TIIE RESIDENTIAL ENCLAVE: AN EXAMINATION OF SOME
SYSTEMATIC INTERRELATIONSHIPS AS TO
THEIR POTENTIAL TO EFFECT CONTROL OF THE
OETERIORATION OF {IN INNER CITY NEIGHBORHOOD

Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
ROBERT I. MARSH
1967

 

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THESIS

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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

The Residential Enclave: An Examination of
Some Systematic Inter—Relationships as to
Their Potential to Effect Control of the

Deterioration of an Inner-City Neighborhood

presented by

Robert J. Marsh

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph .D 0 degree in Educ at ion

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Maior nrofessor

Date June 29L 1967

ABSTRACT

THE RESIDENTIAL ENCLAVE: AN EXAMINATION OF SOME SYSTEMATIC
INTERRELATIONSHIPS AS TO THEIR POTENTIAL TO EFFECT CONTROL
OF THE DETERIORATION OF AN INNER CITY NEIGHBORHOOD

by Robert J. Marsh

A review of the literature dealing with the nature of the slum
indicates that many of the characteristics of modern slums are very
similar to-if not identical with--characteristics of ancient,
medieval and other pre-mcdern slums. The same problem areas have been
treated throughout the ages with essentially the same kinds of programs
to alleviate inhumane conditions. The results cf these programs have
been consistently less than ideal. Modern programs, designed to either
eliminate slums or to control the growth of slums are, in the main,
unilaterally corceived and implemented.

In the present social milieu educational efforts are viewed
by most authorities as being the most efficacious to enhance opportunity
attainment and upgrade the conditions of people and thus eventually
eliminate the slum environment which is dysfunctional to the attainment
of the good life. as fundamental assumption made in this study is
that education cannot accomplish the goal of the good life for the
slum dweller by itself. The environment of the slum or badly deterior-
ated neighborhood, the atmosphere of poverty, the neglect of the
municipal government, mitigate against the educational efforts- The
school must work closely and consistently with the other agencies-—in

both the public and private sectors--to effect an ecrlogical control

in which conditions and time are such as to allow education to
accomplish its socially designated task.

The major hindrance to the schools' working with the other
agencies is that of the traditional attitude of separation of powers
and prerogatives. By means of a systematically designed program of
planning agencies in Pontiac, Michigan, entered into a program of
interrelating powers and prerogatives of the school, the city and
social organizations to work together for the benefit of the inner
city residents. The pl nning program called for the leadership roles
of the city and the schools to be amalgamated to communicate with the
public about needs and programs, to pool resources for study an,
implementation purposes and to enlist the support of other organizations
and agencies for a project to control certain ecological factors within
the inner city neigh orhood.

The validity of these three hypotheses was examined as their

validity was critical to the success of the prcj

ect. These hypotheses
are:
l. A significant number of organizations will indicate their

t f

willingness to work together for the benefi the community
in a joint city-school sponsored program.

('
V

4. Diverse agencies can be so interrelated and structured as
to implement a program leading to community modification

and that such a procedure can be ovtlined, detailed, and

communicated.

a. Federal agencies, state agencies and lccal government
agencies, business and industrial organizations and
philanthropic founiaticns will support a program leading
to community modification.

In conclusion it was found that (l) the school and city
could and should interrelate their efforts to control the ecology of
the inner city, (2) interrelationship of school and city efforts were
more productive of positive program planning than was unilateral
effort, (3) support of both a financial nature and of a cooperative

nature was given to the joint school-city program.

THE RESIDENTIAL ENCLAVE: AN EXAMINATION OF SOME SYSTEMATIC
INTERRELATIONSHIPS AS TO THEIR POTENTIAL TO EFFECT CONTROL
OF THE DETERIORATION OF AN INNER CITY NEIGHBORHOOD

by

Robert J? Marsh

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
College of Educaticn

1967

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The writer expresses his deep appreciation to Dr. Richard L.
Featherstone for his continued faith and encouragement without which
the completion of this thesis would have been impossible. Having been
the recipient of the advice, friendship and help of Dr. Featherstone,
the writer has gaired renewed faith in the goodness of men.

In the pursuit of study, in professional activities, the
steadying hand of Dean William B. Hawley brought direction and defini-
tion. And so to this good friend and member of the advisory committee
goes the writer's lifelong appreciation and gratitude.

To Dr. Frederick G. Alexander, advisory committee member whose
manifest commitments to honor and charity within the framework of
Christian ethics, had and ontinues to have a deep influence on the
writer's attempts to understand his fellow men.

The friendship and association of the writer with Dr. Ernest
Melby, advisory committee member, has been a singular honor and has
earned the writer's gratitude.

And finally, to many peoplef-Dr. Dana Whitmer, Bert VanKough ett,
David Vanderveen, all of Pontiac, Michigan; to Dr. George Paulus, Dr.
Mitsugi Nakashima, fellow seekers; to Phyllis Davis and Susan Steffens,
translators of the writer's incomprehensible scribblings--heartfelt

thanks and good wishes.

DEDICATION

To my wife Mary and to my sons Robert and Thomas
in deep appreciation for their concern and prayers
for my successful completion of the Doctor's degree.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACIIJIOWLEDSEm:.TS o o o o o o o 0

LIST OF

LIST OF

PREFACE

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

TABLES

FIGURES

o O o a o o o o o o o o o

I INTRODUCTION . .

Statement of the Problem
Purposes of the Stuiy . .
Assumptions of the Study
Methods and Limita;ioes .
Organization of the Study

II AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.

