    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [September 16, 1993]
    [Pages 1515-1517]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1515]]

    Remarks Honoring the All-American Cities Award Winners
    September 16, 1993

        The President. Thank you very much, please be seated--everybody
    except you. [Laughter]
        I want to say first of all, whenever I am with a group from our
    Nation's small towns and cities, I always feel at home. I've just come
    from a number of meetings. Mayor Cisneros, you should have been with me.
    We just had a health care briefing with leaders from cities and counties
    and States around the country. And then I met with the Association of
    Black Mayors. But I'm especially glad to be here, because one of the
    cities represented here is from my previous hometown of Little Rock--and
    I'm glad to see Mayor Sharon Priest here and Lottie Shackleford from the
    City of Little Rock, Congressman Thornton, and a lot of my other friends
    are here--along with all the other cities who won in 1992 and who are
    being recognized in 1993.
        Before he became the chairman of the Housing and Urban Development--
    or the Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, Henry
    Cisneros was the chairman of the National Civic League. And as we
    recognize that League for this program today, I'd also like to thank the
    group for generously surrendering Mr. Cisneros to the administration.
    [Laughter]
        Last week in Cleveland with Mayor Mike White, who's also here to be
    recognized, the Vice President and I announced how we want to change the
    way our National Government works and how we work with State and local
    government to encourage more of the kinds of successes we salute today.
    We believe if we can streamline Federal grant programs so that mayors
    can worry more about what works for their community rather than what
    works for grant administrators in the Federal bureaucracy, our country
    will work better, and we'll get more for our tax dollars. We believe
    that by cutting paperwork, we'll get the money to the local level more
    quickly and save the taxpayers money at the same time.
        I also want to commend our mayors for the struggle to provide health
    care to the citizens of our cities in spite of the barriers to access,
    in spite of skyrocketing costs, in spite of underfunded public health
    clinics and overtaxed institutions and not very much leadership from
    this capital for quite a long time. With the mayors' help, we can bring
    about comprehensive, affordable health care for all Americans and free
    up more of our strapped State and local budgets to invest in jobs and
    growth and opportunity for our people.
        I want to now congratulate the mayors and the delegations from each
    of our All-American Cities. This prestigious award recognizes America's
    heroes who have taken responsibility for their communities, who form
    partnerships among citizens, local government, and private businesses to
    ensure that we meet the urgent needs of our people and open new
    opportunities for our neighbors.
        The 1992 winners are here along with the 1993 winners because there
    was no ceremony last year. So very briefly I am going to recognize all
    the 1992 winners, and I think they are to my right, is that right? I
    will acknowledge the mayor and the city, and then if anybody is here
    from the city I call out, I want you to stand up, too.
        First of all, Mayor John Williams from Kenai, Alaska. Anybody else
    here? How many people live there, Mayor?
        Mayor Williams. Seven thousand.
        The President. Seven thousand, that's a lot bigger than the town I
    was born in. [Laughter]
        Mayor Sharon Priest from Little Rock, Arkansas. Would the group from
    Arkansas please stand? Thank you. Mayor Gerald Roberts from Delta,
    Colorado. Would the group from Colorado please stand? Mayor Charles Box
    from Rockford, Illinois. Mayor Joseph Steineger from Wyandotte County,
    Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. Charles Tooley--is that right?--from Billings,
    Montana. Anybody else here from Billings? Thank you. Beautiful place.
        Mayor George Jones from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Mayor George
    Christensen from Minot, North Dakota. Mayor Gregory Lashutka--is that
    right?--from Columbus, Ohio. Great city. Mayor Bill Card from Harlingen,
    Texas. I've been there.
        Now I want to recognize this year's winning communities in
    alphabetical order.
        Cleveland, Ohio, wins this award for the fifth

    [[Page 1516]]

