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How Moscow where or why Riversdale all road Gary to douse. San Suu Kyi carrots Shockey dine for all I Why fight cannon on. A quorum is present. The envelope cation will be delivered by the rubbing jaws Mackenzie of the Broadway Presbyterian Church. On. Let us pray. For God of empires nations and cities here I have prayer for these who are called the servants of the people say them for making the people there are guns they are only human so grant them strength when weary wisdom one perplexed character and courage when tested unable them to set a good example of faith and a right just as the people of this great city may be blessed and ends by we invoke by presence and I nade through the name of our mighty read demon. And recognize now go. Away or slack and go are to. Recognize this government trying. To respect and so are to. Call the reschedule state of meeting for glory the call. Honorable Harmon character the car park of the Council. Damage to calve Please be advised that the stated meeting of the city council on Tuesday October twenty seventh one thousand and sixty four has been rescheduled for twelve forty five P.M. of my having Honorable Robert F. Wagner with the lever than you will report at one P.M. Very truly yours quadrivalent president David Ross vice chairman. Willie staff please absent themselves only. Lower podium. The vice chairman Mr AWS minority leader auxiliary please us go out the mayor to the council chambers deliver resign your message. Thank. You. That afternoon regular program of famous artists will not be heard today so that we may bring you a special broadcast as we're speaking to you live from the city council chambers at city hall and in just a very few moments Mayor Robert Wagner is scheduled to deliver his unrolled messenger on the state of the city to the City Council Mayor Wagner has just come in just a very few moments ago he's standing at the podium now and is about to speak. The mayor will cover such subjects as. Unemployment and employment in the city this past here is going to be speaking about the period from January first to June thirtieth of this year and mayor has just been the dreaded being played there in the past three years. And I or any other mayor in any comparable period of time this is part of an increasing recognition of the importance of the council and of its partnership with the mayor O.T. in the conduct of the affair as legislative and otherwise of the city. I submit to you the formal report of the city of New. Law last year an economic report covering the last eighteen months in addition there are facts circumstances and developing plans and concepts which I want to share with you and with the people of this city in this covering message. Ten months ago on January the ninth of this year I stood before you one proclaimed cities war against poverty and against discrimination. We have spent much of the end of meaning time developing an organization in the plans for the conduct of that was. On June thirtieth I created by executive order the mayor's Council on poverty consisting of the heads of thirty three agencies of the city government within that superstructure that was established the at a poverty operations board and operating and coordinating agency to conduct the city's antipoverty effort to serve with me as cochairman of the mayor's Council on poverty and as chairman and chief executive officer of the anti poverty operations board I name the president of this body Mr Powell's gain to lose driving energy results fullness and executive abilities we will much of whatever success is achieved in this vast important and challenging enterprise. I trust and hope that the council will find satisfaction in knowing that its president is also at the helm under my cognizance of this most crucial undertaking. It was within the scope of my purpose and commandeering the services of the president's conveying to relate this ramifying project as closely as possible to the concerns of the city council. It is indeed my earnest desire that there should be the most intimate liaison and the greatest possible sense of participation by the city council in the war against poverty. I must advise you that together we shall be engaged in this struggle for a long time this is not a walk to be won quickly no sudden or dramatic victory awaits us if this effort has to come to an early end it will only be because we have surrendered not poverty poverty is a stubborn enemy an enemy with deep and tangled roots reaching far into the subsoil of our society the two qualities we most need to wage this war in addition to the essential results has operations and persistence Yes this will be a long while but we are committed to it we cannot disengage ourselves from it we have actually been involved in it for a long time without proclaiming it now we have proclaimed we must win it and with your help we will. Perhaps it will be useful in order to clarify misunderstandings to restate as I have in the past. That we have not just recently discovered or recognize poverty nor have we just recently begun to do something about it. For a long time now we have been concentrating an increasing share of our effort on the manifestations of poverty on absorbing the effects of poverty on improving the lot of the poor and finally on rehabilitating the impoverished through such means as were available what is different in one thousand nine hundred sixty four is a commitment to a total effort against poverty and I pledge to eradicate it root and branch from Ahmed's. What is different is our appreciation of the fact that the problem is growing radically that its costs are increasing radically and that we must do something radical about it let me turn now to the logic framework of today's report the State of the city so that I may better establish the relationship between our overall condition and the War Against Poverty one of the purposes of my appearance here today is to transmit to you the legally required