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You know like. I'm downing And ladies and gentlemen. I first of all I want to express my deep appreciation for this very fine luncheon. Says in my honor and I will so take it. Every once in a while it is important for us whether we are mayors on merchants to take stock of our inventory. It is important for us to know what is moving and what is collecting dust on our shelves off for that matter whether we are still in business or approaching bankruptcy. Recently the front pages of five daily newspapers. Were highlighting a regional study prepared by a Harvard group which intimated that business wasn't so good as far as New York City was concerned that we were sliding downhill into a mass of slums and blight. And that impression was one of inevitable doom. Now this may serve a purpose to arouse the apathetic or the sound an alarm for action but it hardly serves as an accurate gauge to current activity in the city I'm taking this occasion to add up the city's debits and credits because this group the committee for modern zoning and their friends here representing the outstanding leadership in the city's financial commercial industrial cultural and civic structure epitomizes the powerful positive force for civic improvement that gives the lie to any dire predictions of New York's decline. We are gathered here today because we recognize that New York City's future depends upon sound positive planning. We also recognize that as our city matures we have little recourse but to institute more comprehensive planning approaches a mature city is like a jigsaw puzzle nearing completion we can't piece together clusters here and there at random any longer the whole picture is taking shape now and we must follow a more disciplined planned approach putting the right pieces in the right places all of our previous labors are frustrated the growth and vigor of this city has been phenomenal We have reached a position of preeminence Sunday world wide scale we are the International Center in the world of diplomacy we have the greatest concentration of financial industrial and commercial might we have the largest point where the hub of ox letters and communication where the management center of the world and let us not forget we are home to some eight million people clouding our great accomplishments are the problems wrought by as owning code that no longer serves modern needs we find areas of the city congested because antiquated zoning permit permits overcrowding and overbuilding we find other areas underdeveloped blighted and unproductive because Downing wasn't geared to realistic land needs we see our streets choked with traffic because we failed to provide adequate off street parking sites years ago we see industry back begging for breathing space because AIs owning failed to give the necessary protection. We see residential areas pockmarked with commercial and industrial uses that don't belong there only because they slipped through loopholes in the zoning of one measure of a city's greatness lies in the fact that we have progressed this fight many obstacles yet the price we have paid for our achievements has been very high. That we need a modern comprehensive zoning ordinance for New York should no longer be a subject of debate. The resolution currently being prepared by the city planning commission under the experienced eye of chairman James Fowler is a product that has withstood the test of years of study review and public examination and before it is acted upon there will be further opportunity to hear all views and opinions on this subject to ensure the most equitable are possible. But the cost before us is clear we make no progress when we choose to mock time we must work out our problems constructively we must err on views but we must not drag our feet modern zoning is a piece of the puzzle that must find its place soon or we will be defeating much that has gone before and blocking much that lies ahead since I've taken office as mayor our plans and programs have reflected an awareness that we must prepare the groundwork for more coordinated planning and operations in the future some of these efforts may have appeared to be piecemeal that time and may have been frustratingly slow both to those who were seeking to implement them and those who sought to benefit from them but even when things move slowly we were careful to move in the right path rather than risk crash programs into account a direction. Persistence has paid off a chip here at Chip there passage of a local law are tightening of a building code and administrative measure and soon things began to take shape isolated project planning gave way to coordinating planning a program's relocation once a dirty word in redevelopment has received a bill of rights setting the city squarely responsible for its operations and making it a positive tool in providing better housing strict code enforcement social services financial aids have been teamed together to improve existing substandard housing conditions in recognition of the need to better coordinate our housing and renewal programs we have established and it's the first in the country the housing and redevelopment Boyden agency under the guidance of Clarence Davies Robin Weaver and water free will carry out the most extensive building and redevelopment programme in this or any city's history these will be programmes with pattern and relationship geared to the total needs of the total City we have marshalled the greatest concentration of federal state and city AIDS both legislative and administrative to carry out building programmes for every pocket