the riot-scarred, burnt-out areas are included within designated and planned Model Cities and Neighborhood Development program areas. Much of the damaged property is privately owned. But almost all sectors of the community seem paralyzed by a combination of obstacles, some federally imposed, which forestall action.

The program to be announced by Secretary Romney will combine Federal, State, local, and private efforts to initiate projects to improve the physical environment and meet the needs of our riot-troubled neighborhoods. Following working consultations with the cities, the Federal Government will make available $9 million in interim assistance, which can be used in those cities which qualify, to provide temporary playgrounds, parks, clean-up services, repairs to public buildings and streets, where now there is charred rubble. Under this program, cities receiving such aid must undertake to provide one-third matching funds. This is a short-range, immediate effort.

In addition, local projects under various other HUD programs have been recently approved or are pending and likely to be approved which exceed $200 million and which can bring needed facilities and services to these riot-troubled cities. HUD will offer assistance to these cities in accelerating the delivery time of those programs which relate to riot-troubled neighborhoods.

I must emphasize that the above measures cannot erase overnight the problems of riot-troubled neighborhoods, much less the problems of our cities. They are limited measures designed to begin the business of revitalizing and rebuilding these neighborhoods.

Finally, I have directed the Secretary to present to me, within 60 days after funds for the next fiscal year have been appropriated by the Congress, a specific plan for channeling an. appropriate amount of funds into a concentrated effort to accelerate the renewal and revitalization of our riot-troubled cities. This would call on all the tools at our command-including, for example, neighborhood facilities grants, Model Cities, accelerated urban renewal, and aids to housing and social services.

The program I announce today is a start, a beginning, to bring aid to the victims of these riots--the vast majority who fought or fled the burning and now must live among its remains. Especially, it is a program for the young, who play among littered glass and gutted buildings.