THE LITERATURE 9

Summary . . . . . . . . .
The Era of Problems . . .
Decline of the Inner City

The Negro . . . . . . . .
Multiple Occupancy. . . .
The Legislative Solutions
Zoning . . . . . . .
Summary. 9 o o o o 0
Urban Renewal . . . . . .
Relocation . . . . .
Open Housing . . . .
Social Solutions. . . . .
Civil Rights . . . .
Social Factors . . .
Subsidies. . . . . .
Community Effor;s. .
Educational Solutions . .
Neighborhood Schools
The Nature Cf CA8 St:

314313718 0 o o o o o 0
Administrative Rules

0 O
O 0
C O
O O
O O

O 0
O o
O O
O o
O O
O o
I O
0 O
O O
dent

O O O O
O C O O O
O O O O 0
0 O O 0 O
O O O O O

O 0 O O O
O 0 O O O
O O O O O
O O O 0 G

Page

RAJ 3‘.) N I--‘ H

n c.

[\J IN) [\3 r\

NONQN‘UTE‘

NNh)

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p C).

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New Facilities . . . . . . . . .
Elementary an; Secondary Education
Head Start . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER III THE SETTING FOR THE STUDY: THE
WILSONmMCCOl ELL SCHOOL AREA.

The Area Today. . .
Beginnings of the Mo on ell-Wilson Area
Racial Changes in Re.idents . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some Approaches to Problem Solving. . .
Some Critical Elements. . . . . . . . .

The Synergetic Nature of Elements.

Population Density and Speee Use .

‘

Law Enforcement ans

9 O O O o O 0 O 9

(3'

fi
4

0

Social Services.
Lack of Political Structure and Remote:

Educational Pattern and Vs_ue System .

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Statement of Hypc1heses . . . . . . . .
Examinatifn of Hypotheses. . . . .

CHAPTER IV
DETERIO TION . . . . . . . .

Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Structure . . .
Details of Phase
Description of ;h
Details of the Gene
Perect. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

O 0 O O O 9 O O O O O

0
IO 0 O O 0 O 0
e

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND PROGNOSES. . .

Prccfs of Hypotheses. . . . . . . . . .
SIIClUS‘I C323 0 o o o o o o o o 9 0 o o o
Prcgnsses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Implications for Future Study ad Research

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PPENDICES

ATTACHMENTS

.E COOPERATIVE PLAN FOR THE CONTROL

0

roposed Human Resources
a1 Neighborhcci Rehabilitation

0

o

0

Center.

DEMONSTRATION OF VALIDITY OF HYPOTHESES,

Ir. Lg '3 (J)
[J "_\

. )
(‘1) Ln

TABLES

ealysis of Questionnaire Data on Residency

t.

in Studv Area, McConnell/Wilson

46

Figure
Figure

igure
Figure
Figure
Figure

Figure

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

LIST OF FIGURES

Chicagou-Urban Renewal Project

East Orange, N.J., Proposej Eiuca:i-na1 Park
Area of Study

McConnell—Wilscr School Area

Condition of Dwellings

Task Analysis

Location of Human Resources Center

67

PREFACE

In January of 1966 Dr. Dana Whitmer, Pontiac (Michigan) Super-
intendent of Schools, asked that a study be made to determine some
processes or elements which would be useful in controlling the deteri-
oration of an innercity neighborhood. He directed his request to Mr.
William B. Hawley, then Director of the Mott Institute for Community
Improvement at Michigan State University. Mr. Hawley and his staff
accepted the responsibility for making such a study.

There was little precedent to use in the development of either
theory or action. Careful study of the literature concerning control
of innercity deterioration indicated that the problems were manifold
and interrelated to such a degree that causes and effects were
inexorably intertangled.

Throughout the succeeding months conferences were held involv-
ing many departments and individuals from Michigan State University.
Preeminent in these discussions were representatives from the School
of Social Work and the School of Urban Planning and Landscape
Architecture.

The Pontiac Human Relaticns Council, being particularly concerned
with the problems of minority groups in the innercity, also related to
the preliminary studies.

In a relatively short period of time members of the Pontiac

Human Relations Council were called upon to contribute their insights

into aspects Of the problems. The Pontiac City Manager's Office

ii

appointed a representative to work with the task force assigned to
studying the problems.

A pattern of involvements began to emerge from testimony taken
from the many meetings. By the very nature of the problems it became
apparent that no single agency could embark on a unilateral program;
it became apparent that all of the agencies and organizations of the
City of Pontiac would have to work together toward the solving of the
problems.

In consultation with Robert Marsh of the Staff of the Mott
Institute for Community Improvement, the Pontiac School District
enlisted the active coOperation of the Pontiac City Council in develop-
ing a total approach to the control of the ecological conditions of the
area under study.

The basic rationale that was established for the operational
aspects of the program can be stated as follows: .Dgteziozatign.gf

‘inner city areas.i§.not_a direct function 2§_racial differences but.a

 

function 2; interrelated forces, which forces are controllable by
different agencies relatingwgg the people of the inner city. Deteriora—

tion cannot bg_checked efficiently by_the unilateral action g£_anz

 

 

single agency,o Deterioration can b§_checked efficiently only by_coopera:

tion 2; the several agencies.

 

The primary functions of the study develOped in the following
pages are the defense of the rationale, the delineation of a systematic
mode of interrelating agency fenctions and a plan for action, a sug—

gested phase scheduling fsr the actiun to be taken.

Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The inner city--its neighborhoods, its people and their
problems-13 a matter of great concern to society. This study is
concerned with the basic problem of deterioration of inner city

neighborhoods.

 

Statement of the Problem

The problem of this study is to delineate a method of control
over deterioration of an inner city residential neighborhood, namely,

a selected neighborhood of Pontiac, Michigan.

Purposes of the Study

The purposes of this study are fourfold; they are:

To point out that the factors leading to deterioration are
timeless and are related more to poverty than to racial
differences.

