[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 51 (Monday, December 26, 1994)]
[Pages 2517-2520]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Teleconference on Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities

December 21, 1994

    The President. Hello, can you all hear me? Governor Jones?
    Gov. Brereton Jones. Yes, sir.
    The President. Mayor Harris?
    Mayor Elihu Harris. Yes.
    The President. Mayor Campbell?
    Mayor Bill Campbell. Yes, sir.
    The President. Mayor Daley?
    Mayor Richard M. Daley. Here.
    The President. Mayor Cleveland--Cleaver. Mayor Cleaver?
    Mayor Emanuel Cleaver II. Here.
    The President. Mayor Steineger?
    Mayor Joe Steineger. Here.
    The President. Mayor Schmoke?
    Mayor Kurt Schmoke. Yes, sir.
    The President. Mayor Menino?
    Mayor Thomas Menino. Here.
    The President. Mayor Archer?
    Mayor Dennis W. Archer. Here, Mr. President.
    The President. Mayor Rendell?
    Mayor Edward Rendell. Here.
    The President. Mayor Webster?
    Mayor Arnold Webster. Here, President.
    The President. Mayor Rendell, that's the weakest ``here'' I ever 
heard out of you. Are you sure you're there? [Laughter]
    Mayor Rendell. You don't want us to tell you what's happening here. 
You don't want to get into it. [Laughter]
    The President. Mayor Giuliani?
    Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Hello, Mr. President.
    The President. Is Congressman Rangel there with you?
    Mayor Giuliani. Yes, he is.
    Representative Charles B. Rangel. Hello, Mr. President.
    The President. Watch him close----
    Mayor Giuliani. Former Mayor Dinkins is here, also.
    The President. Oh, great. It's good to hear your voice, Mayor.
    David Dinkins. Thank you.
    The President. Mayor White?
    Mayor Michael R. White. I'm right here, Mr. President.
    The President. Mayor Lanier?
    Mayor Bob Lanier. Here, Mr. President.
    The President. Jerry Rickett from Kentucky?
    Jerry Rickett. Here, Mr. President.
    The President. Willis Brumfield----
    Willis Brumfield. Yes, sir, Mr. President.
    The President. ----from Leflore County?
    Humberto Rodriguez?
    Humberto Rodriguez. Good afternoon, Mr. President. Kika de la 
Garza's here.
    The President. It's great to hear all of you. And I want to 
congratulate you for being selected as empowerment zones and 
supplemental zones and enhanced enterprise communities. As I'm sure you 
know, we had 500 applications from people all across America who wanted 
to be a part of this program, and yours were the best. I hope you're all 
very, very proud of what you have done.
    I want to thank the Vice President and Secretary Cisneros and the 
others in our administration who worked on setting up the genuinely 
competitive process to honestly review all of these applications. And I 
want to thank you for your participation, as well as all the others.
    I know the Vice President wants to say a few words, but let me say 
that when I ran for President in 1992, I advocated setting up these 
empowerment zone ideas. I advocated seeing if we could have a 
partnership between the National Government, grassroots communities, and 
the private sector to get investment going in places where too many 
people have been left behind. And I believe that we can do it. We are 
not only making this announcement today, I want you to know we're going 
to stay with you all through this process. We're going to work hard with 
you.

[[Page 2518]]

And we're going to make sure that all of us do our part to have a 
success.

[At this point, the Vice President congratulated the winners and praised 
the efforts of Secretary Cisneros and Secretary Espy.]

