Urban Policy

Atlanta -- Empowerment zones, crime and gun control, homeless initiatives, tax credits for the working poor -- are they adding up to something? Does the Clinton administration have a set of pro-city policies which, by any other name, would be known as a national urban policy?Henry Cisneros, the Housing and Urban Development secretary, claims it's so. The comprehensive set of urban initiatives that city leaders have long sought is finally taking shape, he argues.On the law-and-order front, Mr. Cisneros himself took part in a drug raid recently in a Boston public housing project.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake was among a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Mayors invited to the White House on Thursday. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the group about the administration's urban policy and its plans to generate jobs in cities and towns across the country. The delegation of mayors in the East Room was not exactly an exclusive group: More than 200 names were on the guest list, including some from outside the United States.

Can liberal and conservative views of crime, race and the deterioration of poor, inner-city communities over the last 20 years converge sufficiently to make possible a new policy consensus on addressing America's urban crisis? The urgency of such a consensus was dramatically underscored by a recent report which found that 42 percent of black men in the District of Columbia were somehow enmeshed in the criminal justice system on any given day in 1991 -- evidence of a social breakdown in the nation's center cities far more serious than previously acknowledged.

A consortium of large banks and major philanthropic institutions is pushing for a new national urban policy that stresses reliability in federal funding and flexibility in how the money is spent. In a letter last week to the White House and an accompanying statement, the group, known as Living Cities Inc., backed President Bush's proposal for the creation of a new challenge fund for revitalizing distressed communities as "exactly the right way to go." But it said the money should not come out of existing U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds, as the administration has suggested, and should be funded at higher than the recommended $200 million.

WASHINGTON - Maryland's two Democratic senators prepared yesterday to assume the Senate's most influential positions on housing and urban policy in the upheaval that resulted from Sen. James M. Jeffords' decision to leave the Republican Party and thus throw control of the Senate to the Democrats. The formal shift of power is still at least a few days away. But hours after Jeffords' announcement, Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes began to outline his plans as the likely new chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake was among a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Mayors invited to the White House on Thursday. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the group about the administration's urban policy and its plans to generate jobs in cities and towns across the country. The delegation of mayors in the East Room was not exactly an exclusive group: More than 200 names were on the guest list, including some from outside the United States.

FROM the Urban Institute Policy and Research Report, Winter/Spring 1993:"Most European cities are centers of civilization and civilized values; their buildings and public spaces foster interaction and aesthetic enjoyment. U.S. cities, by contrast, reflect the disinclination of Americans to spend money for urban 'public goods.'"One of these differences is that, for Europeans, the central city is the essential city. Even suburban dwellers are willing to pay for the upkeep and beautification of the central city, because its attributes are viewed as precious assets.

After years of being rapped by businesses as unresponsive, the Schmoke administration named a 40-member task force yesterday to study how the city can improve its business climate and how best to lobby the next presidential administration regarding urban policy.Although the panel's job will be largely to rally support for new policies, the formation of the task force, called the Development Incentives Task Force, came without any formal announcement from the mayor's office."The mayor's interest is in the results of this process," said Honora M. Freeman, president of Baltimore Development Corp.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's endorsement of his fellow Rhodes scholar, Bill Clinton, may nail down a number of Baltimore votes in next Tuesday's Maryland primary, but the key to the election could well lie in the Washington suburbs. That's where one third of the Democratic votes will be cast. That's where politicians who have signed on to the Clinton campaign have good reason to wonder just how the party rank-and-file will vote.To wonder and to worry. Voting patterns in New Hampshire made it pretty clear that the more upscale and suburban a precinct, the more likely it will wind up in the camp of Paul E. Tsongas, currently Mr. Clinton's chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

If Bill Clinton shows up at Kurt Schmoke's pre-inaugural party at the Convention Center on Jan. 18, he will be surrounded by more than 240 American mayors, all of whom want something from him.This could reason enough for Clinton to skip the bash -- he has four fund raisers in Washington the same day and about the only way you can get a politician away from a fund raiser is with a crowbar -- but I am betting Clinton shows up nonetheless.He is, after all, the first president in a while with a real urban policy -- Republican presidents aren't as interested in urban policy because most big cities are Democratic -- and coming to Baltimore to press the flesh with mayors would be taken as a sign of his commitment.

