A strong America depends on its cities--America's glory, and sometimes
America's shame. To substitute sunlight for congestion and progress for
decay, we have stepped up existing urban renewal and housing programs, and
launched new ones--redoubled the attack on water pollution--speeded aid to
airports, hospitals, highways, and our declining mass transit systems--and
secured new weapons to combat organized crime, racketeering, and youth
delinquency, assisted by the coordinated and hard-hitting efforts of our
investigative services: the FBI, the Internal Revenue, the Bureau of
Narcotics, and many others. We shall need further anti-crime, mass transit,
and transportation legislation--and new tools to fight air pollution. And
with all this effort under way, both equity and common sense require that
our nation's urban areas--containing three-fourths of our population--sit
as equals at the Cabinet table. I urge a new Department of Urban Affairs
and Housing.