report prepared by the city administrator on the actions activities and functions of the various city agencies over the past period with major emphasis on the state of our economy the economic facts and figures are indeed significant they reflect the continuing forward thrust of our entire national economy in a condition which can only be called prosperity the ten year of the present prosperity over three and a half years without a backward step is virtually unprecedented in our time. The gain in business in New York City in the summer of one thousand nine hundred sixty four was very substantial the World's Fair gave an impetus to our economy so that the federal tax cut. Unemployment was actually at the lowest in recent history standing at five point one percent in August of this year compared to six percent in July of sixty four and five point three percent in August of sixty three all together there has been a strong and healthy tone in all of us as standard indices of economic activity we Bay Well be grateful that the economy of our city is at base an extremely sound one granted that there are no sudden changes in world conditions and that the present national and world climate remains unchanged we can look forward to a continued high level of economic activity on the present Auda moving at the same upward incline as in the recent past. It might well be asked that if this is the picture of all the economic indices are so sound Why do we need the War on Poverty and suddenly much look at the gloomy statistics which are equally official true and disturbing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States government manufacturing employment is continuing to drop in New York City over the four year period between one thousand nine hundred fifty nine and one hundred sixty three we lost eighty four thousand manufacturing jobs that decrease has continued through nine hundred sixty three and into nine hundred sixty four. The fact is that out of every one hundred new production jobs created in the nation within the last four years only one point six percent were in New York state compared to eighteen percent in California. These figures funny AKAGI in Lee eloquent of cost during the four year period in question sixteen thousand six hundred new jobs were created in New York City but the net is a major loss of jobs only partially compensated for by the jobs outside New York City filled by New York it's confronted by these figures we have not been idle I know Department of Commerce in the newly created Industrial Development Corporation working to attract new industry and to keep old industry we are now helping to build small plants in the Bronx Brooklyn and Queens for new industries and negotiating to build a large factory building in Brooklyn the one large and a prize that would otherwise move away from New York these are small beginnings and efforts to turn the tide the efforts must be enlarged to measure up to the problem the drop in the number of manufacturing jobs is not the only sobering figure there is also the fact that the level of hourly earnings in manufacturing in New York City continues to decline relatively to that in other cities in the country. In one nine hundred fifty New York City average hourly earnings in manufacturing were tenth in the nation whereas the average in Birmingham Alabama for instance was thirty third in the nation but in one nine hundred sixty New York City was thirty it in hourly earnings in manufacturing while Birmingham was ten. That trend has continued into the present year last year manufacturing wages was a third higher in Michigan than in New York State the average of manufacturing wages even in West Virginia. Was five dollars and sixty two cents a week higher than in New York State. I'd only do we need to encourage in dust industry in general to come to New York City but we must efforts to bring high wage industry into our city and to raise they wage standards of that proportion of our work as the one now employed at sub standard wage levels as this council so well knows city administration Your help has strongly favored an increase in the basic minimum wage law for all of the state and failing that for New York City alone I am aware that our city is not an economic island and that a statewide minimum wage law would be much preferable but as you know the state of ministration turned its back on an increased minimum ways hence the city decided to act by itself. Again this year on our recommendation the council passed a local law increasing the minimum wage to one dollar and fifty cents an hour again as a year ago the low of Koch's minister Bill minimum wage law to be invalid and injunction having been added against the enforcement of our local law we are marking time while awaiting a decision from the court of appeals it is clear that are employed in this city must be directed at promoting an increase in average wage levels to make a high wage city for all of its workers instead of just some of them this is a critical phase of our war against poverty it is also an inescapable fact that our welfare case load in New York City is increasing at a distressing rate this last of course is part of a national pattern we are not alone in this particular phenomenon. Last March when welfare Commissioner James Thompson presented his budget he projected an increase in the case load of four thousand five hundred by the end of fiscal one thousand nine hundred sixty four sixty five however commission Adamsson has just reported to me that the caseload of his department has already risen by four thousand five hundred as of the present day and will be increased by at least that number by the end of this fiscal year this case load in the wealth of this increase rather in the welfare caseload is not subject to control by administrative action eligibility for public welfare assistance is on the basis of federal and state regulations. Those who are eligible must be given the assistance provided by law the city government has no option in the