Dublin Core
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
al hi : Ls09 : Ic)
CONFIDENTIAL
Memorandum November 2, 1966
To: Paul Ylvisaker
From: Stuart Chapin
This is to set down a few ideas for the TF agenda. Some of them spell
out further the ideas I listed at the end of our meeting in Washington on
October 28, The first proposal could be considered in the short-range
category, whereas the other two fall mainly in the longer range category.
They are in rough form and need “debugging,” and I leave it to you to judge
whether any of them have utility for the December 1 assignment.
1. A Program for Easing the Situation of Trapped Minority Groups. Let
me first state what is quite obvious to most members of the TF, simply to
underscore the urgency of finding solutions. ‘Two statistics about Washington,
D. C., dramatize the gravity of the situation and provide clear testimony of
the necessity of action -- (1) the fact that approximately 65 percent of the
population of the District are nonwhite, and (2) the fact that approximately
95 percent of the school children are nonwhite. Only Federal employment
opportunities and constant work by concerned community service groups appear
to be keeping this tinderbox from bursting into flame. Though the figures
for other central cities have probably not yet reached these dramatic pro-
portions, the indications are that similar buildups are in process in most
large central cities,
Reports from studies of these areas are clear enough that those trapped
see no relief in sight and that problems involving education, employment,
housing, health and opportunities for upward mobility have reached a critical
mass. As brought out in our session on October 28, a total program is urgently
needed to bring this segment of the population into the Great Society. Assum-
ing that very strong recommendations in this respect are presented to the
President and become operative, I would urge inclusion in the total Administra-
tion package a new HUD program -- call it a "Program for Humanizing Metro-
politan Areas" or a "Program for Urban Development," or some other positive-
sounding substitute title for “urban renewal." Two features would distinguish
it from earlier emphases: first, it would set up renewal and housing
programs on a metropolitan-wide basis as the new Title II type of emphasis
in the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act has achieved for
other federal grant and loan programs, and second, it would expand on the
"workable program" concept to require certain steps for humanizing metropolitan
areas as a basis for qualifying for loan and grant assistance.
More particularly, under such a program current statutory provisions for
the array of different grants-in-aid, loan, and rent supplement authorizations
would be amended so that the eligible LPA*ts would be new-type Metropolitan
ase SPs” Seg ads eee
Area Development Gantestons &* In addition to the jurisdictional change,
the key feature of these new Commissions would be an entire new philosophy
in the execution of the traditional renewal, public housing, rehabilitation
housing, cooperative housing and middle income housing programs, and the
new rent supplement program. While the Demonstration Cities Program would
become the major central city program, it would be required to meet the
workable-program-type criteria developed by the Metropolitan pres Deveicn~
ment Commission,
Under the new philosophy an emphasis on “community enclaves" would be
featured in contrast to the old massive area-wide clearance and redevelopment
or rehabilitation emphasis. The essential objective of this-new approach
would be dual -- (1) it would seek to humanize the’ city environment by an
across-the-boards effort for the improvement of facilities and services in
these enclaves ,2/ each sensitively attuned to the mosaic of living patterns
in its environs, and (2) it.would develop and utilize workable programs that
would progressively put into effect voluntary open housing guarantees and .
introduce various services and improvements in all enclaves. Enclaves would
be small in scale, sometimes one block in extent, sometimes two or three, and
perhaps affecting no more than a dozen structures in a four or five block
area, They would be identified on the basis of a wide range of criteria,
including structural conditions in the area, housing vacancies, vacant land,
type of existing land use, the proposed transportation and land uses in city
plans, the pattern of community orgmizations in the area, social interaction
characteristics in the area, and attitudes of residents about their neighbor~
hood, The proposal for humanizing an enclave would wary with the character-
istics, opportunities, and needs of each, Program emphases would probably
differ in close-in areas from thosé in suburban areas, Experimentation in
ways of securing community participation in enclave areas would be an
important part of attaining responsible involvement of residents in such ar
effort,
The housing aspect of the program might involve public land acquisition
of scattered properties a few at a time and the replacement of outworn
structures with new ones; some might involve rehabilitation by private groups
‘
1/ The title "Metropolitan Area Development Commission" is intended to
convey emphasis on building and development functions, and might be consolidated
with the metropolitan planning and programming functions that are emphasized
under Title II of the 1966 Act. Whether it is politcalily feasible to phase
out the present-day municipal programs in renewal and public housing, T would |
defer to others on the TF on this question, but under any circumstances, the
new metropolitan emphasis, after allowing for a transition period, should
receive the lion's share of loan and grant authorization.
