Address

Of The Mayor of New York City To The City Council

Upon Presenting His Annual Report for 1960

Mr. President and Members of the Council:

This is my eighth annual message to you, dealing with the finances, economy and affairs of our City government. My theme in each of these reports to you has been: Better Government. It continues to be my theme, as it continues to be the consistent goal of this administration.

ECONOMIC STATE OF THE CITY

As the United States entered 1961, the pervading effects of recession were apparent in the nation. Despite the impact of these forces, the economy of New York City again demonstrated its stability and strength. Employment, earnings, department store sales, bank savings, commercial bank loans, tax collections, the dollar value of construction contract awards-all increased.

Several general observations may be made about our economy in 1960:

1. Contrary to a common myth, New York is not becoming a community of the very rich and the very poor; its middle-income segment is growing.

2. A spectacular rise in our City tax collections, paced by marked increases in business and sales tax receipts, mirrored rising consumer and business activity.

3. The willingness of private enterprise in New York City to sustain, year after year, through nation-wide booms and recessions, a high level of investment in new buildings, including offices, factories and dwellings, remains an outstanding phenomenon of the contemporary American economic scene.

4. Retail sales exceeded by approximately $605,000,000 the total of the preceding twelve months. Even in the month of December, so·plagued by poor weather, department store sales compared favorably with those of the same month in 1959.

5. Passenger: traffic activity has achieved new records both at our air and sea terminals.6. Toward year's end, the ·nation-wide rise in unemployment was reflected in a few New

York City industries. The apparel industry, a sensitive barometer of national economic conditions, suffered substantial inroads of unemployment. Despite this fact, the average number of persons employed in New York City was higher than it had been in 1959. Average weekly earnings of production workers also rose.Employment has increased in finance, insurance, real estate, government, and in wholesale and retail trade.

A MIDDLE-INCOME CITY

The average New Yorker has more money to spend- perhaps up to 30 percent more- than his national counterpart. In few areas of the country is the City's per capita income exceeded.

The high average income status of New York City is generally acknowledged, but a curious legend persists-that the City is losing its middle class. Exactly the reverse is true.

Income data from· the 1960 Census are not yet available, but a comparison of 1949 and 1956 is revealing. In 1949, nearly 30 percent of New York City's family units had incomes of $4,000 to $10,000, compared with about 25 percent for the nation. In 1956, the share was nearly 62 percent for New York and about 47 percent for the nation. Thus, New York City's share of the middle-income group was not only larger than for the nation as a whole but was growing faster. It is quite likely that today close to two-thirds of New York City's families are in the middle income group.

The economic fact is this: Far from becoming a city that is witnessing a flight of the middle class, the size of our middle class is growing. Fortune Magazine has said: "No myth is so persistent, nor dies so hard, as the report that the middle class is deserting New York. . . . What distinguishes New York from U.S. cities in general is the fact that its low-income group is smaller and its middle- and upper-income groups larger."

CONSTRUCTION

The value of total construction contract awards reached more than $1.8 billion, exceedingl 959's total by 55 percent. This strikingly demonstrates confidence in the City's long-term economic future.

Visible evidence of the City's pr-eminence as the nation's business headquarters is provided by the glass-fronted towers rising in the Wall Street and midtown Manhattan areas. Despite the considerable volume of new office space, the long-term demand for such space continues. Leasing activity in our city has remained unaffected by the national business downturn, and rentals have held firm.

In 1960, 57 office buildings were constructed in New York City. Of these, 11 were major edifices in Manhattan, with a total rentable floor area of nearly 7,000,000 square feet. Since 1954, 93 major office buildings have been erected in Manhattan. An additional 14 large office buildings are scheduled for completion in 1961 and 1962.

Among other major projects in planning or in construction are these:• The Lincoln Center development;• The World's Fair at Flushing Meadow;• A great sports stadium in the same area;• The World Trade Center for Downtown Manhattan;• A new wholesale fruit and produce market in the Hunts Point area and redevelopment of the downtown site now containing the Washington Market;• Four major waterfront piers and two new marinas;• Industrial parks in all five boroughs;• Two new hotels;• A 59-story skyscraper at Grand Central;• The Narrows-Verrazano bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Barring unforeseen international catastrophes, the economic future of New York City is secure.

THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

The City's annual budget is the major barometer of civic needs. In the availability of such services as police, fire protection, education, hospital beds, health services, sanitation, welfare, park acreage, the New Yorker fares better than the citizens of other large communities. A break-down of our budgetary expenditures demonstrates that 89 percent went for education, police,fire, sanitation, recreation, water supply, welfare, health and hospitals, debt service, and pensions. All other functions of government consumed only 11 percent of the total.

The increase in our expense budget results from five factors: first, the increased costs that have affected all aspects of life in the United States, including employee salaries; second, various mandatory increases required by law; third, many facilities which state or county governments provide in other areas are furnished here by the City government; fourth, the rise in urban living standards which places growing demands on municipal services; and fifth, the special nature of New York City, which requires us to provide services beyond those furnished by most other cities.

We have employed a wide range of management and budgetary tools to hold down the cost of government. Every request for expenditure is carefully screened. Our efforts to achieve efficiency and economy are a day-to-day activity.

Since 1954, the continuous application of these methods, including budgetary and management actions, effected total expense budget savings of nearly $91 million. Had these savings not been made, this sum would have had to be raised in additional taxes to maintain the present level of services. In addition to these expense budget improvements, which recur annually, capital savings during this period amounted to $88 million.

The finances of our City are in sound condition.

CITY-STATE RELATIONS

I have repeatedly stated that one of the long-range goals of my administration has been to place City-State fiscal relations on a mature and realistic foundation. More progress has been made in the past seven years than in any other period.

It is regrettable that so much work still remains to be done, particularly in the financing of education, and that the Legislature and the Governor, despite the promise last year of action this year, postponed long-range reforms for still another year. A State-appointed commission is now working on a revised formula for State aid to education. We shall do all we can to see that this revised formula operates with equity to the City. In addition, a review of the State's per capita allocations to local governments is long overdue. The $6.75 per capita allocation to New York City, established in 1947, is completely unrealistic today and should be increased by at least 50 percent.

Quite apart from the question of State aid is the question of fiscal independence for the City. The time is long past when it is either necessary or proper for the State to tell the City what taxes it may use, or to be able to exert a stranglehold on City activities by repealing or amending a taxing power whenever it suits the State's purpose. It should be the goal of whoever occupies the Mayor's chair in the years ahead to work for greater fiscal independence, within the framework of a broadened concept recognizing that we are a community able to govern ourselves.

Another State commission has been working to rewrite obsolete and unclear sections of the State's constitution, including the present home rule provisions. This effort is now terminated, without much in the way of results. I suggest that we must think again in terms of a constitutional convention, and I wish to point out that the Legislature may, by law, submit the question of such a convention to the people at any time.

CHARTER REVISION

The present New York City charter was drafted in 1935, approved by the people in 1936, and came into effect on January I, 1938. It has been my contention for the past several years- and one with which the Council has agreed in principle-that after the immense changes that have occurred in the past generation, we must take a new look at this basic document.

The State Legislature has amended the general local Home Rule law to permit the Mayor of any city to name a charter revision commission. It is under this procedure that I am now operating.

The practical application is the same as that given to Mayor LaGuardia when the commission was named which drafted the present charter.

An eight-man charter revision staff appointed by me last year, and the Moore Commission,have both done a great deal of spade work preliminary to the drafting of a charter.

I have appointed a charter commission of capable and representative citizens, residents of all five boroughs, to complete the job. Their draft of a charter will follow public hearings at which our citizens will have full opportunity to submit suggestions and viewpoints.

Without pre-judging the proposals which will emerge, I am confident they will be worth our most careful scrutiny. I am sure that many of the objections based on procedural points will have vanished by the time the charter is submitted.

