    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [November 4, 1999]
    [Pages 1967-1970]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community in Newark
    November 4, 1999

        Thank you. Let me begin by saying that, as an old school musician, I
    appreciate the band being here today and playing for us. Thank you very
    much.
        Secretary Herman, thank you very much
    for your introduction, and my good friend Mayor Sharpe James. I told Jayson, when
    Mayor James was talking, I said, ``You know, I really like Sharpe. He
    never loses his enthusiasm. He's always out there pumping, and you need
    that for leadership, to make something go.''
        I thank Secretary Herman for her
    leadership. Secretary Slater, thank you for
    being here. Your principal, Lanni Paschall,
    better? The third time I'll get it perfect. Your superintendent, Marion
    Bolden, thank you for being here. Senator
    Lautenberg, Congressman Payne, who used to--Don Payne used to teach and coach at
    this school, and we thank him for being here.
        I am also joined by Congressmen John Larson from Connecticut and Paul Kanjorski from Pennsylvania. We thank them for being here. And I'm
    especially honored by the presence here today of a man who believes
    passionately in this cause and has worked on trying to give all of our
    children a better future, your former Governor and my former colleague,
    Governor Tom Kean, now the president for a
    university. Thank you for being here, sir.
        I want to thank Lew Katz, who will speak in a
    moment; and Ray Chambers, the owners of the
    Nets and partners in the Yankees. Ray Chambers has been a real guardian
    angel of this city. He's never forgotten where he came from, and I thank
    Ray and Lew, and I'll have more to say about that in a minute. I thank
    Jayson Williams and the New Jersey Nets for
    being here today.
        You know, I thought I was a reasonably tall person until--
    [laughter]--Bob Lanier of the NBA met me at the
    airport. And Paul Tagliabue, the NFL
    Commissioner, is here. He used to

    [[Page 1968]]

    actually play basketball, and he feels short on this stage today. Wendy
    Lewis, from major league baseball, is here. Bill
    Milliken, from Communities In Schools,
    which has been active here.
        And we have some business leaders here: the CEO of Prudential, Art
    Ryan; COSTCO cofounder, Bob Craves; AT&T Network Services president, Frank Ianna; Bell Atlantic New Jersey president, Bill
    Freeman; Lucent general counsel, Richard
    Rawson. I thank all them for being here.
        And I'd like to introduce some of the other people who came here
    with me. First of all, a man who has believed in bringing economic
    opportunity to the poor communities of our country for many, many years
    and has worked for it, Reverend Jesse Jackson.
    Make him feel welcome here. [Applause] I'd like to thank Al From, from the Democratic Leadership Council; Hugh Price, from the Urban League; and Maria
    Echaveste, my Deputy Chief of Staff; and
    Gene Sperling, my national economic counselor.
    All of them have played a role in this day.
        Now, I want to be brief here because I want you to hear from all the
    people who really came to tell you what they're going to do to give more
    of our children a better future. But let me say, I am honored to be
    here, at Malcolm X Shabazz High School. I am honored to be a part of
    this day.
        We got the day off to a great start because I just met with a number
    of the Project GRAD scholars. And let me say that this is an
    unbelievable program. For those of you who are here who don't know what
    it stands for, it means ``graduation really achieves dreams.'' And
    thanks to all the companies that have worked on it and the communities
    in schools program and the people here in the school, all these young
    people will have the guarantee that they can go on to college if they
    make their grades, they do community service, they take the right
    courses, and they make the right life choices. That's the kind of
    opportunity we need for every single child in the United States of
    America, and I thank you for giving it to these young people.
        Last July, I went around America to a lot of places that haven't
    participated yet in our economic recovery, the hills of Appalachia, the
    rural Mississippi Delta, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South
    Dakota, the inner cities of East St. Louis and Phoenix and Watts.
        The whole idea was to say to the rest of America, ``Look, we've got
    the lowest unemployment in 30 years, over 19 million new jobs, the
    lowest African-American and Hispanic unemployment ever recorded, a 20-
    year low in poverty, a 30-year low in the welfare rolls, a 30-year low
    in the crime rates. If we can't now face the fact that in spite of all
    this prosperity there are neighborhoods, there are people, there are
    places that our economic recovery has still not touched and left behind,
    we will never get around to dealing with this.
        Now is the time to say the rest of America should be part of our
    prosperity, and they're our next great economic opportunity, the new
    markets of the 21st century. That was the purpose of the July trip. This
    is the second new markets tour. This time, we're focusing not only where
    to find potential but how to turn that potential in our inner cities and
    our rural areas into long-term economic partnerships. And there is no
    better place for America to look than right here in Newark.
        Newark went through a terrible period of economic decline and along
    with it, a lot of the social problems that inevitably occur when people
    can't get up and make a decent living every day to support their
    families. But look what's going on now: the young people being helped in
    Project GRAD; the unbelievable performing arts center that I visited
    last March here; Ray Chambers and Lewis
    Katz, the commitment to have the Nets here in
    Newark and to dedicate nearly 40 percent of the profits of the
    enterprise to reinvesting in this community, its children, and its
    future. We can see it in the Newark Alliance and the New Community
    Corporation.
        Of course, there's still a lot of things that need to be done here.
    You need more jobs and new businesses and more opportunity and hope and
    more reconstruction. But wow, what a start you have made.
        And I can see it, most importantly, in the lives of those young
    people that I met with this morning from the Project GRAD group. And I
    went around and asked them all, where are you going to go to college?
    What are you going to study? What are you going to do with your life?
    And they all had an answer. And they're young; maybe they'll change
    their minds along the way. But the point is, they know. They know--
    because of those of you who've been involved in this effort--that they
    can go