To demonstrate that unilateral actions on the part Of agencies
concerned with inner city blight are less useful than are

actions developed in concert with all agencies concerned with
the area.

To show that cooperative interaction is possible without the
infringing of agencies into areas of activities, which areas
are the prerogative of other agencies.

To indicate that the prevention of deterioration must be
coupled with remediation of already existing deterioration,
and that certain compensatory activities must be established
and sustained if meaningful control of deterioration is to
be achieved.

The focus of this study is to select from the almost infinite
number of variables-both static and dynamic-some which can be consid-
ered useful to contain the blight. To iate, no mode has been devised
to classify and select these variables.

There have been lists of variables developed, but most of these
have been mere listings with no attempts at ranking. Commonly, when
ranking has been attempted the ranking has reflected the particular
bias of the ranker. Thus the economist, the Civil Rights activist, the
sociologist, the criminologist, and the elucator, each reflects within
his listings and developmental attempts at ranking his own particular
frame of reference.

Using a background of personal experience with the problems of
the inner city-~both as one affected by them, and as one working with

them--an attempt is here made to develop a logical order of variables.
Assumptions 2£_the Study

The basic assumption made within this study is: Epitaxy
significant factors £h§£HIQQQHEQI§lgm§H§gg timeless. This generalization
leads to an ancillary assumption which is: Egg.§igpificant factors are
existent stage $9121. 9_f_ intensity 9).; another _i_r_1_ eve_ry inner city
neéggggrhood. A third assumption then grows from these first two:

These significant factors are closely interrelated_and can bg_ranked,

classified, defined, and controlled ag.g£oups rather than entities.
Methods and Limitations

In light of the assumptions made, 3 section of ar inner cicy

neighborhood has been selected for observation. The area selected
cannot be dealt with in an experimental frame. That is, due to the
complexity and interrelationships of factors, a single input of action
cannot be generated and from this input of action a determination cannot
be made of a certain effect an related causality. The area cannot be
Studied in a purely historical fashion; such an approach tends to negate
the critical dynamics of the situation. Neither is it useful to survey
the area in the classical sense. The very nature of the area with its
rapid changes and shifts of movement renders a survey ephemeral. There-
fore, the mode of study is to search for the existing elements of
deterioration, to point these elements out in a straight-forward manner,
and to develop a series of recommended procedures and patterns in a
logical, creative fashion.

To accomplish the purposes of this study, reference is made to
certain statistical aspects of the neighborhood in question, and a rather
cursory description of the neighborhood is developed. However, due to
the lack of precedence, the study is exploratory, hueristic and recom-

mendatory rather than experimental, statistical or prescriptive.

Organization g£_the Study

The organization of the study is somewhat unorthodox. The first
section shows the historical aspects of the slum, and demonstrates
certain specific elements which are significant and timeless. The
second section deals with the nature of the area in question. The third
section is concerned with the plan of action and establishes the hypothe~

ses surrounding that plan. The fourth section of the study relates the

plan for action to the specifics of time an! process. The final section
develops conclusions and prognoses generated from the support of

hypotheses present at the time of writing.

CHAPTER II

AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

CHAPTER II

AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
The city as an entity in America is a relatively new phenomenon.
It is new in the noteworthy sense that society is conscious of its prob-

lems and the anxieties and concerns of its peeple.

America has no history of ancient cities except for those of
pre-Columbian antiquity. However, major cities of the world; London,
Paris, Rome, and Istanbul, Calcutta, Peking, Canton, Hongkong and Tokyo
are still great cities after thousands of years. The histories of these
cities are chronicled in great detail in official records and historical
writings. The artists of ancient times give us vivid pictures of the
conditions in cities a thousand years before the first European came to
this continent.

nese great cities had traffic congestion, air pollution, slums,
crime in the streets, corrupt city officials and minority group problems
centuries before the American continents were discovered.

The people of these ancient cities sensed and approached the
problems of urban living then in a markedly similar fashion to the ways
in which we sense our problems and strive for solutions. For example,
Lewis Mumford in 3351.513 History, writes of the traffic problem in
Julian Rome (148 B.C.):

As soon as the increase in population created a demand for

wheeled traffic in Rome, the congestion became intolerable.
me of Julius Ceasar's first acts was to ban wheeled traffic

from the center of Rome fiuring the day. The effect of this,
of course, was to create such a noise at night, with wood or
iron shod cart wheels rumbling over stone pavement blocks,
that the racket tormented sleep: at a much later date, it
drove the poet Juvenal into insomnia....Hadrian (A.D. 117-132)
limited the number of teams and loads of carts permitted to
enter the city--cutting down even the nighttime traffic at
its source. In a centuiy and a half, traffic congestion had
gone from bad to worse.

0f the problems of air pollution and garbage disposal, Mumford
paints a grim picture:

One cannot leave the subject of sewage disposal without not-
ing another feature that casts serious doubt on the intel-
ligence and competence of the municipal officials in Rome,
for it records a low point in sanitation and hygiene that

the more primitive communities never descended to. The most
elementary precautions against disease were lacking in the
disposal of the great mass of refuse and garbage that accumu-
lates in a big city; and Rome in the heyday of the Empire
must have numbered around a million human beings, give or
take a few hundred thousand. If the disposal of fecal materi-
al in carts and in open trenches was a hygienic misdemeanor,
what shall one say of the disposal of other forms of offal
and odure in open pits? Not least the indiscriminate dumping
of human corpses into such noisome holes, scattering on the
outskirts of Ehe city, forming as it were, a cordon
malsanitaire.