matter. As a result of this development welfare expenditures are expected to be approximately fourteen million dollars higher in the current fiscal year and the amount originally budgeted this cost must be met it is a small part of the price of poverty. Turning to another important phenomena in the United States Census Bureau has just announced that as of July one thousand nine hundred sixty three the population of New York City has increased by more than three hundred thousand over that of nine hundred sixty this is a dramatic reversal of the trend in the one nine hundred fifty S. when despite the great in migration to the city the massive outbound flight to the suburbs caused a decrease in our total population in one thousand nine hundred sixty the population was seven million seven hundred eighty one thousand nine hundred eighty four but as of July nineteenth sixty three we had passed the eight million mark reaching eight million nine ninety thousand. This is an increase equal to adding to New York City the entire population of Rochester New York or Omaha Nebraska Honolulu Hawaii. It is interesting to note in this connection at the present time in migration from Puerto Rico is practically in balance with the number returning to Puerto Rico this is a significant development when compared to the view held in many quarters that one time that the inflow from Puerto Rico to the mainland was going to continue at the level of the one nine hundred fifty S. for an indefinite period. Of cost increases in our population present us with a challenge as far as housing is concerned during the past year we completed fifty six thousand new dwelling units this is something less than the number of units required to house just the three hundred and nine thousand new arrivals of those three years the fact is that we need more housing for I knew New York has and our own New Yorkers to the need to improve our present stockpile of housing through rehabilitation on the one hand and code enforcement plus repairs on the other must be a central part of the poverty program we must press for new federal legislation to provide suitable financing for such an undertaking the state should provide financing to. At the same time we must move ahead vigorously with urban renewal programs and with public housing appropriate legislation is needed. We must continue to press for better housing for middle income families who are the hot and sinews of a city. Major provision must be made in the poverty program for housing clean up and repair projects designed to provide work training opportunities for us and at the same time to make housing conditions tolerable for increasing numbers of our fellow citizens. Indeed in our housing program for nine hundred sixty five I shall emphasize the legislative measures required to improve substantially the housing conditions of underprivileged families such new approaches as possible in addition to the expansion of tried and tested programs I shall ask the state legislature the Congress and the City Council for such authority as is necessary to achieve these purposes at the same time pressing ahead with measures already underway such as that for simplified and coordinated code enforcement. I emphasize that we have already been moving forward in housing at a fast pace more units of new housing were completed in one thousand nine hundred sixty three than in any previous year on record but it is not enough to say that we must also be able to say that satisfactory progress was made in providing adequate housing for all those in the most critical need of it. The slum dwellers to date we are not able to say this the most dramatic events of one thousand nine hundred sixty four was surely the sudden spastic almost convulsive outbreaks of violence and lawlessness on the streets and avenues of Harlem and Bedford Stuyvesant on July eighteenth in the twentieth these were not race riots they were not riots and social protests they were riots in which the main participants were young wild lawless filled limbs who were predatory rather than protest dogs yet it would be foolhardy to blind ourselves to the fact that these riots could not have taken place in the absence of conditions of unspeakable indignity in the areas in question social conditions in which violence and lawlessness understandable even if reprehensible. We must not lose a moment in pressing more strongly strongly than ever the attacked from every possible direction and with every possible weapon on the conditions in these areas and in other parts of our city where there is an equal need for governmental action no matter how urgent the needs these needs must be given a high priority the needs of these areas are of course the prime concern of the anti poverty program. Increased income for those already employing improved community facilities housing more a new job opportunities training for the unskilled and the UN train these are the prime needs of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods coupled with a need for a strengthened community concern for its own problems our anti poverty programs must provide and encourage. The provision of resources to meet these needs right in the neighborhoods to the extent possible let it be understood that antipoverty undertakings by neighborhood South health agencies are not to be considered the whole of our anti-poverty program every agency of the city government is to be considered a part of the anti poverty machinery Indeed I have given authority in the executive order I issued on June thirtieth of the added poverty operations board to review all budget requests and allocations which are concerned with added poverty operations in whatever department they may be so that we may have the maximum of efficiency the maximum of concentration and the maximum of results from the money we spend on poverty related programs. I was speaking a moment ago about the riots in Harlem in Bedford Stuyvesant Clearly we must maintain law and order at the time of the Harlem Bedford