STATEMENT OF JUANITA CRABB, MAYOR OF
BINGHAMTON, NY

Mayor CRABB. It's good to see the Senators, Senator D'Amato here, and the other Senators who joined us today.

One of the things that I would like to make very clear, we talk about urban issues and that takes on a very big city connotation. There are a lot of cities like Binghamton, maybe more than the big cities across this country. Binghamton is 55,000, so we are really not talking about a big city issue. We are really talking about a people issue that effects millions of people throughout this country.

So the mayors that are here today are representative of those people that live in cities across this Nation. This is a Nation made up of cities. And we hope that we reflect the needs of those people across our country.

It was stated before that mayors are on the front line. And it was also noted that several of the mayors should be commended for keeping the lid on in their cities. And they certainly should be commended.

But I don't want the mayors to be noted only for keeping the lid on in their cities. I have not been back twice as Mayor Jackson has been, but I have been mayor for 11 years in the city of Binghamton. And I have been there when there was a strong partnership between the Federal Government and the people in our cities, and many of the programs that Mayor Riley spoke about were programs that worked. They were programs that were really meant to make sure that the people had decent jobs, they were programs that were really meant to make sure that people had decent homes, and they were programs that said that cities and investment in cities were very important.

And I think what we are talking about here is we don't see those programs or those philosophies anymore. We talk about giveaway programs and nobody wants giveaway programs, even with Los Angeles. We are talking about $600 million going into Los Angeles. They need it now.

But I think if we look at the big picture, where are those programs? Not only when they were needed before, but that need is not going to go away.

Sometimes it is noted with cynicism of the people in this country toward Government, and I know that hurts each and every one of us because we are so deeply involved. But to simply react to this as a public relations problem in Los Angeles that has to be dealt with, or react to it in a politically correct way by putting $600 million into Los Angeles, is not going to address the philosophical problems that are lacking now with dealing with urban issues.

Years ago, when the drug problem reached the cities, the Federal Government's attitude toward that was initially it is not a national issue, it is a local issue. And sometimes now I think that jobs are not a national issue, they become a local issue. Housing isn't a national issue, it becomes a local issue.

We really need to reestablish that partnership, because I strongly believe if we had a philosophy in place in this country where we could not so much talk about the bills and whose bill is right and how much money should go into each one, but simply state we be

lieve that everyone in this country should have a job, then we would progress at making that a reality.

Welfare seems to jump up to the top of the list. But the people who are going on welfare now are not second and third generation welfare recipients. They are our neighbors; they are people who have been laid off, they are people who worked hard for a living and the jobs are just no longer available.

And with all due respect to the military and the jobs that they create, we cannot pretend to perpetuate a military economy in this country where none exists.

So to wrap it all up, the mayors are here because they are not afraid to be on the front line. We are not afraid to roll up our sleeves and to work to make sure that the cities are better places for all of our people to live. But have to say we cannot do it alone. When this country worked well for everyone, it was because a partnership was clearly established between the mayors and other local elected officials and the Federal Government. We all knew what was important. We worked toward those ends. And it was the people we all served who were the better for it.

And again, I appreciate your time that you have given us today. And I sincerely look forward to working with you in the future on these very important issues.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mayor Crabb. That was a very important and valuable statement you have given us.

Senator DOMENICI. Can I ask a clarifying question? Mayor Crabb, when did you say you went into office?

Mayor CRABB. 1982.

Senator DOMENICI. You have been in 1982 until now?
Mayor CRABB. Yes.

Senator DOMENICI. And your reference was not prior to that, it was during your period of time?

Mayor CRABB. That is correct. Federal revenue sharing, the UDAĞ programs, the city investment programs, the historic tax credit programs, the housing programs, and the list goes on and on and on. These were wonderful programs that actually worked. These issues are not new issues; we have been talking about them for a long time.