 

The parallel to what we, in this enlightened era, do to the outskirts
of our larger cities and to the streams ani fields around us is all
too apparent.
Robert Graves in Claudius the God,3 remarks that Nero's infamous
and callous act of fiddling while Rome burned, has been entirely mis-

understood and misinterpreted. Admittedly, Graves' rationale for this

 

lLewis Mumford. The City in History. (New York: Harcourt,
Brace & World, Inc.) page 218.

2Ibid. page 217.

3Roberf Graves. Claudius the God. (New York: Harrison Smith
and Robert Haas, Inc.) 1935, page iii.

 

statement is somewhat jocularly phrased. It is his contention that
Nero was the forerunner of the Urban Renewal EXpert. Certainly, after
the great fire two critical problems were alleviated: slum overcrowd-
ing and the elimination, in part, of a very vocal and troublesome
minority group. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the great cities
of Europe ceased to exist for a time as great metropolitan areas. The
people fled to the small villages,to the shelter of fortified walls,
to the shadow of the castles and cathedrals of the countryside.

After the period of the Dark Ages, the cities became again the
centers of trade and culture, assuming the characteristics and problems
so familiar to the ancient Romans and to us in our time.

Gallion and Eisner note in The Urban Pattern:

 

Movement to the towns brought a marked revival of trade

about the eleventh century. Advantages accrued to the fuedal
lords-in return for their protection they collected higher
rent for their land. Many new towns were founded, and the
sites of old Roman towns were restored.

Urban life was encouraged by the lords; they granted charters
which secured certain rights and privileges of citizenship

to the urban dwellers. This new form of freedom was attrac-
tive to those who had lived their lives in serfdom.

There were innumerable hardships suffered and endured by the
people of the Middle Ages, but in the early towns they did
not lose the sense of intermingling. Each man had the feel—
ing of being an active citizen in his own community. This
attribute of the urban environment--2 social well-being--
was, however, soon to be dissipated.

The increase of population, engendered by the more favorable

atmosphere of the city, caused a consequent increase in congestion and

4Arthur B. Gallion and Simon Eisner. The Urban Pattern: City

Planning and Design. (Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand Co., 1950) page 33.

1.-

a great competition for living space. The interiors of blocks, once
gardens of the relatively affluent merchant class, began to fill up with
housing for the artisans. With no increase in the availability of water
or of facilities for sewage disposal, conditions in the medieval city
approximated the worst conditions of the vast slums of Rome.

Gallion and Eisner depict these conditions existing over a
thousand years ago as circumstances that are not too far removed from
some inner city conditions in our own time:

Wheel traffic increased. The narrow streets became congested,
dark, and filth ridden from the refuse thrown from dwelling
*indows, and the provision for the elimination of waste remained
inadequate....Excreta were disposed of in cesspools beneath
dwelling floors; there or in the streets....0dors from the

filth in the streets were overcome by keeping the windows or

the shutterssclosed....Disease spread rapidly in the times of
epidem1Coooo

How similar to the conditions in our Nation‘s capital is the
description of the Baroque City of the Renaissance as detailed by Gallion
and Eisner:

Behind the fine facades of the plazas and the wide avenues
dwelt the congested urhan papulation. The city lacked sanita-
tion, sewers, water distribution and drainage....The Baroque
City had unfolded its ggand Open spaces and they were over-
lapping on the people.

With the coming of the Industrial Revolution in the late 15th
Century, tremendous expansion occured in the already chaotic cities of
the Old World. The new industrial eXpansion with its need for masses

of workers was accompanied by gross exploitation of the poor. The slums

of Leeds and London became even more inhumane than were the traditional

 

SIbid, page 41.

6Ibid, page 49.

slums of the early seventeenth century. Row upon row of crowded workers'
tenements were added in the shad3ws Cf the factories. The degraded
environment of the industrial city became grimy with the smoke of thou—
sands of soft coal fires which hung over the city for the next two
handred years.
In the United States, the industrial city achieved its higdest

level (or greatest depth) of development. Gallion and Eisner state:

The air of American towns became poll;ted with the smoke and

grime from the belching chimneys of the new age. Railroads
ate int: the core of cities and waterfronts were ruined, soot

«k

ccvered the village and sewage lined .ne beaches.
Building tetements for workers became a most profitable venture. In
New York City in 1:70 the population density in the slums was in excess
of 326 persons per acre. The railroad flat, an American invention, was
usually five to six st lies high, covered 93 per cent of the building
space available—~usually twenty-five by one hundred feet—-and contained
from twenty t: twenty-four apartments. It has been characterized by

Gallion and Eisner as the most vile housing ever developed.

Summary

The slum and slum conditions have been the lot of the city
dweller for thousands of years. From pre-Julian Rome to the time of the
Great Society the slum has appeared as a fincticn of pOpulaticn growth.
The characteristics of :he slum are high pepulation density, a low level
of municipal services, lack ;f privacy, poor sanitation, congested

streets, and above all human misery.

 

7Ibid, page 66.

“Ibid, page 63.

10
The Era of Problems

With the rapid industrial expansion following World War I, the
nature of the American city began to change. Higher wages, higher living
standards, and generally greater availability of building space--coupled
with the American dream of home ownership--caused a tremendous growth in
the HUmber of single family dwellings. The relatively affluent Northern
factory worker had little reason to live in the center of the city. His
place of employment generally was a huge industrial complex that grew
and sprawled on the perimeter of the densely populated city, an exterior
location predicated not on aesthetic grounds but on economic expediency.
The inadequacy of the inner city, established and rigidly controlled by
the block grid system, for a plant site that was economically feasible
is pointed out by Hoover and Vernon in Anatomy gins Metropolis:

One of the most universal changes in factory processes over
the past 30 or 40 years has been the widespread introduction
of continuous-material—flow systems and of automatic controls
in processing. In food factories, for instance, refrigeration
tunnels and bake ovens with moving floors commonly run many
hundreds of feet on a straight line; often, they run longer
than a city block.