Stuyvesant outbreaks I made it clear that I was upholding and would uphold the duty of the police to ensure law and order and the authority of law or against the defiance of law breakers under all circumstances that attitude on my part is fundamental and on alterable and speaking more generally about Laura nada there is obviously a growing concern in the general public about crime and the safety and security of the ordinary citizens it is a fact that crime is on the increase nationwide and that includes New York City it is also a fact that an increasing proportion of crimes are committed by younger people. The nationwide figures show that seventy percent of all serious crimes are committed by us under twenty one in New York City sixty percent of all burglaries and seventy five percent of all auto theft SA committed by you this is a serious matter. It is a further the fact that in New York City narcotics and the need of the addict to get money to maintain his tragic habit is responsible for well over half the crimes that are committed. Actually New York City is relatively a safer place than many other cities we rank twelfth among the major cities in the incidence of crime per unit population but statistics are cold comfort to those who are frightened we must and shall do everything in our power to reduce crime to reduce it at the roots for instance by intensifying our attack on the context problem my support the police have been intensifying their attack on the context traffic. Every possible unreasonable support must be given to the police recruitment haven't fact been stepped up new equipment is being added The police are not being stated in any request whose object is to improve pro tect of measures or to increase the effective strength of the force or its capability to carry out its mission. I am very glad to be able to announce that very shortly a new single emergency number will be available for calls from anywhere in the city to get police and ambulance help replacing the individual Baro numbers that must now be called. As far as the a context problem is concerned as I need not tell those of you who closely follow this tangled subject there are no final answers. The greatest of the experts have discovered only one truth so far that no one knows with certainty what makes an addict what keeps him so and how to curing. There is as yet no magic bullet for this red disease the entire field of narcotics treatment is a haunted Tyrus through which no expert knows with certainty on the paths and directions and is full of facts which some swear by and others deny and of modulus occurrences which I've seen by some but rejected by others in this field mystery persists over all there is the fact that addiction is on the increase and the social cost of it is multiplying the city government is working hard at this problem both in research and practice both in treating the addicts and in pursuing and encouraging the search for causes and killers of addiction our own health department and our hospitals Department have helped to stimulate many research studies of the problem we have in a context coordinator who is an assistant commissioner of health Dr Katherine Harris under her supervision and direction a master list of the addicts in New York City is being assembled. Experimentation is being encouraged neighborhood clinics are being finance but still confusion persists as to the results of the methods being used there is also a need for a better coordination of information and research just in New York City. Hence it has been recommended and I have agreed to call and sponsor a major conference in New York City to decide on actions that might be considered desirable I shall therefore call a Gracie Mansion conference on the convicts sometime in the month of January and I shall announce for the details at a later time some of our greatest progress over the past eighteen months has been in the medical care made available to the children mothers and the needy aged of this city recently we applied for and received from the federal government one million four hundred thousand dollars to set up six prenatal clinics throughout the city. In general New York City was never healthier than in one thousand nine hundred sixty three and sixty four yet there have been disturbing developments the incidence of tuberculosis has begun to climb and likewise the incidence of venereal diseases countermeasures are being taken with regard to both disease I shall not proceed further to relate the various advances that have been made most of which have been covered by the report before you. There are many significant episodes of progress and some of the most constructive had been achieved not just by government alone but by a combination of government and citizenry I'm thinking for instance of the announcement that for the first time in years there has been a reversal of an upward trend and this past year New York City streets with three percent clean air as a result of the success of the campaign launched in conducted by civic minded New York three percent clean it doesn't seem very much but it can be content translated in a more attractive city for all of us yes there have been many forward movements in this past city in the arts and science traffic in the development of ah pox the lighting of our streets and many others we can well be proud and we can well say let us continue yet still we cannot but concede that in regard to our most urgent problem meeting the needs of those at the bottom of the social pyramid and meeting the problem of their relationship to the rest of. We have very much left to do so much and with such limited resources with with which to accomplish that we must be humbled by the magnitude of the task ahead we must also can see the necessity of reexamining method our own methods approaches institutions and agencies for dealing with the problem it may well be that all approaches to the problem left over from a time when it was necessary only to touch the edges of the problem