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    to college and they can live their dreams, that they can have a chance
    in America.
        That's all any of these great athletes were given, a chance. There
    are a lot of guys this tall that aren't playing basketball. They got a
    chance, and they made the most of it. And that's what we ought to offer
    to every child and to every adult and to every community and every
    neighborhood in this entire country. And I will say again, if we cannot
    do this now, at the time of our greatest prosperity, we will never get
    around to it. Now is the time to create new markets in every place that
    has not yet been in the strong sunshine of this economic recovery.
        You know, we can do part of it with the Government, and I'll say
    more about that in a minute. But I think that people can make the most
    difference, visionaries like Ray Chambers and
    Lew Katz, who have seen that a sports team can
    not only thrill people while the game is going on but actually share the
    rewards of their popular support with the communities in which they
    live. This is an astonishing thing that they have done. I want all of
    you to hear me: This is an astonishing thing that they have done.
        And if every franchise in America would follow that lead, and some
    of the other things you're going to hear about in a minute, America
    would be a very different place. I have seen Jayson Williams dedicate so much of his time to being a role model for
    our young people and helping our young people, and more and more of our
    athletes are doing this.
        But the Nets have found a way to do it on a systematic and
    widespread basis that can change the lives of hundreds of people, maybe
    thousands of people, maybe the whole future of this community. And this
    is an amazing thing. Because what we want to do in America is to find a
    way for people to do well and to do good. And we always find that the
    more good we do, the more those of us who are fortunate do well. But
    they are living it, and they are living it with a plan, with a system.
    They worked the plan, and they have good people who believe in it. And
    we need to do that everywhere.
        Sports teams everywhere can make a difference. They can site their
    stadiums in urban areas as part of a comprehensive community economic
    development plan. They can set up mentoring partnerships with their
    suppliers to help small and minority-owned businesses get in the game of
    doing business. They can reach out to young people and lead them on a
    path to college and a better life.
        So today we are here, as much as anything else, to challenge all the
    sports teams in America to listen to and match the pathbreaking
    commitment of Lewis Katz, of Ray
    Chambers, of Paul Tagliabue, of the others from other athletic organizations who will
    speak to you in a few minutes.
        Think about the obligations owed to people in your city. Go beyond
    making appearances for good causes to change the cause for everyone in
    your community. Make investment in your community second only in your
    priorities to bringing home the championship trophy. That way, every
    single sports team in America can be a true champion for the children
    and the future of our country.
        I also want to briefly thank some of the other businesses
    represented here today for what they're doing. But let me just mention
    it, because if every business in America copied them, this would be a
    very different and better country. Prudential, one of the oldest and
    most generous corporate citizens in Newark, has just approved a $2\1/2\
    million grant to help young people gain vital management skills. Yes,
    give them a hand. [Applause] Bell Atlantic and Ford Motor are going to
    build on an existing $5 million commitment to add a new distance
    learning laboratory to their youth automotive training center. AT&T is
    launching a new corporate mentoring program and a new information
    technology academy for young people. And the Mills Corporation, a major
    developer of shopping malls, has pledged to hire 1,000 local residents
    and invest $1 million to provide training, transportation, and child
    care for these and their other new workers.
        What are we going to do in Washington? Well, we're doing our best,
    the Members of Congress who are here from New Jersey and other States
    and me and our administration, to try to give American companies and
    individuals more incentives to invest in the people and the places that
    are still not full partners in our recovery. We have asked Congress for
    bipartisan legislation to create tax incentives and loan guarantees to
    spur $15 billion in new investment. Congress has already taken the first
    step and passed initial funding for the plan. And I've worked very hard
    to make this a bipartisan, nonpolitical effort, because what I want to
    do in