In light of these developments, the disadvantages of operat-
ing in a less-than-ideal structure have grown rapidly. Today,
the common practice in many lines of manufacture is to find

a site which imposes the least possible restraints on the
shape of the structure; to plan a production layout suitable
for modern processes; and then to "wrap" the building around
the layout. The shape of the building is determined by the
process rather than vice versa. The shape and size of city
block grids, ther fore, have become a powerful restraint on
factory location.

 

9Edgar‘M. Hoover ani Raymond Vernon. Anatomy of a ygtrgpolis.
(Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1962) page 27.

11

In short, land was cheaper out of the city. And with this direction of
industrial growth, a shift in population occured.

Comparatively open areas were subdivided into forty by one
hundred twenty foot lots, and houses multiplied rapidly. The central
city with its extremely high population density was abandoned by the

factory worker; a semi-suburban type of residence pattern evolved.
Decline_gf the Inner City

The inner city, far removed from the lucrative employment of
the great industries, became the habitat of those related to the smaller,
lower—paying industries. Here, too, resided those who were engaged in
direct service occupations-—waiters, truck drivers, shoe shine boys,
taxi cab drivers, cleaning personnel and domestics--persons who found
in the inner city a comparatively cheap place to live, convenient to
their work. By the middle 1920's the inner city was papulated, for the
most part, by service personnel, the aged, the underemployed and the
unemployed. A few small industries highly concentrated near the inner
core continued, but few of their employees lived within easy walking
distance. Janitors, nightwatchmen, etc., continued to live adjacent to
the mid—city factory. The area, characterized by relatively cheap
housing rants and requiring little or no capital investment, assumed the
nature of a way station.

The displaced sharecropper, the Appalachian miner and the under-
employed Southern Whites virtually inundated the Northern industrial

on!

cities in the years preceding The Great Depression of the late l9zo a.

They came to the central city, rented a light-housekeeping apartment,

12

becane relatively economically stable, and then moved to more spacious
dwellings closer to their work. The occupational and residential pat-
tern-affluent office worker, less affluent factory worker, service
person-casual worker-was arranged in bands of neighborhoods concentri-
cally arranged around the central city.

In 1929 shops closed, factories closed, and three years later,
the banks closed; mortgages were foreclosed, furniture was repossessed,
and eviction proceedings smothered the dockets of the municipal ccurts.
Those who were able went back to the farm--back to Arkansas, Texas,
Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi. Those who had no
place to go retreated into the inner city and accelerated the decay
begun sixty years before. All of the evils of cities became intensified
in this chaos. Crime, subornation, corruption and vice welled up.
Rapacious Speculators graSped at chances to divide and subdivide and
again subdivide those dwellings and apartments which were already
neglected by the enforcers of zoning, sanitation and building codes.
This kind of venality and Opportunistic profiteering on human misery is
not a modern vice. Mumford notes in his discussion of the insulae-—
tenement houses in Ancient Rome-that spaces were divided and redivided
to extract the greatest possible profit from each square foot of living
space.

And so it was in the Northern industrial cities; the subdividing
of already inadequate and overcrowded housing became a common practice.
As the poor multiplied in the center city, the misery of the peOple in

terms of humane living was compressed almost to the destruction point.

 

1922, cit. page 219.

 

Into this caldron, in the early Forties, came a great influx of
Southern Negroes. Diaplaced by automation and the centralization of
agriculture, and attracted by wartime wages and employment, they settled
in the inner city. Unlike the whites who had preceded them, racial
discrimination most effectively kept them captive in the core city. The
combined effect of discrimination both in housing and in employment
compressed the population to a critical level. (This influx, begun in
the 1940's continues into the 1950's and through the 1960's.)

With the World War II years, the subsequent upsurge in consumer
goods production through the 1950's, and the "hot economy" of the 1960's,
employment levels have risen. The almost hysterical exodus from the
inner city has been facilitated by this eXpanding economy. Those who
could, got out, and those who can, continue to leave. But those who are
underemployed or unemployed, those whose cultural or ethnic pattern is
regarded to be substandard, either do not have the resources to move or
a place to move to, or both. They stay and seethe and the "social
dynamite" is fused.11

The evolution outlined above is a disintegrative one. As popu-
lation pressure increases, blight spreads out and penetrates at the
points of least resistance. As the very poor invade an area, those less
poor move out. The Negro, in the inner city, is often very poor along
with being classed as a social inferior; thus, when he moves in, the

more affluent Negro and the less-poor white moves out.

 

11James B. Conant. Slums and Suburbs. (New York, N. Y.: McGraw—
Hill Book Company, 1961) page 39.

Residential neighborhoods penetrated by the relatively affluent
Negro seem to change almost overnight. The rate of the white exodus
accelerates so that a neighborhood may be 99 per cent white in one year,
50 per cent white the year following, 15 per cent within four years and
99 per cent Negro in as short a time as six years from the time of first
penetration.

As the white moves from the area and is replaced by the Negro,
a sort of syndrome of civic pathology follows. In a very real sense,
this syndrome is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The influx of the Negro
lowers property values; lower prOperty values attract the less affluent.
(The most poor in the inner city are the Negroes.) Lower property
values make it less profitable to check physical deterioration of the
property. Thus the property further depreciates and becomes more
accessible to a poorer clientele. The cycle is repetitive and continues
unchecked.