ETHICS IN GOVERNMENT

Now I wish to turn to another matter, and to repeat to you, and to all who work for the City of New York, what I have said before on this subject:

As long as I am Mayor, honesty, integrity and clean government will be the guideposts upon which I insist, in every operation, no matter how big or how small. In a government as large as ours, here will be an occasional slip by an unethical public employee, but the fact that it is occasional does not mean it is condoned or ignored. We are a government that deliberately seeks out and gets rid of bad spots, wherever they may be. We have devised machinery to frustrate unethical conduct. We are using this machinery. We are- and will continue to be- ruthless in attacking the bribe, the payoff, the gratuity, and the conflict of interest.

We have taken more drastic action against unethical conduct than has been taken by any other city in the United States:

With the assistance of this Council, a Code of Ethics, setting rigorous standards of conduct for City officials and employees, has been established. A Board of Ethics has been created to administer the Code and to deal with possible cases of conflict of interest.

Confidential assistants have been furnished to commissioners of inspecting agencies. Additional funds were provided to increase staff and facilities of the Department of

Investigation.

All commissioners of inspecting agencies are being held directly responsible for the conduct of employees in their agencies and have been ordered to take every measure necessary to avert any possibility of corruption.

We have set up mass data-processing machines for scanning records of building violations. The purpose is to make certain that action has been taken on each violation and, if it has not, to enable the question to be asked, "Why not?"

Arrangements have been made for top City aides to appear before business, civic, and neighborhood organizations to enlist support in the battle against the payoff.

A special post office box, Box 100, has been made available to receive information about unethical practices by City personnel. This gives every citizen the opportunity to communicate directly with the Mayor. His identity is protected. Every letter received goes to my office, and appropriate action is initiated.

We have sponsored State legislation empowering the Commissioner of Investigation to grant immunity to witnesses in matters involving unethical conduct. I regret that the Legislature denied us this important weapon in our battle against corruption. We shall continue to press for such a law.

We will not tolerate even the slightest vestige of corrupt practice. At the same time, we will not- no matter what the provocation- infringe on the civil rights of employees, or derogate the great principle that guilt follows proof. Nor shall we stand idly and permit ourselves to be bludgeoned by a double standard of morality- one for the City, one for other units of government. Nor do we forget that the man who offers a bribe is as guilty as the taker.

INFORMATION SERVICES

In reporting to you in 1955, I said: “One of the basic requirements of good municipal operation is the identification of the people with their government. From the beginning, this administration has not only shown willingness to listen to the suggestions of community groups concerning matters of policy and practice, but has actively solicited the aid of these groups.''

The flow of information should be in two directions. The people must know what their government is doing at all times; and their government must at all times be receptive to their ideas, comments, criticisms, and complaints.

To facilitate this two-way flow of information, we have taken a number of actions in the past year:

A mobile information unit has been set up to hear citizens and give information to them directly in their own neighborhoods.

An Information Center has been established in City Hall. A central telephone information facility is being set up. Residents will soon be able to

avail themselves by phone of essential information during emergencies, traffic jams, or other special conditions.

HOUSING

To attack the housing problem is to attack a whole complex of problems - the problem of powerful entrenched economic interests; the problem of State resistance to necessary City change; the problem of discrimination against minority groups; the problem of finding ways to house all our people decently, at every income level; the problem of relocation; the problem of

land use and esthetics. Private industry cannot by itself do the job. Government has had to move in.

And we have moved, in many ways and on many fronts, to battle the spread of slum and blight, and to provide more housing. In the single year of 1960-

This Council has passed enlightened housing legislation of great power. You have brought ****** houses under licensing control, banned reoccupancy of single rooms by families with children, and permanently prohibited any future conversion of dwellings to rooming houses in a single-room occupancy.

You have enacted laws compelling brighter lighting in hallways, extending the requirement ******* janitor service to buildings with nine apartments or more, instead of thirteen as previously; and requiring improved sanitary and bathroom facilities.

