Gerald R. Ford photo

Remarks to Participants in the Conference on Ethnicity and Neighborhood Revitalization.

May 05, 1976

Mayor Cianci, Mayor Perk, Monsignor Baroni, members of the administration and guests:

Obviously, it's a great pleasure and privilege to welcome you to the White House and the Rose Garden this morning. This conference has been called to give new insights into some very, very old questions: how to maintain, how to strengthen the ties of community and neighborhood within our society.

America has always been drawing much of its strength from the bonds of family, community, church, and voluntary organizations. Yet, as the face of America has been changed over the years, there is a growing realization that some of our oldest traditions and some of our oldest institutions are now in jeopardy.

A sense of community has been eroded in some of our largest cities. A sense of neighborhood, a sense of belonging, of cultural identification, are threatened. I can appreciate your deep concern for the future of institutions which you worked so very hard to establish--the ethnic church, the school, the credit union, the fraternal lodge. Increasingly centralized government in Washington, which has grown more and more powerful and very impersonal, is a big part of the problem.

It is time that we begin de-emphasizing the bureaucracies in Washington and reemphasizing the community, the efforts that we can make to improve our American way of life. One way to do this is by extending the general revenue sharing program, which over the past 5 years has turned the flow of power away from Washington and towards your own cities and your own States.

Another way is through the vigorous enforcement of the anti-redlining bill, which discourages credit discrimination based on neighborhood location in mortgage and home improvement loans. I signed the law prohibiting that discrimination, and I intend to see it stopped.

By replacing the urban renewal program and many similar programs with a single Community Development Act, we have given local residents a much, much greater voice in rebuilding their own communities.

Redtape has been cut enormously. At my direction, Federal regulations for community development have been reduced from 2,600 pages to just 25 pages. Application forms have been reduced from 1,400 pages to only 50 pages. The whole process between application and approval for these projects has been reduced from an average of 2 years to less than 2 months.

We want to do more, and to do that we want to hear your views and to enlist your support and your cooperation. I have asked Bill Baroody and Myron Kuropas1 to give me a full report on your activities here today, and I hope each of you will let us know what you think needs to be done.

1 Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Special Assistant to the President for Ethnic Affairs, respectively.

As we enter our third century, I believe that we can have a rebirth of individual freedom and that we can protect the diverse heritage which gives so much strength and so much richness to our society. Working together, we can achieve these goals, and I think today's conference is a very good start.

Thank you very, very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:34 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House to representatives of ethnic organizations attending the conference.

In his opening remarks, he referred to Mayors Vincent Cianci of Providence, R.I., and Ralph J. Perk of Cleveland, Ohio, and Monsignor Geno C. Baroni, chairman of the Catholic Conference on Ethnic and Neighborhood Affairs and president of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs.

Gerald R. Ford, Remarks to Participants in the Conference on Ethnicity and Neighborhood Revitalization. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/257963

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