[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

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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

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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.