EDITORIALS
MR. CARTER~ URBAH PLAN Those concerned with America's cities have been waiting with considerable trepidation for President Carter's urban program to be unveiled. Rumors on the amount of money...
...Not much money is immediately involved...
...Carter is proposing more than 160 changes in 38 existing federal programs to make them more responsive to the needs of blacks and the poor in general...
...The federal government has the clear duty to lead the effort to reverse that deterioration...
...The emphasis is on aid to the cities rather than to the suburbs, with stress on rehabilitation of existing water and sewer Commonweal: 259 lines, for example, rather than in creating new suburban systems...
...Carter's proposals, not in cutting them back...
...There is talk of an $8 billion plan, but that figure includes loan guarantees and in fact only $742 million would be spent in the next fiscal year...
...New initiatives are provided, including a "national development bank" to promote industrial development in depressed areas and a plan to encourage states to aid distressed cities within their borders...
...Now the President's proposals have been put forward, and the operation is typical of Jimmy Carter, neither grandiose nor outright niggardly, calculated to offend as few people as possible and designed to win at least grudging acquiescence from most...
...The main idea, administration sources insist, is not so much to provide large sums of money but to bring some coherence to the billions the U.S...
...As the plan now stands, it has worthwhile features, but the most that can honestly he said for it is that it is a good first step, and this in an area where what is needed is not a good first step but a great leap...
...These and other new ideas in the program, such as the development bank to promote aid to distressed urban regions, are well worth fighting for, and a figh t~ will probably be necessary when the time comes for Congress to take up the urban proposals...
...Conference of Mayors called the Carter proposal a "significant step in the right direction," while expressing disappointment at the level of support for housing, transportation and other urban needs...
...What the plan promises, they say, is a "New Partnership" between federal government and individuals bent on saving the cities...
...Reactions to the new plan varied...
...what was important, they maintained, is that this represents the first explicit commitment by President Carter, with his rural background, to conserve cities and discourage suburban sprawl...
...So far that is about the reaction the urban program is receiving around the country...
...Rumors on the amount of money involved ranged from the grandiose to the downright niggardly...
...Whatever action Congress takes should clearly be in'the direction of expandilig and strengthening Mr...
...28 April 1978:260...
...There is, for instance, a particularly valuable one which provides .tax incentives for businesses that will hire unemployed ghetto youth...
...There are many useful features in the Carter urban plan...
...Carter's plan involves a broad series of job programs, tax incentives, grants, public works, loan guarantees and a sweeping "retargeting" of many federal programs to achieve recovery, of the nation's ailing cities...
...Thus government purchases from minority businesses would be substantially increased...
...In replying to criticism on the small amount of money called for in the new urban plan, administration officials stressed that money was not the important point...
...already provides for states and cities...
...The deterioration of urban life in the United States is one of the most complex and deeply rooted problems of our age," said Mr...
...There was little or no outright enthusiasm, with most responses ranging from tempered approval to downright disappointment...
...The U.S...
...Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., head of the National Urban League, called the plan "disheartening" and said it "falls far short of being the domestic urban Marshall Plan the nation needs...
Vol. 105 • April 1978 • No. 9
