[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 18910-18911]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RECOGNIZING THOMAS G. COUSINS

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, last Thursday was Thanksgiving in 
America. Like every Member of the Senate and every American, I paused 
to give thanks for the many blessings we have in the country, the 
blessings I have as a father and grandfather, and the blessings we 
enjoy from all those who serve in harm's way around the world who keep 
us safe and in peace.
  I also took a second to participate in some charitable activities for 
those less fortunate and, in doing so, stopped to pause and give thanks 
for those people who on the day of Thanksgiving were giving of their 
time and their money to make the lives of those less fortunate better.
  One of the people in my State I want to talk about who has done 
exactly that for five decades is a man by the name of Thomas G. 
Cousins, a real estate developer greatly renowned in Atlanta and, 
really, around the world, and who amassed millions and millions of 
dollars in the Cousins Foundation and invested that money in trying to 
solve the problems of poverty, crime, unemployment, and health care.
  Thomas G. Cousins founded the Cousins Foundation to see to it that 
Atlanta, GA, and the State of Georgia were a better State. But he 
became frustrated. He recognized that of the 72 million children in the 
United States of America, 40 percent of them lived in poverty. He 
became frustrated because he found that isolated neighborhoods of 
concentrated poverty created unemployment, poor performance by 
students, and greater crime rates in the city of Atlanta. Worst of all, 
he found that the entrepreneurial gifts of charity trying to alleviate 
these problems often got consumed but never made a fundamental change. 
He thought it was time for his charitable money to become 
entrepreneurial, not just a giveaway. So in the decade of 1990, Tom 
Cousins decided to do something about making the Cousins Foundation 
investment make a meaningful difference in the lives of Americans 
around the country. He did exactly that.
  He heard Dr. Todd Clear, a professor at Rutgers University, give a 
speech in New York City, where he had done research on the prison 
population of the State of New York and researched where they came from 
to find, amazingly, that three out of every four prisoners in the New 
York State prison system came out of eight neighborhoods in New York 
City. Concentrated poverty created concentrated crime and concentrated 
criminals. There was a never-ending cycle of crime, poverty, and poor 
educational performance in those neighborhoods.
  So Tom Cousins decided that, instead of giving his money away in 
small, incremental bits to make a minor difference, he would become a 
charitable entrepreneur. He would go to a neighborhood of concentrated 
crime and poverty and try to make a meaningful difference. He found a 
neighborhood called East Lake Meadows in the 1990s in Atlanta, GA. It 
was the home of Bobby Jones and Charlie Yates, famous golfers of the 
1920s, but had gone to seed, was dilapidated, and became a neighborhood 
of crime. In fact, it had become known as the Little Vietnam of 
Georgia. Police would not enter the area because of the crime rate. 
Drew Elementary School was the worst performing elementary school in 
the State of Georgia.
  Tom Cousins came to the State board of education--and I know this 
because I was the chairman--and asked us to go to the city of Atlanta 
to get them to issue a charter for Drew Elementary School and a 99-year 
lease to the Cousins Foundation. Tom Cousins went in and built a new 
Drew Elementary School, hired Georgia State University to bring in a 
professor to be the principal there and manage the education of those 
children. Drew Elementary School went from being one of the worst 
performing schools in the State of Georgia to one of the best.
  But he didn't stop with the school. He improved the neighborhood. He 
improved the facilities. He built a YMCA. He took a holistic approach 
to East Lake Meadows and turned it into a shining city once again in 
the State of Georgia. But he didn't do it just because he gave money. 
He did it because he invested his money in the lives of these people.
  I will give some idea of the changes made in East Lake Meadows and 
Drew Elementary School. Drew Elementary went from 5 percent of its 
fifth graders reading and performing in math levels where they should, 
to where 90 percent of the fifth graders exceeded the math standards of 
the State of Georgia. Where the median income of the families in East 
Lake Meadows was $4,536 when Tom Cousins went in, 15 years later it was 
$17,260. There was a 90-percent reduction in the crime rate, to the 
point where it was 50 percent lower than the city's overall crime rate. 
He transformed the neighborhood because he invested his money 
entrepreneurially in trying to solve the problems and the poverty of 
these people.

[[Page 18911]]

  He went to Warren Buffett, a leading entrepreneur of America, and 
formed a new organization called Purpose Built Communities, which is 
based on three fundamental discoveries they made at East Lake Meadows. 
No. 1, it can be done. How many times have people walked by declining 
neighborhoods of poverty, crime, and failing schools, and said: There 
is nothing we can do; we cannot solve that problem. Tom Cousins proved 
that any problem, no matter how great, is solvable if you are willing 
to dedicate yourself to doing so.
  Second, it takes a holistic approach--not just schools, not just 
playgrounds, not just housing, not just jobs but everything. The 
transformation of East Lake Meadows was a holistic approach for the 
entire community. Lastly, mixed-income housing was important to bring 
employed people back into the neighborhood. So they had mixed-use 
housing all throughout East Lake Meadows.
  The result was a purpose-built community that is now home to the PGA 
FedEx Championship, a restored East Lake Golf Club, and a community 
that is proud of itself and one of the shining stars of the city of 
Atlanta.
  Because a man with purpose, Thomas G. Cousins, invested his money, 
public purpose-built communities are now all over the country being 
started as renovation projects in Indianapolis, New Orleans, and in 
cities around the United States of America.
  So we should all pause to give thanks for those who have done so much 
to make our States and our country better. I pause to thank Thomas G. 
Cousins for the great investment he made in the city of Atlanta, the 
children of our State, and the United States of America.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 
20 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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