And if I could just go on for a minute, if we look at what has happened with the unemployment, if we look at what has happened with the homeless, for example, and we look at the programs that are taken away, I think somewhere along the line we are going to note a connection between the removal of those programs and policies and the need that exists in our country today.

Senator DOMENICI. I told the Chairman, if you are going to be here for a bit, when the testimony is finished, I would like to ask some questions. I will return in 10 or 15 minutes if we are still in session.

The CHAIRMAN. Good.

Senator DOMENICI. I won't ask any now.

The CHAIRMAN. Mayor Saxon-Perry is here from Hartford, CT and we are very pleased to have you. We have our Senator back here.

STATEMENT OF CARRIE SAXON-PERRY, MAYOR OF
HARTFORD, CT

Mayor SAXON-PERRY. That was excellent timing.

I am gratified that we have this opportunity. As mayors, we feel lonely out there and welcome this interaction.

Just a second for a description of my city, the State of Connecticut, as many of you know, is one of the wealthiest in the country and the city of Hartford, which is the capital of Connecticut, is the fourth poorest in the country. So you see the dichotomy. It's very difficult and it makes some of us act sort of schizophrenic because we have the disparity.

Just a quick example, Yale which is located in New Haven that once wanted to be the capital of the State, but the forefathers and foremothers knew much better. I don't know if there were many foremothers then. But the forefathers certainly knew better. They have an operating budget in 1990 that was $2,700,000. And our 22 public colleges is 69 percent of that budget. So we have one university with a budget that is much higher than 22 of our public_colleges. And Yale University enrollment is about 10,500. And those in our public colleges is 109,677. So that gives you a little idea.

You think of the lack of justice in the Rodney King verdict. There is something that the American people are at long last anxious to rid our lingering problem of racism that has permeated our history. Others feel a sense of deja vu that somehow or other we have been here before, picking up the pieces, trying to make some sense, sorting out the human debris of a national anguishing tragedy.

Sadly, on one of the public broadcasting programs that addressed the causes and the aftermaths of the Rodney King verdict and the ensuing urban unrest, one of the panelists was a scholar whose area of concentration, specialization, was the study and history of urban unrest, blue ribbon commissions.

Imagine that, there have been enough commissions to analyze and assess the causes of so many American urban uprisings of the downtrodden that an historian is merited to chronicle and study. This is an enormously sad commentary.

There are a number of factors that brought about the violence following the Rodney King verdict. To be sure, the verdict itself was a lighted fuse. Central L.A. and inner cities throughout America were, and remain, powder kegs, time bombs, and metaphors abound. I need not recite statistics or present an array of data to sound the fire bell in the night for our cities that L.A. on the night after the Rodney King verdict was.

Many of us cry out about the urgency and crisis of our beleaguered cities. We have witnessed a seething aura of despair and hopelessness that engulfs our inner cities. The actual real sleeper, as far as the real threat to our national security is concerned, is the social injustice in our inner cities.

A sleeper aroused from time to time to cynical indifference. The gulf between the impoverished and the comfortable is a national disgrace, a permanent stain on the national conscience.

It is far more than a dream deferred.

Fact: Data show that the top 1 percent got 60 percent of the gains in 1980. The social injustice of our inner cities is a breeding ground for violence, gangs, and generational genocide. There is no

question but that the travesty of justice in the Rodney King jury verdict, the acquittal of the police for the recorded barbarism, opened the floodgate of discontent.

Racism, and police brutality, and police violence are nothing new to blacks and other minorities in our Nation's cities. The videotaped police beating of Mr. King had the whole world aghast. The revulsion was universal. The acquittals send a devastating message to the inner city. Your socioeconomic position is not only hopeless, you can also expect to be denied human dignity and be likened to an animal. You are shut out of the American system of justice.

This contempt for black people in our inner cities has bred bitterness and scorn. Nicholas Lehman wrote in his book, "The Promised Land," to be born into a ghetto is to be consigned to fate that no American should have to suffer.

