Income. The median income in this area is less than $3,000. Surveys made of owners who live in the housing proposed for rehabilitation reveal a median income of $3,700. Of those who live in substandard housing, the median income of owners is $2,900; of renters, $2,700. Household size.-Average household size is 3.81. Age. Sixty-seven percent of all heads of households in units proposed for rehabilitation are over 50 years of age, 43 percent are 65 years of age or older. Length of residence.-Forty-five percent of the occupants of substandard housing have lived in the area over 10 years. Sixty-three percent of the owneroccupants and 25 percent of those who rent have lived in the area over 10 years. Racial composition.-The 1960 census records a population of 18,385 in the Southwest Fresno General Neighborhood Renewal Area. The racial composition of this population is as follows: Negro, 47 percent; Mexican American, 29 percent; White, 24 percent. Ability to pay rent.-Of those living in substandard housing 35 percent can afford less than $40 per month; 35 percent can afford $40 to $69 per month; 23 percent can afford $70 to $99 per month; and 7 percent could pay over $100. Thirty-nine percent need three or more bedrooms. Ten percent need five plus bedrooms. Ability to buy.-Only 23 percent of those who are presently owners are able to buy. The other 77 percent need to rent; of these, however 57 percent prefer to buy. Only 7 percent of the present renters are able to buy, 93 percent need to rent; of these, 20 percent prefer to buy. HOUSEHOLDS NEEDING RENTAL HOUSING (NOW LIVING IN SUBSTANDARD HOUSING SUBJECT TO DEMOLITION) Public services for west Fresno (GNRA) Fire calls.-The Fresno Fire Department upon tabulation indicated that they had a total of 2,920 calls during the 1967 calendar year. Of this total, 911 were from the general neighborhood renewal area, approximately 30 percent of the total calls received. Police calls.-The Fresno Police Department indicates that approximately 12 to 15 percent of its total number of calls come from the general neighborhood renewal area. However, immediately to the east is the west Fresno business district, a 12 block area which receives 90 percent of the drunk calls and within which many of the more serious crime problems (fights, knifings, prostitution) occur. Extent of flooding.—Due to a storm drain along Merced Street installed by the Metropolitan Flood Control the crucial situation of 2 years ago has somewhat subsided and is no longer the extreme problem it once was compared to the areas outside the GNRA. However, the problem has not been completely alleviated as there is still an area along Thorne from the Freeway to California Street that is of serious concern and considered critical. Another area which lends itself to flooding is that on A and B Streets and Tulare Street. Extent of welfare.—According to Miss Mesple, deputy executive director of the Fresno County Welfare Department, their family caseload is more heavily concentrated in the west Fresno areas than in any other single area within the city or surrounding areas. Health problems.-Environmental health problems certainly are more prevalent in west Fresno as opposed to "east." Sewage problems, housing conditions, lack of refuse pickup, backyard burning, and now a rodent problem, are all conditions which are not likely to be found in the "east" Fresno areas. The urban crisis.—The urgency of the urban crisis facing our Nation cannot be overemphasized. The conclusions of the report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders should shock every American and their leaders into immediate action. Quotes from Adam Yarmolinsky (see attached). [From the Washington Post, Mar. 5, 1968] THE RIOT REPORT-WILL IT BE HEEDED? (By Adam Yarmolinsky) The (Commission's) report defines the choice that faces Americans; to continue down the road toward two separate societies, or to take immediate drastic and expensive steps to create new opportunity in a common society. The Commission has issued its challenge: now we must look to the response There is no question but that the United States is rich enough in resources and in ingenuity to provide the jobs and the job training, to build or rebuild the housing, to integrate and educate the police, and the National Guard. But there is a real question whether the leaders of the American people have the will to make these things happen. If the ideas in the report are to be turned into working programs, major constituencies will have to be mobilized to support them-to push for the extra appropriations and the extra taxes they will require. COST OF DESTRUCTION Considering the costs of rioting and destruction, the expense of corrective actions may not be so great after all. Facts from Watts riot, July 1965 (see attached). Facts from Detroit riot, August 1967 (see attached). Other facts from Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (see attached). Facts about Fresno's disturbance, July 1967 (see attached). WATTS, JULY 1965 Mobs swirled through the streets of Los Angeles in a raging bloodletting fury. Cars, cops, and passers-by were stoned and beaten. Whole blocks were put to the torch and burned to the ground when rioters turned back firemen with bricks, rocks, and chunks of asphalt ripped out of the streets. Looters sacked stores in broad daylight and snipers fired at 900 hopelessly out-manned policemen at night. Before it ended, over 36 persons lay dead, 900 were injured, 3,758 arrested, property losses approached $200 million (an early estimate which was later revised to $46.6 million but this figure does not include loss of merchandise stocks). Fifteen thousand National Guard troops were called into this major American city, heavily armed, and under orders to put down the proclaimed "state of insurrection" with whatever force necessary.-Newsweek, August 23, 1965. A total of 209 businesses had been totally destroyed, 787 commercial structures were at least partly destroyed. An estimated $30 million was listed as loss in fire with over 30 major fires and 200 less serious fires.-New York Times, August 14, 1965. Commercial banks report their losses in terms of businessmen being unable to repay loans or meet mortgage payments.