2/ This would mean introducing some of the same coordinative mechanisms
provided for under the Demonstration Cities Program into this Program.
+
or cooperatives and be planred variably, some with and some without rent
supplements. The key concept in the development of plans for these enclaves
would be ‘voluntary open housing guarantees.3/ Enclaves in outlying sub-
urban areas would be encouraged to receive small numbers of deprived
families from the central city, and those in central areas would be de-
signed tg receive, families of varying socio-economic circumstances seeking
close-in locations, For success of such a Program a great deal depends on
developing responsible participation by residents of enclave communities
and in keeping the scale of adjustment at a low key.
To-achieve the full leverage of a program of this kind, special related
efforts in local services, education, employment, health, social work, and
recreation would be developed, especially in the central city areas, By
and large schools would be found in interstitial areas between enclaves and
depended upon to help supply a cementing force to the efforts in surrounding
enclaves. In short the Program for Humanizing Metropolitan Areas is based on
a philosophy of responsible involvement of small groups in making their block
or locale a “foster home" for a few new families, A backup effort in special
education, employment and other services would be an essential feature of the
Program, In effect, in the large metropolitan areas this Program in a
metropolitan-wide framework would become a complement to the Demonstration
Cities Program which centers on the central city problem.
2. A Stepped-Up Effort in Research on Inter-Group Relations and
Livability in the City. The several recent crises in central cities of
large metropolitan areas and the groping action efforts to alleviate these
situations clearly indicate a failure in backup research, In ‘some respects
more serious, there is a lack of an evaluation effort on action taken which
would enable conclusions to be drawn on the relative effectiveness of
measures used,
In any effort to institute action programs in areas as sensitive as
those of trapped populations, and certainly in any program to eliminate
causes of these conditions, a major research thrust is required, one on the
order of that which this country has mounted in space research or in medical
research in recent years.
Certainly the social problems of today should. be high in priority of
attention. But in belatedly researching these problems, the big problems
of tomorrow should not be overlooked, One problem rapidly descending on
cities is that of adjustments to changed mtterns of living which will come
from shorter work week. There is a great deal of speculation on the boredom
3/ Obviously vigorous Administration leadership in amending the
Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966 to eliminate
Sec. 205(£) would be essential.
ts
of urbanites and their social psychological problems of adjustment; there
is speculation about two-house living arrangements becoming much more wide-
spread with attendant changes in recreation emphases and traffic patterns;
and there are all sorts of unknowns involved in new transportation and
communications technologies, With ail this interest and speculation, there
is little systematic research going on that would enable cities to take
account of these changes in the public works and service programs of a
catching-up and remedial sort being launched today, much less enable them
to embark on programs of a more positive kind designed for the Great Society.
A third research emphasis clearly needed is one which frontally
examines the new kind of urban environment respresented in the belts of
urban development extending over several states, These appear to be super-
ceding the metropolitan area as an urban environment (just at the time when
metxo politan-wide approaches are receiving attention in Federal legislation
for the first time to a significant extent). The qualitative aspects of
living conditions in such regions of the kind noted above is one facet of
this environment, but also involved is the whole area of governmental
mechanisms for dealing with needs and problems in these belts.
Sec. 1011 on the Urban Environmental Studies of the Demonstration Cities
and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966 needs to be greatly broadened in
concept to recognize these three areas of needed research.
3. The Wheaton Proposal for Metropolitan Area Fiscal Responsibility
and Action, Although W. L. C. Wheaton*s proposal is already in the public
domain, it has not been widely circulated as-yet. In any case, there are
features of his concept of "Metropolitan Target Planning" which may have
merit for consideration by the TF in the second stage of our work. Very
briefly he proposes using Federal zrant programs to achieve a more equitable
distribution of fiscal responsibility among the municipalities of a metro-
politan area, particularly in the areas of education and housing. I attach
a copy of his paper.