book and for every take just for industry and commerce as well as for home. We are launching an intensive citywide community renewal program to inventory the urban renewal needs of every neighborhood in the city and we are making citizen participation and action a concept with a meaningful road in role in renewal. We are carrying out pioneering projects in the neighborhood conservation and in reinvent rehabilitation techniques to develop efficient methods of conserving and improving our existing housing supply at an ever increasing rate we are moving toward the kind of planning and development in the city that points towards an era of ascendancy not to climb I predict that the next ten years will prove to be a golden decade for the city of New York one which will find public and private effort and enthusiasm dovetailing to produce maximum benefits to those who live work and seek recreation in our city let us see what is in store. Equipped with our arsenal of new techniques and new legislation we can wage a victorious war against blight and deteriorated areas our combined slum clearance and urban renewal approaches mean we can carry out a successful holding action to prevent further housing decay while we attack the centers of blight already under construction or in planning our sixty eight thousand five hundred and seventy nine new dwelling units to replace approximately one thousand acres of Sloan's we will match the transformation of we will watch rather the transformation of Manhattan's West Side from a deteriorating area to a wholesome and desirable community the skills and techniques we learned here will soon be adapted to other sections of the city in other boroughs in outlying areas of Queens Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn the Bronx we can expect intensive new residential development by private interests that will provide desirable suburban type homes. I was sitting in stated middle income housing program will continue to add development scale that popular rentals in attractive surroundings with propositioning regulations on bulk density and open space we can ensure the kind of urban living I mean it is that too often we're lacking in developments of the past in which side are so important to the middle income family equally important we are turning our attention to the breadbasket of our city our commerce and industry augmented by the vigorous and imaginative programs generated by business interest themselves we will see continued commercial construction in mid Manhattan and a huge redevelopment program in downtown Manhattan including a new World Trade Center and no hell a part of a new commercial industrial complex on the site of the old Washington Market the produce market itself will find modern conveniences Celebes in the Hunts Point area of the Bronx Brooklyn Queens Bronx and Staten Island will see the rise of handsome industrial parks desirable as neighbors and desirable for maximum productivity the flatlands urban industrial park will pave the way and the Planning Commission is already reviewing a possible new site in Flushing modern industry one of the existing zoning is worst victims can expect zoning protection under the new resolution we intend to encourage the kind of industrial development that will contribute to higher wage standards and be compatible with the environment of our city along these lines we are currently carrying out a study of the garment district to develop possible offspeed loading and parking facilities to improve operations in that area. Similarly we are carrying out a comprehensive waterfront program to improve cargo and passenger service in our point the modernization of the north of opinions will result in the most efficient passenger and cargo service of any port in the world and improvements on other peers in Brooklyn and Staten Island as well as in Manhattan where best Lee increase our ports cargo potential. A city of course is not just houses factories and office buildings rich cultural tradition and varied recreational facilities will grow as well Lincoln Center will take a worldwide spotlight as a cultural giant upon completion I grade institutions of learning both public and private eye wall carrying out embellishes expansion programs I'm museums are increasing in number and in signs and we have close to one hundred million dollars earmarked for POC and beach improvements during the next the next six years not including additional funds that may be available for pocket land acquisition through recent state legislature and of course we can't overstate the influence of the World's Fair or the excitement of a new Municipal Stadium nor can we talk about the future without recognizing the massive transportation program outline widening of white stone Parkway and Grand Central Parkway the extension of Van Y. kicks Press way the new Narrows Bridge the second tier of the George Washington Bridge the new frogs Neck Bridge the Cross Bronx Expressway the West Shore Parkway and Staten Island and the extension of clove Lake expressway to link Brooklyn Queens and Long Island directly with New Jersey and points south and west. Parallel to our approach for improved highway transportation our up plans for improving and modernizing our rapid transit system and integrating our transit facilities to speed commuter travel we sometimes lose sight of the fact that New York has the best rapid transit system in the nation and we'll have an even better one as we continue to lengthen stations replace own cars and improve links between the lines so that ultimately we will have one unified system rather than three connected ones and in the