The Negro, as a Negro, is not destructive; the Negro, as a Negro,
'is not heedless. The poor are heedless and often irresponsible for a
great variety of reasons. In these characteristics the poor Negro, the
poor white, do not differ from their porr counterpart down through the
centuries. The poor Negro, the poor Appalachian white, the poor Puerto
Rican share a common characteristic: they are poor. Living in desola—
tion, alienated and restricted, often neglected and commonly exploited
to an unconscionable degree, they do not purposely destroy; but, lacking
the means and often incentive they befoul their habitations. As the
poor find areas that are economically feasible, they gravitate and
cluster, resulting in a high population density with multiple family

occupancy of single family dwellings.

lS
Multiple_ggcupangy

Even though multiple occupancy may be prohibited by zoning laws,
poor enforcement, or often no enforcement at all, allows the practice to
Spread. Almost invariably at some point in time, a move to rezone is
instituted. To bring the zoning laws into relationship with reality is
a most common reason cited for the changing of an area's zoning from
single family (R1) to multiple family (R3), or even to semi-commercial
(Cl).

This modification of the laws, on this rather whimsical basis,
is so common as to have become an accepted and expected result. The
principal of the Garfield Elementary School, Mr. Aaron Smith reports
that: A petition has been filed with the Flint City Zoning Commission
to change the zoning in the Garfield School District, a recently changed
neighborhood--now 85 per cent Negro, to allow multiple family dwellings.
Negro leaders, alert to the consequences, are engaged in a vigorous
litigation to combat this move. The petition to change zoning laws,
and the almost automatic approval of such petition, causes immediate
subdivision of single family dwellings into substandard apartments or
flats or utility living arrangements.

Multiple occupancy and the factors that cause it is not some
kind of immutable urban evolutionary law. It is an immensely profitable
business manipulation. The creation of a slum, and ownership of slum
property, is a life's work for some speculators in certain communities.

There are hard and fast rules by which the determination of

preperty values in slums can be established. Computations to determine

16

property values are used by speculators in slum property and are recog—
nized as valid by that business community. These have grown out of
experiences in transacting business rather than by some recognized
economic or investment authority engaged in more conventional businesses.
One of the easiest of these to compute is based on gross income from a
structure, at full occupancy, at a rate approved by the local welfare
and relief authority for one year times five. Consider for a moment

the nature of this kind of transaction. The house as a single family
dwelling may rent for $90 per month, realizing $1,050 per year. Its
value on the open market as a single family dwelling probably would not
exceed $8,500. The same house, subdivided into two basement apartments,
two first floor apartments, two upstairs apartments, each renting at

the city welfare rate of $65 per month, has a gross income of $390 per
month or $4,630 per year with an on-market value of $23,400.

Since the $65 rate is that which is available, $65 is what will
be charged and collected. The overcrowding of l,600 square feet of
living space by eighteen people or more has happened, and there is no
other place for them to go, reality again is faced and fire codes,
sanitation codes and municipal services and regulations are adjusted,
either by lack of enforcement or omission of inspections.

Some escape from this setting; they open a new neighborhood;
panic selling ensues; property values are lowered; the less affluent
invade; overcrowding develops; zoning laws are adjusted to reality;

a new slum is born.

The Legislative Silutions

 

Zoning

Since the early decades of the l9th century, the practice of
zoning and defining certain areas of cities for certain uses has been
common and remarkably uniform in this country. However, enforcement of
zoning regulations has been quite another thing.

According to Edith Elmer Wood, zoning is "

°ocean-exercise Cf

the police power, intended to regulate growth of our communities in
matters of use, height and bulk of buildings. It is a preventive, not

a curative."12 This latter statement is reflective of a commonly held
dictum that generally speaking laws may not be imposed retroactively.

In essence, a single individual or a group of individuals may not be
required to abandon a building or an enterprise by the imposition of a
new zoning law which forbids the exercise of the endeavor or the kind of
structure after the fact of its being. A.factory built in accordance
with existing regulations at some given time may not be held in violation
of subsequent zoning laws of a different order, irrespective of the
noxious or unpleasant conditions it imposes on nearby residents. A
clearly defined and specific case must be developed to show and prove
that a grave danger to health, welfare and safety is posed by the
endeavor to even institute proceedings for elimination. The significance

of Wood‘s comment becomes immediately apparent. Rezoning to a different

order cannot be imposed capriciouslv or even discretely. If a community

 

,9 .
i"Edith Elmer Wood. The Housing g£_the Unskilled Wage Earner.
(New York, N. Y.: The MacMillan Company, 1919) page 235.

 

l:

wishes to build and maintain a fertile oasis in a rundown area, it must
pr_vide compensation for the owners of the endeavors or builjings of
which it would wish to rid itself. This aspect of equity is particularly
significant in urban slum clearance projects.

While a: some point in time the city government may have exer—
cised its power, as stated in the Supreme Court Decision of November 22,
1954, "....to determine that the community should be beautiful as well
as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well-balanced as well as carefully
patrolled,"l3 and then through neglect of enforcement of its legally
established zoning rules allowed deterioration to occur, it has, in
fact, negated its prerogatives to impose the high order of zoning that
was its original intent.

Truly, it would seem that a "crack—down" at any time by the
zoning commission to enforce the laws already on the books would be
logical. In reality, it is not. Once a condition exists, in fact, for
a period of time-usually about three years-~and the violator has not
been indicted for that violation, lengthy and costly litigation generally
ensues when an attempt is made to rectify the situation.

A typical case in point is one where an owner may open a small
neighborhood store in the front room of his house. This little store
is a sort of a pick—up enterprise. The owner may handle bread, canned
goods, sundries, magazines, neWSpapers, soft drinks and. if he meets
minimum health standards, stock milk and butter along with package: col?

meats. Unless the neighborhood is very new, his neighbors rarely will

 

13-i_r_1_ w. My. Parker (23 LW 4012) 348 U. S. 26, 75.
Supreme Court 93,99 1. Ed. 27 (1954).