or in adequate for reaching its cause. This may be true in the field of education and training the disadvantaged it may be true in the field of housing it may well be true with regard to some public assistance program certainly we must avoid following old ways blindly in new ways promise greater advantage towards go we must be bold in scrutinizing our own past programs it is even possible that there are fiscal savings to be made by going from the general to the specific and from the long range to the immediate there are these imperatives we must increase the financial support available for a primary and immediate schools and also for our institutions of higher education we must provide work for the unemployed we must provide expanded job opportunities for those who have been denied them we must provide training for the unskilled we must provide better housing for the ill how. It is obvious that to provide only this and it is just a partial list will require sums of money beyond the capacity of the city to supply financial aid must be sought from other sources we must seek and creased financial allocations from the State Government relisting still realistically speaking however it must be admitted that the prospects in this direction limited we might see fiscal support directly from the federal government in this direction I feel that the prospects are encouraging in the light of the attitude interest and concern of the national and ministration. Over the past months I have had many contacts with Washington officials strongly disposed to be of help to us I am convinced that we should now proceed without delay to establish a permanent office in Washington D.C. to develop and maintain liaison with all federal departments and offices and to seek to obtain for the city every kind of assistance that might be available for our city either directly or through the state some time before the first of the year I shall issue an executive order establishing such an office and naming a principal representative to direct that office I consider such an undertaking to be an economy measure which will justify itself or fail to by the amount of new assistance it can secure for the New York City either from the executive departments or from Congress I would recommend to the council and to the border that's been that despite the straits and condition of our budget rather because of it and adequate appropriation be made to allow a Washington office to function at an effective level in the executive order which I shall issue on this subject the specific functions status and duties of the new office will be given the detail that they require I recall that post proposals for the establishment of such an office have been made in past years and this is not a version this is an investment that we must make to meet the problems of today for the City of Tomorrow I said the city of tomorrow that is the city we must prepare for plan and even as we conduct day to day affairs I said to plan this must be one of the new resolutions. To seek more guidance for the future and daily actions to plan for tomorrow and what we do today this must be so in our program of physical change and of social change too and we must relate to I hope that this too can flow in some measure from the operation of the poverty Council in the at a poverty board and close relationship with the city planning commission. Yes we must plan and work toward the city of tomorrow that city in which poverty will be banished and where each citizen will have an equal opportunity for employment and advancement and fulfillment and his children after him this is the great society of which the president of the United States has spoken this is the great society in which we can plan to participate at the metropolis as the come up a less of the United States truly the great city in the Great Society gracious and sweeping in its architecture noble in its civic purposes dynamic in its civic moments kindly in its civic spirit. We are near the end of one thousand nine hundred sixty four we look back to where we have been we look forward to the point we wish to reach the road is long behind it is even longer ahead but in the distance the shimmering splendor of the vision of the great city much speck in US on wood and star spalling giving us strength and resolution for the journey in this journey. We must have yet one further guide. Charest and strongest of all the guidance of the Father of all of us whose watch words I love charity and brotherhood Thank you Brian. I could write much. Like you very much like. There Robert F. Wagner has just reviewed the programs and achievements of that administrations in January proved one hundred sixty BREAM through June thirtieth one thousand sixty or more to take a moment and move you just a few of the achievements of his administration which the mayor has reported to us. All right I said the department store sales have increased by three percent so that's SALES Thank you like thank mounted thank you one hundred and seventy million six hundred thousand dollars an increase of ninety one million dollars over the previous year that real estate taxes collected by the fiscal year ended last June thirtieth total one billion two hundred million dollars ninety million dollars more than during the previous year the mayor said to that during the period covered by his State of the city report new schools completed and school additions provided seating for twenty three thousand eight hundred and seventeen more pupils that more than one thousand three hundred potential school dropouts at present are working at jobs in the city government and the mayor early in his address also mentioned the fight of the city against poverty you've been listening to Mayor Robert F. Wigner the annual message to the city council and mayor the talk was brought to you live with a fight at the city council chambers in City Hall this has been a special feature of W N Y's the news we return you now to our studios in LET ME IN A COUPLE building.