Dear Editor
Dear Editor CIA As a former Peace Corps Volunteer, I was struck by a bitter-sweet irony in Arnold Abrams' report on "CIA Chickens" (NL, October 14). An almost universal problem confronted by Peace...
...I went to see him at Radio City recently and he laid down a pretty good set of Philadelphia Soul boogy-rock...
...After a third of a century, the modest role of the Federal government in public housing is virtually ended, though the needs of low-income families continue...
...And my hat is tipped to Herbie Hancock, too...
...Starr stresses the problems attending racial integration in housing, but he falls short of suggesting ways to accelerate desegregation in the central cities and in the suburbs at the same time that lower-income housing production is increased...
...In another sense, however, the remarkable perspective offered by Starr should encourage all of us who are concerned to continue the struggle that must be waged to make decent, safe housing a basic right for all Americans...
...This has been accomplished under the Mitchell-Lama and 236 programs in combination with rent supplements...
...Unless the government and the private sector determine to follow whatever path we map out at least long enough to perfect an approach, we will never arrive at adequate solutions...
...they internalize the costs of public facilities and services that one-family homes foist on the community...
...It is important to note, though, that housing for the needy is significantly affected by programs, usually "private," designed for the not-so-needy...
...4. A better selection of sites will be available, since both private developers and local housing authorities will be seeking sites to include in the project proposal...
...I concur completely with his conclusion that the 1974 Act offers little hope for a forceful institutional push for housing...
...It will require, too, a depth of understanding on the part of hud to insure that its recommendations do not defeat the legislative intent...
...5. Maintenance and operation will be improved because most units will be the responsibility of private owners, and the presence of nonsubsidized tenants should be conducive to better maintenance and operation...
...Thus cities must be enabled to attack their problems on a scale commensurate with their seriousness and to create not merely totally new, but also markedly superior environments...
...The program will permit substantial flexibility for housing production, in that projects may be financed with conventional or FHA-insured mortgages, or through local tax-exempt debt issues...
...An almost universal problem confronted by Peace Corpsmen abroad is that "the natives" suspect their development efforts are a cover for espionage activities...
...The World Federalists' achievements in the present year include persuading Congress to renew U.S...
...New York City Robert C. Weaver Department of Urban Affairs, Hunter College Further comments on "America's Housing Challenge" will appear in future issues.-Ed...
...In identifying the difficulties of integrating tenants of widely different income groups in the same structure, Starr ignores the possibility of such an income mix in developments comprising many buildings, or of a less diversified income mix in the same structure...
...Similarly, when Sections 235 and 236 attempted to make interest subsidization available to those whose income levels were too high to qualify for public housing, the abuses of the program became more important than its achievements...
...In a $300 billion budget, this paltry amount simply demonstrates the low priority accorded so far to the sole serious attempt the nation has made to cure one of its most pervasive and most insidiously demoralizing ills...
...Until now, however, no one had explained in terms the layman could readily understand what the discussion was all about...
...They have certainly revolutionized "rock...
...Henry Jones Le Monde In his "EuroVista" column of May 18, Ray Alan implies that the kinds of distortion he notes in Le Monde's reporting of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's expulsion from the Soviet Union are infrequent in that newspaper...
...But instead of curing faulty administration and bad practices, the public turned its back on the program...
...The rumors you have heard are exaggerated, for the organization is still alive and kicking...
...Starr is one of very few commentators on the national scene who see the housing problem in its entirety and appreciate its potential as a social powder keg in the absence of a serious national commitment to a solution...
...But there is another young man you have sadly neglected-Michael Garson, the musical director of the Garson Band, who also plays the keyboards for David Bowie...
...The limitations of our presently available tools in housing highlight the poverty of our public policy effort...
...Nor is there a renewed sense of moral urgency to provide for those inadequately served...
...World Federalists, U.S.A., has also been working this year for ratification of the Genocide Treaty, against U.S...
...As in so many other areas, change and partial success make complete accomplishment difficult...