    The President. I wanted to say just a word about a couple of things 
that were done. If I might--I wish I had time to talk about all these 
projects--but I wanted to say a special word of appreciation for Detroit 
getting more than $2 billion in private sector commitments to help 
revitalize the city, including a commitment by the auto companies to 
train and hire residents of empowerment zones, as well as local banks 
investing over a billion dollars in homeownership and small businesses 
in the zones. That made a big difference because, after all, we've got 
to know that the private sector is going to carry the bulk of the load. 
And Mayor Archer, I want to congratulate you on that.
    Mayor Archer. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
    The President. And I also wanted to say something about the mid-
delta project in Mississippi. You know, that's very near my home State 
and where I grew up. And I know a lot about the conflicts that have 
existed too long in the communities there. And I thought the spirit of 
cooperation that was manifested in the black and the white communities 
really made a big difference to me and to all of us when we reviewed 
this application. If you can keep that going, we're going to change a 
lot of people's preconceptions about what it's like in the Deep South, 
and we're also going to give a lot of people jobs and opportunities who 
don't have it. I want to congratulate you, Willis Brumfield, and all the 
people who worked with you on this application.
    Mayor Brumfield. Thank you, Mr. President, and we are committed to 
see this on through to success.
    The President. I know you'll do it.
    I wanted to say, too, just a word about the joint projects, the one 
that won the empowerment zone and the other--that's Philadelphia and 
Camden and the other one in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas. We 
believe that regional cooperation is very, very important. And I want to 
congratulate the mayors of Philadelphia and Camden, here on the phone, I 
know, for showing the potential for regional cooperation across State 
lines. And I also want to congratulate Mayor Cleaver of Kansas City for 
what he did. I thank you for what you did----

[Mayor Cleaver of Kansas City, MO, indicated that he and Mayor Steineger 
of Kansas City, KS, intended to make the program work across State 
lines. Philadelphia Mayor Rendell indicated that Philadelphia and Camden 
also intended to take a regional approach. Mayor Steineger then thanked 
the President for his initiative.

    The President. Thank you, Mayor Steineger.
    I wanted to say a couple of more words. Chicago had over 200 
organizations participating in the application. I've always thought that 
Chicago had the advantage of still having an enormous strength in its 
grassroots communities, but when I saw that 200 organizations had 
participated in the application process, that certainly is evidence of 
it. And it's a real tribute to Mayor Daley, to the leadership that you 
and others are providing out there.
    Mayor Daley. Mr. President, I want to thank the community 
organizations, our fine elected officials--Senator Braun is here--former 
Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, who fought for this--elected officials 
providing not only jobs but economic opportunities for the people within 
the empowerment zones.
    The President. I'm glad Dan Rostenkowski's there with you. And 
there's no telling how many times he talked to everybody about that 
application and reminded us that you had a couple hundred groups working 
on it. I hear him laughing in the background. I just want him to know 
that, even though I'm getting older, I haven't lost my memory. 
[Laughter]

[The Vice President praised Baltimore's efforts to connect empowerment 
zone residents with major private employers, and Baltimore Mayor Schmoke 
thanked the Maryland congressional delegation for its hard work. The 
Vice President then praised New York's cooperative efforts between 
different levels of government, and Mayor Giuliani, Representative

[[Page 2519]]

Rangel, and former Mayor Dinkins also commended the joint effort.]

    The President. Well, let me just say a word of special appreciation 
to Charlie Rangel for one thing he did. When we were--when I brought 
this empowerment zone idea to the Congress, Charlie strongly urged that 
we not only have tax incentives but that we have some Federal investment 
to encourage some State and local investment and to show that the 
Government would be a partner with the private sector. And I think he 
was right about that. And I thank him for it. And I think we've got a 
stronger program today as a result of it.
    I also want to say to Mayor Schmoke, I liked hearing--I could hear 
the smile in your voice. When I saw you a couple of days ago, you looked 
like an expectant father with worry in your eyes, and I couldn't say a 
word to you. So I hope you will forgive me, but--[laughter].
    Mayor Schmoke. I hope that I didn't look like I was pleading too 
much. [Laughter]
    The President. It's never pleasant to see a grown man cry, but you 
did a graceful job of it.
    Mayor Schmoke. I really do appreciate it. Everybody in the city 
does.
    The President. I want to say a special word before we get off this 
telephone call about Atlanta, because--[applause]----
    Mayor Steineger. [Inaudible]--could have had a crowd here in Kansas 
City.
    The President. Well, I'd have done it earlier if I'd known you were 
all on the phone. [Laughter]
    The thing I want to emphasize about Atlanta is the integration of 
the social services and the public safety and the physical development 
of the community to make what they call urban villages, and to do it in 
a way that coordinates what's being done with the Olympic games. I think 
that is so important that a city instead of trying to just emphasize 
everything that's going well and hiding all of its problems is going to 
try to use the run-up to the Olympics to actually solve its problems and 
show that effort in a positive way. And, Mayor Campbell, you deserve a 
lot of credit for that. That's a very impressive thing to do.