.8)

14

czmulain. A municipal inspeotcr will quite commonly overlook this rathér
laqoible venture into froe-enterprioemnafter all, it does help reli_ve
the city welfare rolls.

I: a relatively short period of time, this little store and

another and even anOth:r appear. They b come fixtures in the neighbor“

hood; they will issue credit. The children can shop here without cross~

(0

ing busy streets and many other advantages are off red to the people of
the neighborhood. Soon, another person may open an upholstering shop in
his garage; and anotior may start fixing or jonking cars. A corner lot
soon becomes a gas Station; another corner a small tavern. Prop;rty
values lower, multiple occupancy becomes the pattern, and the law is in
fact denegated. If, at some later time, the city fathers step in an?
attempt to enforce the ordinances, utter chaos erupts and it is often
not worth the effort of enforcement. It is easier to adjust the zoning
laws to meet reality.

It may seem somewhat unfeeling to prevent the first little store.

t may appear to be heartless to demand that the single family dwelling

1%

remain just that. However, to do otherwise 3 to court development of

a slum.
Summa

As a mode of slum rehabilita ion, zoning is not, in itself, a
panacea. In the development of new communities, zoning is an imperative

of the first order. In the area with which this st"dy is concerned-the

prevention of the Spread of blight and deterioration-~already-existing

20

zoning laws are most critical. The enforcement and support of the laws

on the books can control the nature of the residential area. However,
common law precedents regarding the right of the land-holder to use his
land for his personal profit and the extreme difficulty of enforcement

of existing zoning laws detract from the usefulness of those laws.
Intelligent enforcement and cooperative support of the zoning laws can
control the nature of the residential area. Making the law adjust to
reality when that reality is a purposeful denial of the law is irrational.
Residents of an area threatened with deterioration and blight must be
informed and knowledgeable about the consequences of violation of zoning

laws.

21

Urban Renewal

 

As noted in the previous section, discrete zoning cannot effect
desired changes after the fact of deterioration. One of the more useful

modes of accomplishing deslumming is the total elimination of a blighted

LL

area by purchase, demolition and rebuilding. In general, this is calls»
urban renewal and such projects are very common in most of the large
cities of our country.
Urban renewal has been conducted on a rather grandiose scale

in the late 1956's through the 1960'5- Great tracts of squalid inner
city housing have been razed and multi-story, modern, fireproof and, to
-a degree, vermin-proof structures, have been erected. Herein, the intent
(has been to decently house those unfortunates who have lived in squalor.
Several significant things have occured. Among these are the reduction
of the new dwellings to slums almost as soon as they are occupied and

the apparent inability of the residents to modify their living and social
habits and attitudes. While these things have not been generic to urban
renewal and deslumming, they have happened often enough to have elicited
some rather cynical statements. Some of these critics have been quite
vocal. One who prefers to remain anonymous has stated, "The only thing
high rise dwellings for these people have proved is that rats can live

as well on the twelfth floor as in the basements. Rats are no strangers
to stairs." (Plate I)

In Chicago, slum rehabilitation projects started in the 50's

encompassing the State Street area. The following paraphrased observa-

ti:n was made by Carl E. Thomas, Project Engineer for A. 0. Smith Company--

 

   
    
   

a

|,~ . ,..
.- A \ < 4
5'?ka 13‘“

" / §\ ,, . ‘
. l .
\ \\\\M\\ m 6,93.

  

 

  

 

 

 
   
   
   

Chicago - Federal Street 1944
Single family dwellings in multiple occupancy

 

’I"““ I'
.HI'Q i
f‘

.m'" ' ' “numb
mall! Cl :57 ‘
Milling “Iggho
filth: n q
in .'. " II"!

a,’
.,,.

 

 

\
Chicago — Federal Street 1960
High rise Apartment Project

Figure I

  

 

one of the mej r contr3thrs:

As one unit was finished ant occupied, it was reduced o
squalor in a shorter time the; it t‘fk to build it. It took
about seven months to build o;e of the h:ges r: ‘em:
it too; less han six months for the tenant to reduce it t.

a place unfit for human habitation. D*:rs, lools, ard hinges
were rem:vrd and sold. Flambing fixtures were taken out of

e btildings an sold. Walls were torn apart, and the copper

and bro roe soil pipe and water supply line 3 were to; out
and soil for scrap. Mg t fixtures and switches and panel
axes were removed and 3 id to jtlk dealers. Garbage was
thrown down Ht ir wells and cit cf upper story windows. e
lower hallways reeked of urine aid human excrement, as ch :ldre m:
and adults found it more otnvenient uo relieve themselves

t ere than walking or r d1;g up txree or mare floors to their
apartments. It is re her interes ing t note that after scme
ten of g e units were comp1e2ed, ew t of l-wer ccrriiar

3

0"

I

O

‘-.
A

9.)

L

r—J D)

e

plans if clu ded p1blic res moms an the ower fl;;rs. Rehabili~
tstion ard rep_aoeme t costs nearly equalled and, at times,

exceeded the costs of the origiral vel: pm at. The building
of thzse great housirg projects was often cr;ticized by cyn ice
in the archit’cthr and va lditg :raies as developing 'hi 1gb

rise slums.’
"he slums "suffocate the spirit, as Justice William 0. Douglas
., 14' a. o . e u .
put it. Modification of the pepulation itself c1nst1tutes the ma;::

1

task after tfle slum has been estailisne.

LL

 

One of the most difficult pro T ems facing those who would rage
the slum area is aperen;ia al one: woat to do ith those pir37nS wh;
will be dispossessed. in ary kind of disruption 2f the habitatic s of
people, relocazion becomes a critical issue.

