CISNEROS OUTLINES STRATEGY FOR SOLVING GLOBAL CRISIS OF CITIES
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development Henry G. Cisneros today outlined a five-point
strategy to "forge an international framework for building
healthy, sustainable, and livable urban communities for the next
century and beyond."
Cisneros discussed the crises facing cities around the world
in a speech to the Habitat II Conference in Istanbul. The
international gathering of local and national government
officials, along with representatives of citizen groups, is being
held to discuss promising solutions to problems caused by rapid
urbanization.
Cisneros heads the U.S. delegation to the Habitat
Conference. Vice President Gore, who was unable to attend, is
honorary chair of the delegation.
The HUD Secretary said the challenges facing the world's big
cities can be met by pursing the following strategies, which
reflect urban policies pursued by the Clinton Administration in
the United States:
- Bringing local governments, businesses and ordinary
citizens together to work in cooperation with national
governments to find solutions to their problems.
- Allowing governments and people on the local level
increased freedom to devise local programs to deal with
challenges they face, instead of imposing uniform national
programs on every community.
- Promoting economic growth and the creation of private
sector jobs. "No level of government subsidies can match the
strength of a thriving economy driven by the private sector,"
Cisneros said.
- Protecting the environment to promote sustainable
development.
- Strengthening smaller cities and rural areas in addition
to the largest cities, because of the "interwoven destiny" of all
economies.
Cisneros said that problems plaguing communities do not
respect state, local or national boundaries, and so cannot be
solved by individual nations acting alone.
"Residents of Toronto suffer the consequences of acid rain
when industrial plants thousands of miles away spew harmful
pollutants into the atmosphere," Cisneros said. "And residents
of New Orleans suffer the consequences of drug trafficking and
crime when there are no sustainable agricultural alternatives to
the slash-and-burn cultivation of opium poppies and coca in other
nations."
Cisneros praised the international cooperation fostered by
the Habitat II Conference.
"Finding common values and shared goals is a better way to
shape the future than replaying the stale drama of
confrontation," Cisneros said. "The international community is
moving towards a shared sense of participation whose bonds,
though voluntary, will hold us together in the face of those
forces that would otherwise divide us."
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