...Two examples will suffice: The 608 Program at the end of World War II provided a tremendous amount of sorely needed rental housing, even though "fast operators" took advantage of the liberal provisions of the law and in a sense prostituted some aspects of it...
...Yet as Starr's very commendable analysis shows, the one thing we have lacked is a consistent commitment to the policy adopted in 1949...
...On the other hand, there is validity in his contention that Americans tend to overstress the cost of multistory housing in central cities while underestimating the total social costs of building on vacant suburban land...
...The early plans, as I recall, attempted to create something more than brick and mortar-an effort in some measure reactivated by the War Against Poverty many years later...
...Our problem may be that we seek perfection when we should be fighting for constancy and persistence...
...World Federalists, U.S.A., supports an office and a considerable staff in Washington...
...We may safely predict that it will not be long before somebody puts an end to this latest endeavor to help those who are indecently housed...
...This was a fantastic play of very slick funk interposed with his jazz arrangement cleverly inserted at the right moments...
...Tarrytown, N.Y...
...Among the specific points engendering my admiration was his treatment of the limitations of census data, the cost of reform, and the complicated nature of housing in our urban society...
...I would like, however, to comment on the last section, entitled "The Problems of Policy," which includes a brief summary of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974...
...In sum, Starr has made a comprehensive and sophisticated contribution to the housing discussion...
...We lost on the Genocide Treaty, but the last two decisions are still pending...
...Housing, of course, involves not only bricks and mortar, but sociology and economic policy, and is generally stimulated and regulated by the government...
...Too bad Cook did not take in the show...
...This is not the place to extol the advantages of an urban civilization and the essential qualities that it, alone, can generate and sustain...
...And it cannot be separated from what might appear to be external decisions regarding offices, shopping centers, highways, and factories...
...Some observers wonder whether "cities," as the Western world has known them for centuries, are still necessary, and, if not, whether it would not be best to allow them to disintegrate totally or absorb them as undifferentiated parts of a sprawling metropolitan region...
...support of the International Development Association (after it was withdrawn last January)-an effort so noteworthy as to merit a special letter of thanks from Robert McNamara, head of the World Bank-and passage of the Cranston bills to conclude treaties over the ownership of certain small islands, with the proviso that any future disputes be referred to the World Court...
...I found his commentary on leasing good too, though somewhat weakened by the concluding paragraph...
...Indeed, its existence and extent have been impressively documented by Guy Hostert in Le journal 'le monde' et le marxisme (Paris: La Pensee Universelle, 1973...
...importation of Rhodesian chrome, and against permitting American private firms to mine minerals on the bottom of the ocean before the UN conferences studying this question can set up a Law of the Sea...
...Anyone who has attempted to deal with the urban realities of the last three decades cannot escape the conclusion that merely building more housing will not reverse the trend toward urban disintegration...
...Actually, however, philosophically the drive for a national commitment began in the last days of World War II and genuinely emerged in the Wagner-Ellender-Taft Act of 1949...
...it was aborted by neglect and compromise...
...In short, no other aspect of our life or economy looks so simple yet is so complicated...
...Berkeley John Rehfisch World Federalists You note in your "Between Issues" column (NL, October 14) that the United World Federalists has "declined steadily until today its office is reduced to a telephone answering service...
...In addition, the new approaches to private ownership of housing for low-income families still involve government funding of 90 per cent of the required resources...
...New York City A. Horwitz Housing Challenge Your special issue by Roger Starr on "America's Housing Challenge: What It Is and How to Meet It" (NL, September 30) is a unique and important contribution that bridges a gap many of us have never paid sufficient attention to...
...For a long time professionals in the field have been talking to each other about housing problems and proposed solutions in a highly specialized jargon...
...It is the sad history of public housing that many of the notions surrounding its enactment were eliminated before the program became fully operative...
...even better were his thoughts on the utilization of older buildings...
...Nor do I accept his evaluation of the Ramapo plan...
...His description of public housing is enlightening, and his discussion of ownership and tenure is balanced...
...Time after time, basically sound ideas have been whittled away by amendments before they had an opportunity to mature...