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    passing this program is nothing more or less than to give American
    business people and other investors the same incentives to invest in the
    poorer communities of America we give them today to invest in the poorer
    communities of South America or Africa or Asia or any other place.
        And let me say, I support giving Americans incentives to invest in
    other countries. I want us to be partners with people around the world
    who are trying to live their dreams. But we have a heavy obligation to
    take care of people at home who haven't been part of this recovery yet.
        One last thing I'd like to mention. I want to thank Reverend Jackson
    and others who are here for supporting community banks and a strong
    Community Reinvestment Act. That law helps to pump over $80 billion in
    investment into our communities last year. And there was a serious
    attempt to weaken it, even as we gave banks new powers. So we said, ``If
    you're going to expand the powers of banks, we want to expand the reach
    of the Community Reinvestment Act.'' People who have banks in
    communities ought to loan money in the communities where their
    depositors are and help to build their future there. And I want to say I
    thank them for that.
        Let me say one last word about Newark, because I hope the story
    coming out of this today will be, if they can do it in Newark, why can't
    we do it in our community. That's what I want the story to be. When
    people see pictures of those young people that I met from Project GRAD
    on the news tonight, I want people to say, ``If those kids are being
    given the help they need and the guarantee they can go on to college, I
    want our kids and our community to have the same guarantee to go on to
    college and the help they need to learn what they need to know.''
        A few years ago, a lot of people were ready to give up on Newark.
    Some people could only remember riots. But the people of Newark
    represented more than 300 years of remarkable contributions to our
    Nation, from the building of the Conestoga wagons that helped us settle
    the frontier, to supplying the equipment that helped us win two World
    Wars. Where some people saw an abandoned downtown, the visionaries of
    Newark dreamed of a performing arts center. Where some saw empty lots,
    the visionaries saw community centers. Where some saw a city in trouble,
    the people who bought the Nets saw a place of the future.
        And everybody here who believed in the children of this community,
    who believed that every child can learn and has a gift to give, not only
    to his or her own life but to all the rest of us as well, I want to tell
    you that I am profoundly grateful. And I just want the rest of America
    to see it. I want to help you succeed, and I want us to make these
    opportunities available to every single child in the United States.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:32 a.m. in the gymnasium at Malcolm X
    Shabazz High School. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Sharpe James
    of Newark; Jayson Williams, player, and Ray Chambers and Lewis Katz, co-
    owners, NBA New Jersey Nets; Newark Public School District
    Superintendent Marion A. Bolden; former Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New
    Jersey, president, Drew University; Mayor Bob Lanier of Houston, member,
    Basketball Hall of Fame; Wendy Lewis, human resources director, Major
    League Baseball; former Gov. William E. Milliken of Michigan, founder
    and president, Communities In Schools; civil rights leader Jesse
    Jackson; Al From, president, Democratic Leadership Council; and Hugh B.
    Price, president and chief executive officer, National Urban League.