"Let's Go, South Bronx!"

How to fight the blight

"A very sobering trip," remarked Jimmy Carter last month after touring several blocks of burned-out buildings, rubble-choked vacant lots and garbage-strewn streets in the South Bronx of New York City. He ordered Aide Jack Watson Jr. to devise a salvage plan for the 3-sq.-mi. area, where about 400,000 people now live (compared with about 530,000 in 1970). Last week Watson got some unsolicited but worthwhile advice from I.D. Robbins, a part-time columnist for the New York Daily News and reform-minded real estate developer.

In a column headlined LET'S GO, SOUTH BRONX! Robbins warned Watson to avoid endless consultations with city officials and urban planners. "In New York," Robbins cautioned, "the process is often the product." He then offered suggestions for turning the South Bronx into "one of the best residential and industrial locations in New York City." Items:

> The redevelopment area should be big, and so should its budget--at least 1,000 acres and 30,000 dwelling units, at a cost to the Federal Government of $1 billion. An additional $200 million would go to encourage industrial and commercial development. The timetable should be equally ambitious: first occupants within one year and completion within five.

> The basic housing unit should be the single-family townhouse, a feature that would limit population density to 35 families per acre and relieve the tensions that are generated by overcrowding. To assure variety of design, the development would be subdivided into as many as 30 construction sites, with separate architects and contractors for each one.

> The housing would be aimed at families with incomes of $10,000 a year and thus able to afford rents of $50 per room per month. Those with lower incomes would get a rent subsidy from the Federal Government, while those with higher incomes would pay a surcharge. There would be condominiums as well as rental units. To avoid costly central management, each homeowner would be responsible for his own painting, snow removal and general maintenance.

Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams welcomed Robbins' ideas as "interesting and insightful." But Robbins foresaw one possible objection to his proposal: "Thoughtful people will say, 'How can new housing help when the real problem is unemployment? You ignore the pathology of the slums, the self-destruction and hostility.' " His reply: "While we are rebuilding the South Bronx, we will have an opportunity to do something about jobs. Are there federal facilities which can be located there? Can we train people for employment in construction? Can we induce industries which serve Government or which sell overseas and could assemble here to build plants on the East River waterfront? Since the city and state can offer low-cost financing for buildings and equipment, tax incentives, low-cost power and other benefits, a suggestion from Washington might be all that's needed to interest some companies. And what a heartwarming thing it would be if industrial and housing development took place simultaneously." Whatever the merits of Robbins' ideas, the Administration plans to take a much less costly approach. Instead of rebuilding the neighborhood with massive federal aid, Watson is stressing ways to induce private firms to locate in the South Bronx, thus creating jobs for residents and enabling a measure of prosperity to trickle down to the neighborhood's devastated streets.

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