...Yet I believe it is accurate to say that government involvement preceded the Housing Act of 1937: The National Industrial Recovery Act made the first commitment to public housing, and both the Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration were set up before 1937...
...The section on land was generally sound, but I believe that suburban exclusiveness involves more snobbishness than Starr recognizes...
...Starr's excellent work properly emphasizes this vital final point...
...Section 8 should have the following advantages over previous hud subsidized programs: 1. Costs can be better controlled through the use of market-determined rents, competition between private developers and local housing authorities, restricting payments to occupied units, and limiting subsidies to a 20-year term...
...Public housing did not have to be the "massive failure" some have called it...
...Given sufficient time, experience tends to improve public programs and private activities...
...But the moratorium that ensued did not punish either the inefficient public administrators or the unethical building operators as much as it did the thousands of families who have been deprived of some modicum of decent shelter...
...Despite the paucity of public policy proposals for dealing with the minority of multiproblem families whose impact permeates the essay, I found the recommended partial solution of applying peer-group pressure eminently sound...
...Together with the World Association of World Federalists, which has affiliates in many countries around the globe, it maintains a skilled observer and lobbyist at the United Nations, Donald Keys...
...We believe it will be an effective production vehicle for public housing agencies, private developers and nonprofit sponsors, while also maximizing use of the existing housing stock...
...Even viewed narrowly, however, it should be quite apparent that the metastasis of the urban cancer of our day will not stop at the boundaries of cities...
...In my opinion, the ordinance, as it now stands, will be de facto exclusionary...
...There are a few overstatements, however, such as Starr's assertions that the rural shacks along the right-of-ways of every major Southern highway have disappeared, and that public policy has placed major emphasis on racial integration...
...Since 1949, when Federal involvement in urban renewal began, the funds actually expended in the program averaged about $300 million per year...
...Sheldon B. Lubar Assistant Secretary-Commissioner, Federal Housing Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development Roger Starr writes of housing in America with authority and grace, covering its evolution, institutional factors, and the successes and failures of major national programs with an economy of space...
...It will not be an easy road...
...There are continued on next page no offsetting provisions for social policy-in jobs, income or services...
...To me, the special issue was particularly worthwhile for the wonderful job it did in slaying a number of prevalent myths...
...Above all, Starr clearly sets forth the new challenge of improving access to adequate housing for low-income families in the light of the unprecedented rise in construction costs and the drying up of mortgage money sources...
...This, unfortunately, is not the case...
...The final section, "The Problem of Policy," reflects much wisdom...
...Boston Robert T. Kenney Director, Boston Redevelopment Authority Roger Starr has presented a very comprehensive and far-reaching analysis of the historical background to and the current outlook for American housing...
...More generally, Le Monde has exhibited a subtle yet unmistakable pro-Communist bias that has become increasingly pronounced over the years...
...For instance, multi-family buildings are not more costly or less efficient than single-family dwellings...
...Not the least of its virtues is the fact that it is remarkably well-written, lucid and concise...
...Washington, D.C...
...Chicago Philip M. Klutznick Board Member, National Housing Conference Overall, I found Roger Starr's study to be for the most part technically accurate and conceptually sound...
...Revenue sharing is treated analytically and soundly, and Starr rightly notes that the important issue is not so much the wording of the legislation as the content of the Federal regulations...
...nor the environmental and economic advantages of efficient land and energy use that city life affords...
...If "apartheid" is to be avoided in America, Starr's observation that different social classes can live together harmoniously, but only in neighborhoods possessing such remarkable advantages as to cause families with choice to overcome their natural preference for living among people who resemble them in income, education and cultural aspirations, must become the policy cornerstone of the newly enacted Federal community development program...
...Actually, Section 8 is intended to replace and considerably expand the public housing leasing program by providing for new construction and substantial rehabilitation, as well as leasing of standard existing dwellings...
...We are confronted, therefore, not with a theory but with a condition that must be modified in the interest of our social and economic self-preservation...
...These resources, however, will have to be concentrated on neighborhoods in urban areas showing evidence of serious decline and deterioration, rather than diffused among myriad projects intended to satisfy all possible constituencies...