The Rodney King verdict unleashed the pain, the degradation, outrage, and despair that all too many in the inner cities have to endure on an ongoing basis. How can we expect order when agents of the law so demonstratively are barbaric and callous to human beings.

The Rodney King verdict was merely the tip of the iceberg. Society's callous indifference to the daily throes and travails of inner city life and strife in America is morally reprehensible. It is as if a festering sore on the body politic has been isolated, ignored, and forgotten.

The immediate needs of South-Central L.A. are the needs of every inner city. Jobs, jobs and skill training, adequate educational opportunities, health care, recreational outlets, public safety, you have heard all of them here this evening. The litany is all too familiar.

Violence is always likely to erupt where the conditions of racism, poverty, and hopelessness are nurtured and allowed to prevail. To address the underlying causes of violence and to alleviate the likelihood of eruptions, the following steps should be taken immediately:

An immediate cease fire in the politics of blame and finger pointing. This incessant finger pointing is merely fodder for the talk show pundits and those hucksters of the print and electronic media. The publicly aired blame game serves to stroke the simmering cynicisms out there.

We need leadership on all levels. Real leadership from the presidency to the pulpits to the lecterns, the workplaces, the classrooms. We need leadership that will go beyond mere lectures on law and order. We need genuine leadership to evoke a national sense of empathy for those human beings being held hostage in our Nation's core cities. The people who live there and daily endure the indignity, the suffering, and the isolation.

We need leadership that will inspire and enlist the American people's resolve to recognize the racism that permeates our society and rid it from our communities. It must be an ongoing commitment, an unrelenting commitment that cities could and should be saved, that the urban scene and agenda be given an aura of a holy crusade which will attract the best and the brightest.

We need the immediate passage and enforcement of legislation that will ensure the quality of life in our inner cities. Legislation designed to encourage and provide incentives for investments to create jobs. Some of those have been shared with you today that you know as well as I or better. I will mention a couple that I don't think have been mentioned.

One is to reevaluate underwriting requirements. The comments I am making have to do with small business support. To strengthen the mentor protege imperative. They have a pilot in the Defense Department where they help to get joint ventures between the public and the private.

There needs to be an examination of the FCC model, which is for people to purchase. And it has the distressed sale policy for minorities.

We need to accelerate efforts to weed out those individuals in law enforcement who are prone to violence toward those whose skin is of a different color.

In the long term, leadership would again head my list of priorities. It has always been the Federal Government that has led the way on race relations, whether in eradicating barriers to vote or the legal barriers to public accommodation. There is no time for reliance on well intentioned laissez faire efforts of the private sector or someone's points of light.

Racism in our country, the justice system in particular, is a clear and present danger, a real threat to our national security.

Some of those concerns that have been expressed by folks in my community as some of the answers they talked about land reform, they talked about reparation like the Indians and the Japanese got as a way to deal with concerns.

The Resolution Trust Corporation, RTC, to put real strength in this CRA, Community Reinvestment Act, to begin a cultural Enterprise Zone and look at the arts as a commerce.

And also, for the Congress to strengthen and support the United Nations, because it has begun to be a vehicle in which third world people have the ability to dialog and to share the concerns that are not only within our country but are in the world.

We need leadership to bind up the Nation's wounds anew and to renew and give new invigorated meaning to the American spirit of community, to put an end to the rhetoric of division, the misguided notions of us versus them. Let us reverse the retrenchment to funding social programs that work.

We should not abandon programs because of isolated shortcomings. We know all too well that when costly military weaponry does not measure up to expectations the Government does not default on funding. And we need to pass the program for social economic opportunities encompassed in the 7-point program of the Nation's mayors.

And as we all have said, we are on the front line. We are there every day. And we feel such pain because we are touching it every single day.

In closing, what is very, very graphic in my mind is after the L.A. uprising, a young boy, age of 11, just snuggled up to me and he says, "Mayor, I have no faith in my future." And he is not an exception.