John F. Kennedy photo

Statement by the President on the first Anniversary of the Area Redevelopment Act.

May 01, 1962

TODAY is the first anniversary of the Area Redevelopment Act, and I am pleased to make public a report of the first year's activities of the Area Redevelopment Administration. It is an encouraging report in terms of the new jobs it has helped to create and the new private investment it has helped to stimulate in areas long beset by chronic unemployment or underemployment. Even more heartening is the new spirit of hope that the Area Redevelopment program has brought to the people in these areas of economic distress.

These first 12 months of operation have demonstrated conclusively that the economic weight of the federal Government can be brought to bear to help communities help themselves in alleviating chronic unemployment. The progress that has been made is a result of community initiative, private investment, State action and federal assistance. This kind of joint action represents the genius of our free enterprise system.

The Area Redevelopment program has made a significant beginning, and Secretary of Commerce Hodges and Area Redevelopment Administrator Batt indicate that the program is gaining momentum daily. However, the long-standing economic problems of these chronically depressed areas cannot be expected to yield to quick and easy solutions. While this program moves forward in helping these communities build a durable foundation for sustained local prosperity, other steps must be taken to ease the plight of the redevelopment areas.

I have asked the Congress, in conjunction with the Stand-by Capital Improvements legislation now pending before it, to initiate an immediate $600 million public works program for the redevelopment areas and for the communities which have been designated for more than a year as areas of substantial unemployment. Both the stand-by legislation and the immediate capital improvements program will benefit these hard-hit areas-the first by mitigating the effects on these communities of any downturn in the national economy in the future, the second by providing immediate useful work for the unemployed and under-employed and by helping these communities improve their public facilities to make them better places in which to live, to work, and to invest.

These proposals are part of this Administration's continuing efforts to strengthen our economy within the framework of the American system of free enterprise. They are designed to reinforce the investment that America is making, and will continue to make, through the Area Redevelopment program to insure that all areas of the Nation share in our country's economic expansion.

Note: The report covering the first year's activities of the Area Redevelopment Administration (6 pp., processed) was released by the Department of Commerce.

On September 14 the President approved a bill providing authority to accelerate public works programs in redevelopment areas and areas of substantial unemployment (Public Law 87-658, 76 Stat. 541).

John F. Kennedy, Statement by the President on the first Anniversary of the Area Redevelopment Act. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236530

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