    time for fostering cooperation between police and citizens, for
    addressing Cleveland's school system in the Cleveland Summit on
    Education, and for its innovative efforts, which I have personally
    observed, to direct investments to needy neighborhoods. As I said last
    week when we kicked off our reinventing Government campaign, the Vice
    President and I went to Cleveland because of the astonishing success
    Mayor White is having in moving property that has been abandoned or
    where the taxes haven't been paid into the hands of his citizens and
    into the hands of developers and putting jobs back into the inner city.
    Congratulations to you, sir.
        Believe it or not, inadvertently somebody let me come out here
    without all the names of all the winners, so we're going to have to--
    Have you got the list of the names of the people who are here? Who else
    is here from Cleveland? Anybody else? Stand up there.
        The next winner is Dawson County, Nebraska. Mr. Ed Cook, and who
    else is here from Dawson County? Thank you--an All-American County for
    countywide cooperation among seven separate communities on regional
    economic development, solid waste disposal and recycling, and for
    improving the awareness of the diverse cultural backgrounds of the
    people of his county.
        Next is Delray Beach, Florida, Mayor Thomas Lynch--anybody else
    here? Thank you. For community policing--thank you--increased public
    involvement in the local schools and for turning an underused former
    high school into a useful community cultural center for all the people
    of Delray Beach.
        Fort Worth, Texas, Mayor Kay Granger. Who else is here from Fort
    Worth? Anyone else? That's good, a big delegation. Welcome. For its
    crime fighting program, Code Blue, for neighborhood planning efforts,
    and for the Vision Coalitions Town Hall Meeting. That must have been
    some gathering. I've been conducting town hall meetings for 2 years, and
    I never won an award for one yet. [Laughter] I guess I won an election
    for one, maybe that's just as well. [Applause] Thank you. One thing I
    will say, they work. They tell you what people think, and it gives
    people a chance to reestablish connections with their political leaders.
        Laredo, Texas, for community-wide efforts for better health care,
    for the Poncho de la Garza Housing Development Program, and a new branch
    library to serve community needs. Who's here from Laredo?
        Mayor Ramirez. Saul Ramirez.
        The President. Oh yes, Mayor Ramirez. Who else is here? There they
    are. I've been there. I was with the Mayor over a year ago in Laredo.
    It's also a good place to jog in the early morning.
        Oakland, California, Mayor Elihu Harris, Congressman Ron Dellums,
    and others. Please stand up, all the people from Oakland, whose
    residents came together across the lines of race and class to rebuild
    after the fire of 1991. Its Safe Streets Now program has brought 3,500
    people together to get tough with landlords responsible for 250
    properties used to traffic drugs. They have also established a health
    center to meet the special needs of Oakland's American Indian
    population. And I can say, based on recent knowledge, it's a very good
    place to spend the night. Thank you very much. Congratulations.
        Pulaski, Tennessee, Mr. Daniel Speer. Who else is here from Pulaski,
    Tennessee? Please stand up. For industrial development that attracts new
    jobs, for the rehabilitation of public housing, for Pulaski's annual
    Brotherhood Observance, which shows how people can take their city back
    and send a moving message of hope all across our Nation.
        Washington, North Carolina. Mayor Floyd Brothers. How are you,
    Mayor? Good to see you. [Applause] Thank you. Anyone else here from
    Washington? Thank you for coming. For efforts to revitalize the West
    Fourth Street neighborhood, for addressing the quality of drinking
    water, for waste water treatment and protection of surrounding rivers,
    and for bringing more of the community together through increased
    cultural outreach programs.
        Wichita, Kansas, Mayor Elma Broadfoot. Anybody else here from
    Wichita? [Applause] Thank you. For its Summer Youth Academy to get young
    people more involved in learning and less involved in gangs, for a
    partnership that encourages troubled youths to seek treatment for their
    problems and rewards them with improved self-esteem and for a project to
    restore the quality of life within a Wichita neighborhood.
        Wray, Colorado, Ms. Roberta Helling. How are you? Anybody else here
    from Wray, Colorado? For the town's first rehabilitation center, a
    family counseling center and a new hospital, the only multiple-physician
    facility in a 100-mile radius, all this done by a town with a population

    [[Page 1517]]

    of just about 2,000 people. If we had the people from this Colorado town
    here in the Nation's Capital, we'd probably lick our problems in no
    time. [Laughter]
        While I have mentioned these places by name, the awards really
    belong to the people in the communities, even those who weren't able to
    come here today. To be an All-American City, it doesn't matter how big
    you are or how much money you have. It's not the racial composition or
    the region in which the community is located. What matters is the
    commitment of the people, the innovation of the leaders, and the
    cooperation of people across all the lines that too often divide us in
    America.
        Now to say a few words on behalf of the All-American City program,
    is Mr. Wayne Hedien--come on up here--chairman and CEO of Allstate
    Insurance, representing the Allstate foundations, whose generosity has
    made these awards possible.

    [At this point, Mr. Hedien made brief remarks.]

        The President. A generation ago, Robert Kennedy spoke of America's
    cities and towns and said, ``The time has come to bring the engines of
    government, of technology, of the economy fully under the control of our
    citizens, to recapture and reinforce the values of a more human time and
    place.''
        We honor leaders who have done that. But I hope also we look at the
    challenges still facing all of us. I asked Henry Cisneros to join this
    Cabinet because I thought he was not only a brilliant and committed
    person but because I thought he understood how we could help instead of
    hinder the energies of people who live at the grassroots level. We're
    trying to reform a lot of our housing programs to help you do that.
        I asked Bob Reich to come into the Labor Department because I
    thought he understood that cities and local groups committed to training
    our work force and helping unemployed people go back to work weren't
    doing very well with 150 separate education and training programs. We
    want to allow you to consolidate them and spend the money in ways that
    will best put your own people back to work.
        I have done everything I could to support the brilliant work done by
    the Vice President to try to reconceive the whole relationship between
    the Federal and the State and local government. We have a lot of work to
    do.
        And I just want to say one thing in closing. One of the things that
    we have to do is to impress upon the people who live here in Washington,
    and not just the United States Congress but also the people who run all
    of these Departments, that we don't have a day to waste. You see every
    day where you live what can happen if you do something right. You also
    see the enormous consequences of continued neglect, of continuing to do
    things the way they are.
        And let me just say, there are a lot of things that I want to do as
    President that will just help you to do what I know you'll do anyway if
    we can find a way to give you the power to do it.
        I hope you will help us to pass the kind of health care reform that
    will liberate you and make your citizens healthier. I hope you will help
    us to pass this reinventing Government program. I hope you will support
    the innovations of Henry Cisneros and Bob Reich and the other members of
    the Cabinet. I hope you will come up to this city and demand that we
    finally do something to help you get guns out of the hands of people who
    are behaving irresponsible with them. We need to pass the Brady bill.
    And we don't need to have a situation that we have in many of our cities
    where the average person committing a murder is under the age of 16 and
    has access to semiautomatic weapons. There's no reason children should
    have those in the cities of this country. We have work to do. We need
    your help. Bring your ideas, your innovation, your energy back to
    Washington and give us a chance to do it.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:10 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House.