The Housing and Redevelopment Board was created, to place in one agency responsibility responsibility for governmentally-aided housing, such as Title I and urban renewal programs, the City-aided middle-income cooperatives, neighborhood conservation, and the lending and tax benefit programs for rehabilitation. I appointed three of the top housing experts in the country to the Board.

A greatly strengthened, more humane, and more efficient relocation policy has been developed.Relocation incentive payments and moving allowances have been increased.

A rigorous inspection and enforcement campaign has been carried out against single-room occupancy tenements. Every one of these buildings was inspected and 15,000 violations were issued.

The Housing Authority is acquiring a number of these tenements for rehabilitation as low-rent public housing.

Our neighborhood conservation program is working well. The objective is to arrest blight in basically good neighborhoods. In these districts substandard housing is rehabilitated; new street lights are installed; streets are widened and repaired; there is coordination of every needed City service. The crime rate is down in these districts; building-code compliance is up. Six neighborhoods are being subjected to this treatment.

The broad tax benefits granted to landlords who rehabilitate and modernize their properties have been extended for another five years.

Owners who wish to make necessary repairs and improvements may now borrow from the City.

Under the Housing and Redevelopment Board, Title I procedures have been reorganizedto produce wider competition for sponsorship of housing projects, and close scrutiny of thequalifications of prospective sponsors.

In the West Side Urban Renewal Area, extending from Central Park West to Amsterdam Avenue, from 87th Street to 97th Street, all techniques have been combined to produce 14,000 new or rehabilitated dwelling units - a mass-organized rescue operation for one of the City's good neighborhoods that has been attacked by urban decay. For the first stage of this project, 15 sponsors were selected from among more than 50 who had applied. Included are four nonprofit community groups. Inclusion of these groups is evidence of our City's concern for encouraging citizen participation in renewal projects.

We are moving ahead with two more renewal projects- one in the Morningside Heights area, one in the vicinity of the Museum of Natural History. These neighborhood renewal plans will revitalize Manhattan's West Side.

Approximately 36,000 new units of housing, public and private, were added to the City'shousing supply in 1960. In the past seven years, a total of 212,000 units has been added. Taking into account demolitions and conversions, enough new dwellings have been built to house a community of almost half a million people.

The new projects completed or under construction by the New York City Housing Authority in 1960 will provide clean, decent housing for an additional 60,000 people.

In the current year of 1961, we shall take 75,000 more persons out of slum buildings and provide them with modern low-rental housing. A substantial number of new apartments are designed exclusively for the aged.

Exclusive of public housing, 24,000 middle-income apartments will be in various stages of construction, with another 6,000 in planning. In addition, twenty-seven urban renewal projects in construction or in planning will, upon their completion, restore about 600 acres of blight to decent housing.

Our urban renewal operation in New York City exceeds those of all other cities in the nation combined.

*******But this is still not enough. It will not be enough until all of our population have good

housing, at rentals that will enable families in all income groups to live decently and with dignity. Our greatest push must be at the middle-income level. I am determined to spare no effort, and to use every tool available or to be made available, to achieve this vital objective: more housing for middle-income families.

In addition to what we have already done, our campaign for elimination of slums will require:

First, perfection of the City’s central registry of all violations affecting multiple dwellings issued by the Departments of Buildings, Health, Sanitation, Fire and Air Pollution Control, so that law enforcement agencies, the courts, and the public may have all the facts regarding slum buildings. This project is now in operation.

Second, the development of an index of chronic violators, so that the courts may have this information upon sentencing. We are now working on this project.

Third, legislation conferring exclusive jurisdiction upon the City’s special housing court for the trial of all persons charged with health and building violations affecting multiple dwellings, with fixed minimum fines and jail sentences.

Fourth, legislation authorizing the City to make necessary repairs in deteriorated dwellings and act as receiver of rents in reimbursement.

I regret deeply that the State Legislature has denied both of these latter essential tools. We shall continue to fight for them.

