Neighborhood Revitalization

The city is the focus for the lives of millions of Americans. Its neighborhoods are places of familiarity, of belonging, of tradition and continuity. They are arenas for civic action and creative self-help. The human scale of the neighborhood encourages citizens to exercise leadership, to invest their talents, energies, and resources, and to work together to create a better life for their families.

Republican economic programs will create conditions for rebirth of citizen activity in neighborhoods and cities across the land. In a Republican economic climate, America’s cities can once again produce, build, and grow.

A Republican Administration will focus its efforts to revitalize neighborhoods in five areas. We will:

Cut taxes, increase incentives to save, restore sound money, and stimulate capital investment to create jobs;

Create and apply new tax incentives for employees and employers alike to stimulate economic growth and reduce red-tape for business ventures. Local government will be [p.14] invited to designate specific depressed areas as jobs and enterprise zones;

Encourage our cities to undertake neighborhood revitalization and preservation programs in cooperation with the three essential local interests: local government, neighborhood property owners and residents, and local financial institutions;

Replace the categorical aid programs with block grant or revenue sharing programs and, where appropriate, transfer the programs, along with the tax sources to pay for them, back to the state and local governments; and

Remain fully committed to the fair enforcement of all federal civil rights statutes and continue minority business enterprise and similar programs begun by Republican Administrations but bungled by overregulation and duplication during the Carter Administration.

Republican programs will revitalize the inner cities. New jobs will be created. The federal government’s role will be substantially reduced. The individual citizen will reclaim his or her independence.

The revitalization of American cities will proceed from the revitalization of the neighborhoods. Cities and neighborhoods are no more nor less than the people who inhabit them. Their strengths and weaknesses provide their character. If they are to grow, it is the people who must seize the initiative and lead.