-New York Times, August 17, 1965. Cost of relief program-Federal, State, county, city, and private agencies fell into a massive relief effort to augment the reopening of 50 food stores in the area. A string of food distribution centers was established with Red Cross coordinating the intergovernmental relief operations. After more than 2 years, experts estimate that 90 percent of the businesses destroyed have not been rebuilt, largely because of prohibitive insurance rates. -Newsweek. In terms of loss of dignity not only is the loss related in personal dignity but the loss of international dignity and respect. The Communist press cites the Watts riot as an obvious class struggle and protest against American foreign policy.-Pravda. Clearly the riots represented a failure to reach the alienated ghetto masses and to mobilize them in community efforts to better their own lot.-Newsweek, August 30, 1965. DETROIT, 1967 Unable to control the chaos with police and 8,000 National Guardsmen, Federal troops were called in-paratroopers from the 82d and 101st Airborne Division. By the end of the week there were 43 fatalities, including policemen and firemen. Looters and snipers died, as well as many innocent people, caught in the often random crossfire. Three hundred twenty-four people were injured, 4,000 were arrested. Early estimates of property damage ran as high as $250 million. (Later estimated at $45 million.) The area of chaos covered 14 square miles of the city.-Life magazine, August 1967. Fire caused extensive damage in Detroit. The Detroit Fire Department listed 682 riot-connected building fires; 412 of these buildings were completely demolished. Retail businesses suffered a much larger proportion of the damage during the disorder than public institutions, industrial properties, or private residences. The city of Detroit incurred over $5 million in extraordinary expenses; more than $3 million of which was for personnel costs.-Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. OTHER FACTS FROM REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS There are three important factors that have an extensive reflection of the expenses of any disturbance of this nature, First, the dollar cost of the disorder should be increased by the extraordinary administrative expenses of municipal, State, and Federal governments. Second, deaths and injuries are not the sole measures of the cost of civil disorders in human terms. In Detroit where many residences were destroyed, the cost of dislocation of people is clearly not quantifiable in dollars and cents. Other human costs-fear, distrust, and alienationwere incurred in every disorder. At least 274 families were displaced by destruction of homes. Third, even a relatively low level of violence and damage in absolute terms may seriously disrupt a small or medium-sized community, FRESNO, JULY 1967 During the July disturbance in Fresno, the Administrative Services Bureau of the Fresno Police Department reports a total cost to the community of $39,298.44. The city divided the expenses into two major categories which are as follows: 1. Property loss---- 2. Manhour expense Manhour expense can be broken down as follows: 1. Police department--. 2. Fire department.. 3. Sheriff's office___. 4. California Highway Patrol_--- Total $16, 396. 87 22, 901.57 $11, 974. 82 2,580. 75 5,069.00 3,277.00 22, 901.57 The Fresno Fire Department lists their loss in terms of false alarms-23 at $100 each equaling $2,300, and overtime for 1 day, July 17, for seven men, $280.75, making a total of $2,580.75. Property loss and manhour expense total, $39,298.44. False economy Inaction can cost as much-or more-than programs to correct the social and environmental ills of our society. Consider the $39,000 cost incurred in property damage and additional fire and police services during 1 week last summer when Fresno experienced a minor disturbance. This $39,000 could have employed 100 men at $1.50 an hour for more than 6 weeks. Or compare this cost with the annual budget of $30,000 on which a local community center operates (North Avenue Community Center). Compare the costs of the 1967 riots (a conservative estimate would run $100 million) to the $750 million appropriated for urban renewal last year. Deferring actions only increases costs, not to mention costs in the loss of human dignity, in the loss of human life, in the loss of opportunity to grow and exist in an urban society. Need to examine priorities 1 Mayor's comments (see attached). [From the Fresno Bee, Mar. 12, 1968] HYDE QUESTIONS FARM STUDIES, SPACE OUTLAY IN CITIES CRISIS (By Lee Fremstad) SAN FRANCISCo.-A nation that is willing to spend more to put a man on the moon than it is to improve life it its cities will be hard put to consider itself as a great society, Fresno Mayor Floyd Hyde suggested yesterday afternoon. Hyde, discussing the deepening urban crisis and the need for the United States to reevaluate its priorities, remarked also on the congressional struggle to approve $320 million for the model cities program while the $311 million for agricultural experimentation sails through routinely year after year. "If we spend $311 million to develop a bigger-breasted turkey or reduce citrus acidity, what sense of values do we have?" he asked. "I know it may be political suicide for anyone in the San Joaquin Valley to question priorities like this, but it is time they were questioned." Hyde said the space program in the last 3 years has spent 13 times as much to get a man on the moon as has been spent on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The mayor spoke during the luncheon meeting at a 2-day regional workshop on relocation sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the San Francisco Hilton Hotel. Hyde said he considers the recently issued report of the National Commission on Civil Disorders a document second in importance only to the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Actually the only criticism he had of the report was in areas he thought it had not gone far enough. The report warned that the United States is in danger of seeing the Negro and white