[Atlanta Mayor Campbell thanked the President and Vice President and 
commended Governor Zell Miller on his efforts in education. Philadelphia 
Mayor Rendell thanked Senator Bradley for encouraging the two-State 
effort and thanked the Vice President. Cleveland Mayor White then 
promised a cooperative effort in his area to make the program work and 
thanked Representatives Stokes and Fingerhut.]

    Mayor Menino. Tom Menino from Boston. How are you?
    The President. Mayor Menino?
    Mayor Menino. How are you doing?
    The President. Fine. How are you?

[Mayor Menino thanked the President for his commitment to the cities and 
Senator Kennedy for his efforts. Senator Kennedy thanked the 
Massachusetts congressional delegation and Mayor Menino. Houston Mayor 
Lanier thanked the President and assured him that program would work in 
Houston.]

    The President. Let me just say one thing. Mayor Lanier, I really 
think all of America is in your debt in proving that the crime rate can 
be reduced in a breathtaking fashion in a relatively short time. And if 
you can do as much with this assistance as you've done in reducing the 
crime rate, then we can all come to Houston and learn some things.
    And I want to say to Mayor Menino, I've had the honor to be in 
Boston several times since you've been mayor, and it's wonderful to be 
in a place with that kind of energy and that kind of togetherness. And 
you deserve a lot of credit for it. We're looking forward to working 
with you.
    Mayor Harris, were you on the line?

[Oakland Mayor Harris thanked the President for his initiative and 
expressed hope that the Congress would be supportive.]

    The President. Thank you very much. I hope Congress will support us, 
too. We believe in this, and we're going to keep pushing it.
    Mayor Harris. [Inaudible]--he's been very forthright in his 
commitment to the administration and certainly forthright in his 
advocacy on behalf of our city. And we hope that you'll extend, as we 
will, our gratitude for his help.

[[Page 2520]]

    The President. Let me say right before we sign off, I want to give 
our friends in Kentucky, Governor Jones and Jerry Rickett, and Mr. 
Rodriguez and our friends in South Texas the opportunity to say anything 
they want to say before we sign off.

[Mr. Rickett and Mr. Rodriguez, representatives of rural empowerment 
zones, expressed their appreciation.]

    The President. Let me just say a brief word to you, sir, and to all 
of you in these rural districts. I also want to emphasize very strongly 
how hard Secretary Mike Espy worked on these projects. He and I worked 
for years before I ever dreamed of running for President on the problems 
of rural economic development in the Mississippi Delta, which is still 
the poorest part of our country. And then when I had the chance to go to 
south Texas and a chance to go to eastern Kentucky in the campaign and 
to see what people were dealing with and what they were working with, it 
was obvious to me that we needed to try a different approach. And so I 
want to thank again Secretary Cisneros and Secretary Espy for the work 
they did and the long effort that all of us have made in the area of 
rural development, which is too often forgotten. We're really pulling 
for all of you.
    And let me say to those of you in south Texas, you couldn't be 
better represented than you have been by Kika de la Garza. He talked to 
me so often about this project. And he cared so deeply about it. And he 
does deserve a lot of the credit for your success today.

[Mayor Archer and a group of participants in Detroit wished everyone a 
Merry Christmas. Kentucky Governor Jones then expressed his appreciation 
to the President.]

    The President. I thank you all. And I also want to send our 
congratulations to Los Angeles, which could not be on the telephone call 
today, but we're very proud of them and looking forward to working with 
them and all the other communities. I really believe that you all are 
going to do something special and different and really meaningful.
    And I wish you a Merry Christmas. I want to give the Vice President 
a chance to say a couple of words, and we're going to sign off.
    The Vice President. Congratulations again. Have a great holiday 
season, and Happy New Year. You've gotten a jump on a happy new year. 
Let's make the best of it.
    The President. God bless you, folks.

Note: The teleconference began at 1:25 p.m. The President spoke from the 
Oval Office at the White House.