This year will see the first phase of a community renewal project whose purpose is to appraise City-wide redevelopment needs. The project includes measurement of the extent of residential blight; and consideration of land use, transportation and community facility requirements in relation to housing. The cost of the three-year project will be shared two-thirds by the Federal government and one-third by the City.

ZONING

On December 15, the Board of Estimate adopted a new zoning resolution. In this project, as in the first zoning amendment 44 years ago, the City of New York has demonstrated outstanding planning initiative. The zoning plan is designed to help prevent congestion, provide

more open space around buildings, and more light and air to our homes and factories, add off-street parking areas, protect residential districts from undesirable industrial and commercial encroachments, permit greater flexibility of design, and stimulate orderly growth. The changeover will become effective on December 15, 1961.

This historic resolution was subjected, at all stages during preparation, to extensive public review, by the City Planning Commission and by the Board of Estimate.

Some may say that this was too time-consuming. My view is that hearing the people is one of the most useful jobs of government. This is far better than a result imposed on the people. I propose to continue taking the City’s residents into our confidence on all matters of public concern.

EDUCATION

New York City’s public schools comprise by far the largest municipal school system in the world. The statistics are interesting: Some 45,000 teachers in 835 school buildings taught nearly 1,000,000 children in the school system during 1960. The City’s annual budget for education is larger than the total budget for almost any other city of the United States!

Constant improvement in the quality of education for New York’s children is a continuing objective of mine. We of course give all possible assistance and cooperation to the Board of Education in working toward this goal.

Twelve new schools were built in 1960. Six schools were modernized or enlarged. Of the new schools, five are in Manhattan, three are in Brooklyn, two in the Bronx, one in Queens, and one in Richmond.

At year’s end construction was underway on 62 additional schools, including modernizations and enlargements.

Since 1954 the City has built 124 new schools, and modernized or expanded 64 others.In addition to maintaining our school building effort, the Board of Education is engaged

in experiments, financed in part by the Ford Foundation, to discover new forms of school construction. These may include prefabricated schools, temporary buildings to be erected on one site, later transferred to another site, the combination of a school and an office building, schools with “clusters” of classrooms, schools with bubble roofs, schools making use of new materials and many other innovations.

The “open enrollment” policy has been extended to the first and second grades. This policy permits pupils from predominantly Negro and Puerto Rican schools to travel out of their neighborhoods to schools in other parts of the City. Some 95 schools are engaged in this enlightened project.

Educational services have been increased. Additional personnel, including guidance counselors, psychologists, librarians, mathematics coordinators, and reading consultants have been provided. We are using the most modern devices for the teaching of mathematics, languages, and the sciences. We have provided funds in our new budget for 300 more remedial reading teachers.

To aid recruitment and retention of qualified teachers for the City’s public schools, salaries of teachers were raised in 1960 to $4,800 at basic level and up to $9,100 for teachers having a doctorate or its equivalent. In addition, the City’s teachers, along with other City employees, received an increase in take-home pay when the City raised its share of pension contributions. An additional $20 million is provided in the 1961-62 budget for upward adjustments of teacher salaries.

Since 1954 the entrance salary for teachers in our public schools has been raised 60 percent and the maximum salary has been increased by approximately 45 percent.

In the field of higher education, we have created a University of the City of New York. The standards of our municipal colleges have always been high. I expect our university to rank with the finest in the world. As part of the institution, we intend to develop a center of urban studies: and this should provide important municipal research for us. Let me emphasize that we are determined to retain and preserve our tradition of free higher education. As we develop our four-year colleges and our university, we must at the same time expand our community colleges to accommodate more of our young people.

The Board of Higher Education has established 25 tuition-free scholarships for young men and women of Africa. This is in addition to 50 scholarships already in effect for other foreign students.

MEDICAL RESEARCH

We are spending large sums for medical research. The City’s Health Research Council last year made grants totaling $5,000,000. Fifteen of the grants went to young medical scientists who otherwise would have had to abandon research.