communities polarizing into two separate societies. "We are already there," remarked Hyde. He noted that the United States is spending $2 billion on the war on poverty while paying out $6 billion for auto insurance; $47 billion for education at all levels while spending $52 billion for wine, beer, liquor, and tobacco. "How can we as a nation answer our young people?" Hyde asked. "What are the important things in this great society?" He said he would not like to think we would introduce the minorities into full partnership in a society with the values it now has. "We would be doing them a disservice," Hyde declared. The Fresno mayor told his audience of about 75 urban planning experts and public just what they do but how they do it that is important. Hyde cited an incident in west Fresno shortly after he was elected mayor. There, after he had described a building planned for the area, he said a young Negro high school student asked him the question that summed it up: "Is it being done, because you are afraid of a riot, or because you really care about us?" URGENT NEED FOR ACTION A few weeks ago, President Johnson sent the Congress what he called "a charter of renewed hope for the American city." In it, the President said: "If our cities are to be saved form the blight of obsolescence and despair-we must now firmly set the course that America will travel. There is no time to lose." Quotes from Adam Yarmolinsky (see attached). The National Advisory Commission on Urban Disorders based its recommendations for action on three basic principles-the need 1. To mount programs on a scale equal to the dimension of the problem. (For example, the commission urged immediate action to create 2 million new jobs through government and private industry over the next 3 years.) 2. To aim these programs for high impact in the immediate future in order to close the gap between promise and performance." (In housing, they recommend that 600,000 new and existing units be brought "within the reach" of low- and moderate-income families within the next year.) 3. To undertake new initiatives and experiments that can change the system of failure and frustration that now dominates the ghetto and weakens our society. (One general specific of "what can be done" that the commission recommends is that local governments "Develop neighborhood action task forces as joint community-government efforts through which more effective communication can be achieved, and the delivery of city services to ghetto residents improved.") Quotes from Lynn E. Davis, president of National Association of Real Estate Boards (see attached). [From the Washington Post, Mar. 5, 1968] THE RIOT REPORT-WILL IT BE HEEDED? (By Adam Yarmolinsky) The ghetto bloc is oragnizing itself. The only question is whether it organizes for peaceful political change or for expanded violence. The ghetto community cannot work out its problems on its own; it lacks the resources within itself. But it must acquire a sense of community in order to be able to use its political strength, which is its rockbottom strength, in order to attract economic resources it needs to create the conditions for individual economic opportunity. [From the Los Angeles Times, Mar. 3, 1968] QUOTES FROM LYNN E. DAVIS, PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REAL ESTATE BOARDS We can't convince investors to build or rehabilitate housing on a large scale for the use of families which they suspect may destroy it or make it unfit to live in, in a fraction of the time it takes to amortize the investment. Nor can the government afford to do so either. The board of directors of our association decided that the problem of the betterment of housing for low-income families canot be solved except as other problems which are deeply involved in the social unrest in our cities can be concurrently solved. SUMMARY STATEMENT BY MAYOR HYDE Mayor HYDE. We recognize the difficulties of your task and the fiscal problems that our country faces. I would be the last one to want to leave this session with the impression that Congress has not been concerned and helpful, and I think has done a tremendous job in getting to the point where we are today, and we certainly could not have done it without your assistance and help. I want that clearly stated in the record. I think one of the things that perplexes us as mayors is we have this tremendously rapid influx into our communities which we are not able to catch up with. I indicated the agricultural situation in our area which creates some of the problems. I think that the real essence of what I would like to leave as a statement to this committee is, I think, an excellent point that Congressman Talcott has raised: We are asking some of the mayors, "What would you choose first?" Mayor Stokes indicated housing, the Congressman thought maybe education should be first. I think these are the perplexities we as mayors have. These must all come together at some point in time or we are not going to solve the problem. I would like to pass around pictures of actual housing in our general neighborhood renewal area for the purpose of illustrating two things: the condition of the housing, and to indicate that I agree that education is a big key to our overcoming the dependency cycle. You can readily see that with housing conditions like this, I don't care how good the schools are, the youngsters have to come back into this physical environment and do their studying. Mr. EVINS. The committee will be glad to take them. AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMS Mr. MARSH. I'd like to make a reference to the mayor's statement concerning appropriations in reference to agricultural programs. The thing that we notice here, serving on the Appropriations Committee, are the interrelationships existing between various appropriations. Frequently the question is raised by the people in urban areas about agricultural appropriations. But one of the things that we fail to recognize in our agricultural appropriations is the mix, or the application of many of these things to the cities. For example, there has been a cut in the funds for the Soil and Water Conservation Service which 92-792-68-pt. 3- 48 |