coming years New York will continue to hold its air supremacy as well the unsurpassed facilities of our International Airport will ensure our title to air capital of the world placing the entire world just hours away from our doorstep this is just part of a municipal inventory and only a glimpse at our outlook for the next decade within the foreseeable future are the exciting prospects that spell more wholesome and attractive living conditions and a commercial and industrial environment that will strengthen the economic base of the city it would be tragic indeed if these new prospects eluded us merely because we failed to invest in basic planning to us there is one other aspect of New York's future that must be considered in this whole context and that is our relationship to the metropolitan New York region once again some urban pathologists have won that they sent most city is losing out to the competing suburban ring and this too is a prophecy I must reject I cannot accept the prospect of many over all White Plains of Hoboken growing fad on the dying body of New York. No I do I think that these communities or any other of our suburban neighbors believe that their growth is dependent upon the city's decline there is an interview pendants between the city and the surrounding suburbs and the well being of one should have a leavening effect upon the other as New York goes so goes the region and there's no two ways about it the central city is it's hot and it's life blood and I don't look at in the mural rivalries as a real threat to the central city but as a sign of growing pains census counts notwithstanding New York City has a responsibility for its sixteen million people and it is the power and productivity of the central city that will continue to influence their lives we must recognize this responsible responsibility when we tackle our growth problems and plan for the future rezoning in New York City for example when I'm badly set standards that will influence the entire region and ultimately the nation we cannot ignore the mantle of leadership that New York wears in a nation that is now two thirds urban and one third row this sense of responsibility to the community to the region and indeed to the nation is becoming more apparent to the leadership of our city coupled with this is a mounting recognition by housewife and banker life that our problems must be solved through more comprehensive planning there is a quickening postpaid among the people of the city they have rediscovered civic pride they want flowers and trees on the avenues they want Shakespear in the park and they want something more than subsistence housing and subsistence services. We are a city that has come of age we are sophisticated and we are cosmopolitan we won't settle for adequacy The fact is that planners can work day and night over their drawing boards public officials can expedite programs like crazy huge amounts of public money can be expended on projects and still we will break the barrier of adequate safe until the life force of the city the so-called power structure as represented by this assemblage today begins to move in the same direction I'd like to summarize this point by quoting a plate assessor of Jack Feld on the Planning Commission who said recent years have marked a profound and hopeful awakening among our people to the evils of unplanned growth planning at all levels of government operation has finally assumed a matter leverage effect ability within our city there is a growing realisation that we can no longer afford the luxury of unplanned growth that prompt and effective action is needed to bring order out of chaos we are becoming more acutely aware of the responsibility which public officials share with the community leaders of the city for evolving a long range and flexible program to direct the growth of the city alone desirable channels to create for our residents and enterprise environments in which business can prosper and our population and joy the manifold blessings of civilised and democratic living that statement was made on April third one nine hundred forty eight before a citywide planning conference the speaker was one Robert F. Wagner Jr wearing then I had a planning commission. The theme of that talk. The theme of that talk was the pressing need for modern zoning. I am reconstructing these words because I want to make one point clear the Robert F. Wagner of one nine hundred forty eight and the Robert Wagner of the one nine hundred sixty c I do why on this issue the need for a planned approach and the underlying need for modern zoning was as clear to me twelve years ago as it is now the difference between then and now is the fact that there was no such group as yours in one nine hundred forty eight to add the breath and depth of understanding and support to our efforts here we have the ingredients that can spell the difference between both planning and frustration how gratifying it is to say a citizen's group of this influence and prestige lending its support to the administration of the city and its difficult task to plan and build a better tomorrow. The addition of your voices articulating the hopes and expectations of all of us who have faith and pride in not city can speed the realisation of our immediate goal and project up plans for a metropolis whose great this will be bounded only by the vision and enthusiasm of its citizens thanks. Mr Madoff appreciation of thanks Sanaa pledge of support what. It is and gentleman we are very happy to have had you with this and I hope that you as members and future members of the committee modern Zani will always be with us thank you. Php.