Among the many research projects underway at year’s end by the Council, by the Health Department, and by the Hospital Department, were:

- a controlled study to determine the relationship of diet and heart disease;- exploration of the effect of environment on the rate of heart disease;- a study of the physiology of heart and lungs in children suffering from congenital heart ailments;- development of techniques for early detection of cancer;- a coordinated research and clinical study of chronic pulmonary diseases which may be connected with air pollution, cigarettes, and other irritating agents;- establishment of detection centers for more effective case-finding and early treatment of glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness.- a survey of the effectiveness of certain antitoxins in controlling disease-producting bacteria; - development of a test of spinal fluid as a means of differentiating between non-bacterial

meningitis and brain tumor.

One of the important research projects begun last year was a study of the safety and effectiveness of a live vaccine in preventing measles. There is now no effective immunization against measles.

In line with the City’s policy of considering drug addiction a medical problem, we have set up treatment units for adolescent and adult addicts at Metropolitan Hospital, and for adolescent addicts at Kings County Hospital. And we have provided $800,000 for a 90-bed unit at Manhattan General Hospital, a private institution. We are in consultation with State and Federal authorities in our efforts to get more hospitals for addicts and more research on the problem of addiction.

We shall proceed with the construction of a new laboratory for the City's health research agencies to help prevent disease and to study life's biochemical secrets.

ACTION FOR THE AGEDOver 10 percent of the City's population consists of men and women aged 65 and over.

This percentage will continue to rise. With this rise comes the obligation to revaluate and expand our efforts with respect to the aged, taking advantage of new ideas and new scientific knowledge.

We are now spending more than $100,000,000 a year for medical services, public assistance and other social services for our aged citizens.

In October, I announced an expanded action program for the aged of our City. We are motivated by two long-range objectives:

1. To create conditions which will help keep our elderly residents physically and mentally sound, economically self-sufficient, independent and active members of the community for as long as possible.

2. To provide the facilities and services which will take care of their needs when theyare no longer able to do so themselves.

To carry out these objectives, I directed the appropriate City agencies to take a number of specific steps with respect to their services to our City's aged. The action called for includes:

Expansion in the number of day centers;A 50 percent increase in the number of foster homes available for the aged;Extension of mental health consultation services in nursing homes, homes for the aged, and day centers; Expansion of the number of apartments especially designed for the aged, both at the low

and middle-income levels.We have taken specific steps to implement this program. $800,000 is provided in the 1961-62 Expense Budget for further expansion of the day

center program and for increasing the number of foster homes for the aged. $75,000 is included for the extension of mental health consultation services to aged

persons.We have strengthened our regulations over nursing homes to make them better and more

livable places. The City's policy demands the most humane treatment and best possible living conditions and medical services for our nursing home residents.

4,700 units of housing especially designed for the aged will be constructed in the next three years by the Housing Authority. Housing developments receiving Mitchell-Lama assistance will be required to provide a specified number of units for the elderly in appropriate locations.

Nothing less than the most enlightened policies for our aged citizens are good enough for New York City.

TRAFFIC AND TRANSIT The amount of traffic generated in New York City is unequalled anywhere in the world. The increasing use of automobiles, taxis, and trucks now brings approximately 520,000 vehicles per day into Manhattan, south of 60th Street.

How can we best allocate the available street space for parking and for moving vehicles? How shall we deal with the rising index of congestion? How can we best move people and goods through the City's arteries?

What role does the automobile play in our economy? How can we integrate its use with the use of mass transit facilities? How can we sustain the deteriorating commuter railroads? Let me outline what has been accomplished in the single year of 1960 toward answering

these questions.The arterial highway system of the City was expanded by the construction of more than

13 miles of new highways and expressways. A municipal parking garage was opened at 53rd Street and Eighth Avenue, Manhattan,

capable of accommodating 189,000 cars yearly. Five new City-owned off-street parking facilities were opened. There are now 19 of

these units serving business, commuters and shoppers, on the City's periphery and in business districts. Nineteen additional off-street parking terminals have been advanced to the design or construction stage. When completed, these will double present off-street parking facilities.

