[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 80 (Monday, June 17, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ALFRED GRISANTI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 17, 2002

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of Alfred 
Grisanti who served the City of Cleveland as a member of the City 
Council from 1944 to 1954 and then as an activist private citizen for 
many more decades. Mr. Grisanti was a fearless defender of the public 
interest, challenging the rationale of an urban renewal program years 
before its collapse. He was a visionary who understood that the best 
intentions of government had to be followed up by serious planning. The 
Urban renewal program in Cleveland in the 1950s moved tens of thousands 
of city residents out of their inner-city housing and gave the land to 
institutional and private interests. There was no program for 
relocation of residents, who were often forced into tenement districts 
where living conditions were intolerable; poor housing, poor health 
care, segregated schools. Mr. Grisanti waged a long and lonely 
challenge to the program on behalf of the dispossessed and small 
businesses. Years later was proven to have been right, as the urban 
renewal program of the 1950s became part of the civil rights disasters 
of the 1960s.
  Mr. Speaker, Alfred Grisanti brought a fighting spirit into city 
politics. He was a member of one of the most famous college football 
teams in American history, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, under 
legendary coach Knute Rockne. He was a reserve end on Notre Dame's 
national championship teams of 1929 and 1930. He graduated from Notre 
Dame in 1931, with a degree in economics. He later earned a law degree 
from Western Reserve School of Law. In 1948 he was a delegate to the 
Democratic National Convention. Mr. Grisanti often used football 
analogies in his legal and political discussions. His love of football, 
the law and politics continued throughout his life and his friendships 
spanned all three fields from one end of America to the other.
  Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate that this United States House of 
Representatives pay tribute to the memory of Mr. Alfred C. Grisanti. 
True to the fight song of his Alma Mater, `Down through the years, he 
has re-echoed the cheers, and through his efforts brought fame' to 
Notre Dame, to his profession, to his city and to his own family name.

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