...In the light of this imperative, it will be interesting to see whether the resources to be made available for the redevelopment and revitalization of cities will exceed the niggardly amounts devoted to these purposes in the past...
...Los Angeles Stephen D. Moses President, Flagg Communities It is difficult to add to Roger Starr's masterful summary of America's housing challenge...
...3. "Projectitis" will be reduced and freedom of choice will be enhanced because tenants are free to negotiate with particular landlords, and hud is authorized to give priority to developers who put fewer than 20 per cent of their units in a project under subsidy, except in the case of developments designed for occupancy by the elderly or handicapped...
...Roger Starr has written the definitive 32-page analysis of housing in America-the role of public policy and its history, the great achievements and the shortcomings, the innovative measures and the misdirections, and the goals remaining to be fulfilled...
...Unless we concentrate on speedy and comprehensive physical changes in the cities, urban America's chances of regeneration-and perhaps our society's chances of healing some of its most dangerous rifts-may well be doomed...
...Now we have the Housing Act of 1974 and a new plan-Section 8. Not only does it contain some elementary weaknesses in terms of commanding private funds, it also demonstrates that there are ways of conceiving a conceptually more expensive program than 235 and 236...
...Margaret McCouch Jazz-Rock I heartily approve of Bruce Cook's awarding Chick Corea the "'Excelsior' banner" and electing him "to ride point for the whole movement" ("The Jazz-Rock Bridge," NL, November 11...
...The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...His emphasis on the social elements of housing was most relevant, and his willingness to identify the gaps in our knowledge was refreshing...
...The $2.5 billion authorized for community development in the 1974 Housing Act, if appropriated in full, may begin to address the need on the scale required...
...In his clear presentation of all its divergent elements, Starr has added a vital link to the chain of understanding of the "housing problem...
...I was particularly impressed by the high quality of his economic analyses and his grasp of the myriad technological problems that harass the industry...
...West Chester, Pa...
...Thus the greater the percentage of American families that are well-housed, the less likely the nation is to act in an enthusiastic, consistent and persistent way to help remedy the problems of the smaller percentage of ill-housed...
...2. The lowest-income families can be reached, since the formula will always pay the difference between what they can afford and what it costs to rent the unit...
...Starr characterizes hud's new Section 8 program of Lower-Income Housing Assistance as "essentially designed to augment the purchasing power of the low-income customer rather than to stimulate the production of more new and rehabilitated units...
...These, in turn, have to take into account Federal fiscal and monetary policy, local taxes and zoning restrictions, environmental and consumer concerns, management-labor relations, and a host of other factors, each as complex and seemingly unmanagable as housing...
...George M. Raymond President, Raymond, Parish & Pine, Inc...
...Incidentally, though I have only recently discovered The New Leader, I am very much impressed by its quality...
...Substantial local community control of funds, coupled with "difficult financing pattern for private entrepreneurs, will demand considerable patience and persistence on the part of administrators determined to make it work...
...Now we learn that the CIA is, in effect, using espionage as a cover for civic action projects...
...No responsible person active in the field of housing and redevelopment can afford to miss this exhaustive compendium of knowledge and insight...
...It has 15,000 paid-up members, besides a youth affiliate and an educational branch, and it has given birth to some lively offspring, such as the Members of Congress for Peace Through World Law and the Institute for World Order...
...I have read Le Monde periodically for over 20 years, and have found the failings Alan cites to be all too common: specifically, an equivocal attitude toward Soviet atrocities, an attempt to minimize and/or justify them, and often a grossly false claim that these horrors are matched by equally reprehensible American actions...
...In this connection, Starr's observations about the unattractiveness of owning social housing describe a situation that seems to have been ignored by those who drafted the law...
...Topeka, Kan...
...The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, with its focus on leasing, will contribute little to expanding the housing supply...
...Perhaps you were misled because the name is now World Federalists, U.S.A...
...I can only hope the 1974 Act enjoys a longer trial than some of its predecessors...
...I understand he was one of the original, if not the first, of the jazz-rock movement...
Vol. 57 • December 1974 • No. 25