To reduce disruption of traffic, building and excavating operations of all City agencies have been coordinated and work priorities assigned.

The "meter-maid" system was inaugurated to control parking-meter usage in the City. This step has released patrolmen for other duty and brought increased revenue to the City.

The one-way avenue network was extended to include Third and Lexington Avenues, reducing trip time on those arteries by more than a fourth.

I am most pleased to report that the recent upward trend in traffic fatalities was reversed in 1960. The traffic safety record showed a 16 percent decline in deaths and a two percent drop in injuries as compared with 1959. The long-range traffic picture shows that persistent, intelligent traffic safety education and enforcement get results.

A radio-control traffic system has been installed, allowing centralized control of signal-light timing.

In the field of transit, too, there has been substantial activity.A total of 550 new subway cars have been purchased or are on order. 305 comfortable

new buses have been placed in service. It is regrettable that the State Legislature pigeonholed legislation permitting the Transit

Authority to issue 25-year bonds for the purchase of 1,800 new subway cars. Adoption of this proposal would have made it possible to replace quickly all cars more than 35 years old.

Extensive work was begun on East Side subway platforms to parallel the work already completed during the past seven years in lengthening and improving platforms on West Side subway stations.

Groundwork was laid for study to explore ways of improving New York City transportation services, including better coordination of policy and activities among agencies engaged in transit and traffic.

To speed settlement of transit labor disputes, a plan was worked out with the Transit Authority and the unions representing transit employees to encourage orderly, responsible collective bargaining and to reduce the liability of economic conflict.

Swift mass transportation to and from the outlying areas is essential to the City's economy. Actions were initiated to deal with transportation matters on a regional basis. First results are continued operation of the New Haven Railroad and the Long Island Railroad. New York City, along with its neighbors, is participating in tax relief and other assistance to these roads.

I have recommended to the Governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut the creation of an effective tri-state transportation agency. I feel this is necessary if we are ever to deal with our regional transportation difficulties on other than a bits-and-pieces basis.

BETTER STREET LIGHTINGOne project in which I take especial pride is the replacement operation to provide new,

brighter lighting throughout the City. More than 1,500 new lights have already been installed in Central Park, including the area from Central Park West to Fifth Avenue, from 79th Street to 97th Street. The final stage, reaching 110th Street, will be completed in 1961. We are replacing 64,000 cast-iron lamps throughout the City. The full program will cost $64,000,000 over six years. Work of installing the new lighting is going forward in all five boroughs of the City. Early in the year, new lighting was installed in 47 playgrounds in areas having high rates of juvenile delinquency. Additional playgrounds will be provided with better illumination in the coming year. The new lighting makes the streets not only brighter, but safer, too. Crime rates are down in all areas where improved lighting has been installed.

OTHER ACTIVITIESLet me briefly review some of our other activities: The Commission on Intergroup Relations has been reorganized and strengthened to make

it more effective in its work of eliminating discrimination and segregation in every aspect of City life. The Commission is vigorously enforcing the Fair Housing Practices Law, passage of which is in my opinion one of the great achievements of this Council.

We are giving to the New York City consumer greater protection than ever. This Council has passed legislation providing stronger penalties for vendors who sell at short-weight or false-measure. We have ordered a sharp and continuous crackdown on merchants who defraud consumers in food markets or who cheat on fuel-oil deliveries.

The City's fire forces fought approximately 60,000 fires in 1960. Faced with several major conflagrations at year's end, our Fire Department demonstrated again that it is prepared to deal competently and heroically with the most massive fire disasters.

Our City is getting cleaner. The Big Sweep Drive, undertaken in 1955, has moved steadily closer to the goal of making the cleanliness of every street in the City equal to the best. Overall cleanliness of approximately 5,000 City blocks, measured by specified standards, rose from 56 percent in 1955 to 85 percent in 1960.