TODAY IS INDEED a new day for Maryland's two Democratic senators, Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski. Yesterday, they were part of a Senate minority struggling to be heard. But as Democrats assume control of the Senate today, these two senators leap into positions of power on urban issues. Mr. Sarbanes, long in the Senate shadows, takes over as chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. He's top dog on urban programs with a direct impact on Baltimore. Ms. Mikulski assumes leadership of two potent subcommittees with sway over funding for housing, urban development, veterans affairs and the aging.

WASHINGTON - Maryland's two Democratic senators prepared yesterday to assume the Senate's most influential positions on housing and urban policy in the upheaval that resulted from Sen. James M. Jeffords' decision to leave the Republican Party and thus throw control of the Senate to the Democrats. The formal shift of power is still at least a few days away. But hours after Jeffords' announcement, Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes began to outline his plans as the likely new chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Perhaps nobody has been more stunned by the reaction to Jedediah Purdy's "For Common Things: Irony, Trust and Commitment in America Today" than the author himself. The 35,000-copy first printing of the slim volume, which calls for a retreat from the irony and cynicism that pervade modern culture, sold out within weeks of its debut last month. Reviews have run the gamut, from calling the book "the kind ... one finds oneself recommending unreservedly" to "arduous" and "self-righteous."

So Gloria Brennan had this CD player in her Pikesville beauty salon to provide music for the customers. But the thing started skipping, so she took it to the Circuit City store on U.S. 40 where she'd purchased it. The store serviced it for $65 and returned it. But, Gloria soon discovered, it still skipped.So she put the thing back in the box. She carried it to her two-door BMW. She placed the box against the side of the car so she could open the door. She was chatting furiously with a friend, Grace Follmer, who was on the other side of the car. Gloria was gabbing; she was not paying attention.

Atlanta -- Empowerment zones, crime and gun control, homeless initiatives, tax credits for the working poor -- are they adding up to something? Does the Clinton administration have a set of pro-city policies which, by any other name, would be known as a national urban policy?Henry Cisneros, the Housing and Urban Development secretary, claims it's so. The comprehensive set of urban initiatives that city leaders have long sought is finally taking shape, he argues.On the law-and-order front, Mr. Cisneros himself took part in a drug raid recently in a Boston public housing project.

FROM the Urban Institute Policy and Research Report, Winter/Spring 1993:"Most European cities are centers of civilization and civilized values; their buildings and public spaces foster interaction and aesthetic enjoyment. U.S. cities, by contrast, reflect the disinclination of Americans to spend money for urban 'public goods.'"One of these differences is that, for Europeans, the central city is the essential city. Even suburban dwellers are willing to pay for the upkeep and beautification of the central city, because its attributes are viewed as precious assets.

So Gloria Brennan had this CD player in her Pikesville beauty salon to provide music for the customers. But the thing started skipping, so she took it to the Circuit City store on U.S. 40 where she'd purchased it. The store serviced it for $65 and returned it. But, Gloria soon discovered, it still skipped.So she put the thing back in the box. She carried it to her two-door BMW. She placed the box against the side of the car so she could open the door. She was chatting furiously with a friend, Grace Follmer, who was on the other side of the car. Gloria was gabbing; she was not paying attention.

Even before President Bush gets to Los Angeles, he is blaming the riots there on the Great Society programs of the Sixties. Such finger-pointing won't work. Mr. Bush and Ronald Reagan before him have spent the past dozen years eviscerating these programs without putting anything in their place. Our current president not only lacks an urban policy; there is reason to doubt he knows in his own mind just what he stands for in America's troubled cities because, until the wake-up call came last week, he chose to ignore them.

Washington. -- The Clinton administration says it's intent on ''inventing government.'' Vice President Al Gore was on television a few days ago babbling about ''this revolutionary new idea'' of making the government ''customer-friendly and customer-driven.''But if Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore are serious about reinventing government, there is a genuinely revolutionary idea they might try: Abolish the suburbs.This is a serious suggestion. David Rusk, formerly the mayor of Albuquerque, N.M., makes the case in his new book, ''Cities Without Suburbs.

If Bill Clinton shows up at Kurt Schmoke's pre-inaugural party at the Convention Center on Jan. 18, he will be surrounded by more than 240 American mayors, all of whom want something from him.This could reason enough for Clinton to skip the bash -- he has four fund raisers in Washington the same day and about the only way you can get a politician away from a fund raiser is with a crowbar -- but I am betting Clinton shows up nonetheless.He is, after all, the first president in a while with a real urban policy -- Republican presidents aren't as interested in urban policy because most big cities are Democratic -- and coming to Baltimore to press the flesh with mayors would be taken as a sign of his commitment.