We opened 24 additional playgrounds in 1960. Since 1954, over 7,000 additional acres of land have been acquired for park and recreational purposes; 174 new playgrounds have been opened. We have also been beautifying the City. The Park Department has planted 112,000 trees along City streets. All municipal housing projects include substantial landscaping.

Now, a word about our civil service. We have added this year to our budget more than $78,000,000 to provide pay increases and adjustments for City employees in all categories, including teachers. Since 1954, employee salaries have risen nearly 50 percent. Substantial pension improvements have been granted. Advanced collective bargaining grievance and appeals procedures have been installed.

These enlightened policies are in my view essential if we are to hold our employee corps and recruit high-quality personnel to assure efficient operation of municipal services.

GOALS FOR 1961

As you know, it has been my custom, from the beginning of my administration, to establish an annual group of goals.

The specific goals for 1961 are these: To continue the rebuilding of the City, our massive attack on the slums, and an

enlargement of the total number of dwellings for all income levels, with the strongest efforts concentrated on more housing units for middle-income families.

To press our vigorous drive against unethical practices, and to enlist the community's full support in this effort;

To revise the New York City Charter, with the objective of improving our government structure for better service to the people;

To persevere in our efforts for more equitable fiscal treatment from the State;To continue our efforts for the preservation and improvement of mass transit facilities

both inside the City and in the regional area of which we are a part;To speed the flow of traffic on our streets and major arteries;To expedite the relighting of the City's streets and parks; To accomplish a smooth transition in implementing the new Zoning Resolution;To initiate a plan, with financial aid from the Federal government, to reserve existing

space in the City for future special purposes by establishment of a land bank; To move ahead with the creation of industrial parks- tracts of land having sufficient space

and facilities for the erection and operation of horizontal-type factories; To establish mechanisms for the purpose of retaining present and attracting new industry; To reduce, insofar as possible, the hardships that accompany old age, by fully

implementing our action program dealing with the special needs of older citizens; To overhaul the administration of the City's health and medical care services; To carry forward our disease-detection work, particularly in locating cases of cancer,

glaucoma,and diabetes, in the earliest treatable stages; To expand the hospital facilities now available for narcotics addicts seeking help; To undertake the construction of 60 additional playgrounds; to plan for the acquisition of

1400 acres of new parkland; to continue the work of protecting and improving the public beaches;

To extend coverage of the Fair Housing Practices Law; and speed up our procedures for dealing with instances of prejudice, intolerance and bigotry;

To undertake a comprehensive survey of the City's 16 retirement systems;To reduce the quantity of pollutants in the air. These objectives constitute only a portion of the total task ahead. There is no relaxation

inour continuing goals:

To improve our management tools for greater efficiency and economy;To work with undiminished vigor on the causes and prevention of youth crime; To make our City a safer and more secure place for its residents; To modernize physical plant and raise standards of rehabilitation in our penal institutions; To improve still further the cleanliness and appearance of the City streets; To reduce pollution in the waters around the City; To provide our consumers with the best protection possible against short-weightand short-measure;

To continue our cooperative work with our neighboring communities in attacking problems

of a regional nature. To persist in our campaign for the legalization of off-track betting. The City should be

allowed, if its citizens approve at a referendum, to put into operation a system of off-track betting on horse-racing under the pari-mutuels exactly as the State does at the race tracks, and it should be allowed to collect a service charge exactly the way the State does. The installation of such a system would pave the way for repeal or reduction of some of the existing taxes which are heavy burdens on our businesses and on our community.

The members of the City Council and the Board of Estimate have my gratitude for their contributions toward our common objective of making New York City a better place for its residents.

As we look at our problems-crime control, housing, traffic, finance, and the many others- it sometimes seems that we are facing insurmountable obstacles. Yet we do act to find solutions- even though we must often move in ways which are frustratingly slow.

The tasks ahead will be no less difficult than those that have preceded. I shall come to you, as I have in the past, for the benefit of your experience and knowledge.

The governing of this City is not only a matter of obstacle and frustration. It is an opportunity to make a contribution to greatness. With your help and the assistance of all our people, I know we are making that contribution.