Gallion and Eisner comment on this problem in their discussion

of public ho sing programs:

 

4Ibid, page

24

The principal issue that emerged from the public housing
program was the dual character of its avowed purpose to
clear the slums and rehouse the families who, by force of
their economic status, could not afford the full cost of
decent housing. The causes of physical decay in our cities
and the economic level of a large segment of the people who
live in slums and in blighted areas are interwoven. It is
necessary, however, that they be untangled if we are to see
clearly a program to rehouse urban America.

The most obvious reason to separate these two phases of the
problem is the fact that slums and blight cannot be remedied
without displacing the peeple who occupy them. If the cleared
areas are to be rebuilt with housing, low rent housing, the
displaced people must find a place to live during the opera—
tion. The shortage of decent dwellings at low enough rents
is a chronic condition. To force people out of one blighted
area into another simply lends credenig to the oft-quoted
statement that people make the slums.

When a new highway or an interchange is developed replacing
housing units that must be destroyed, new places must be found for those
who inhabit those housing units. Expansion of an industry which is
adjacent to residential areas causes concern over relocation of the
displaced.

Relocation programs are most vexing to the planners. Relocation
programs of Negroes or other minority groups in areas which are resistant
to integration can and do raise storms of protest. Certain agencies,
often sponsored or empowered by the municipal government-~using funds
supplied by the Federal government-which attempt to accomplish relocation
are constantly faced with the spector of building a new slum with the
residents of the old.

A contributing factor to the easing of relocation problems is the

trend to "0 en housin ordinanaces." (It is anticipated that the year
P 8

1967 will mark a strong movement to a National Open Housing Law.)

 

légpicit. page 156.

25

H.

d

S

K

Open Ho' ng

Open hOusing ordinances have been the subject of much controversy;
charges of unconstitutionality have been directed against such laws.
These charges center on the interference in an individual's right to
diSpose of his praperty in a manner in which he sees fit. There is,
and probably will continue to be, regardless of the human rights aspects,

numerous open housing suits and countersuits pending in the lower and

upper courts of the land.

26

 

Civil Rights

No

0')

ingle court decision has had as great an effect upon the
nature and concern of our society than that of the Supreme Court ruling
of l954 against the "separate but equal" provisions for discrimination
in schooling. Growing out of this ruling, which was nothing more than
a reaffirmetion of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, has been a whole series of socially based statutes and
provisions for the alleviation of the conditions of the poor. Some of
these statutes are: Equal Economic Opportunity Act, Manpower Training
Act, Job Corps Legislation, Community Action Programs, Elementary and

Secondary Education Act.
Social Factors

The slum dweller, and the inhabitant of the Negro ghettoes, have
become the focus of much legislation since 1954. The rights of the so-
called minority peoples have been affirmed and demanded. Long—time
activists such as Saul Alinsky, Martin Luther King, and groups such as
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the
National Urban League, with a host of newer organizatiors, have inveighed
against the restrictions placed upon the American Negro with great vigor
and vehemence. As a result, the inner city Negro has often become a
pawn in a kind of internecine war. He has often been forced to move
out from the slum or the ghetto or even the segregated neighborhood,

without being economically, educationally or socially prepared to c0pe

27

with his new environment. Danie; Seligman quotes a student of the
New York slums:
Once upon a time we thought that if we could only get our
problem families out of those dreadful slums then Papa
would stop taking depe, Mama would stop chasing around and
Junior would stop carrying a knife. Well, we got them new
apartments with modern kitchens and a recreation cenigr, and
they're the same bunch of bastards they always were.
For those who can be described in the statement above, there are many
more who, when forced out, find only rejection and discrimination in
the white world—-rejection ed discrimination which have been intensi-
fied by the abruptness of the transition. Some Negroes, particularly
those who are definitely upward mobile socially, benefit greatly by a
kind of forced exodus from the slums and deteriorated neighborhoods.
But, too often the benefits gained are relatively short-lived. The

exodus of the white population to the suburbs results only in a shifting

of the battlegrounds.
Subsidies

Coupled with the growing concern for the easing of the Negro
out of the ghetto has been a growing conviction that some kind of sub-
sidization is necessary. Several direct subsidy bills have been intro—
duced in both Houses of the Federal Congress. Direct relief has long
served as a subsidy, but has generally been inadeouate to effect a
reasonable transition. As a matter of fact, subsidies as paid by direct

relief sometimes add to the problem. Edgar May states:

 

16 - . . ,
Daniel Seligman. "The Enduring Slums," Fortune. December 1957.

28

Probably more than one billion welfare dollars were paid to
the order of landlords in the United States in 1962. This
includes the largest unpublicized government subsidy in the
Haticn17 For, in too many instances, it greatly subsidizes
slums.

The subsidies granted to the poor through direct relief are not
adequate to maintain the payments on a mortgage at standard rates.
Direct subsidies usually range from $65 to $35 a month. Assuming the
minimum down payment of $400 on an $8,000 home, the balance to be
amortized at current rates of 6 per cent. would be $54.25 per month,
exclusive of taxes and insurance. At the more prevalent rate of 7 per
cent for loans of less than $10,000, the monthlv payment is $58.93,
exclusive of taxes and insurance. Assuming insurance premiums of a
minimum of $5 per month, and a tax rate of 40 mills on $5,000, the basic
cost, exclusive of utilities and maintenance, at 6 per cent would be
$76.16; and at 7 per cent—-$80.59. Obviously, on a house whose on-market-
cost was in excess of $3,000, the proportions would be the same.18
Outside of badly deteriorated neighborhoods there are few $8,000 houses.
Common practice has been to subdivide houses to increase per month

income: two families at $65 can meet the mortgage payment. (The

result has been discussed under the Decline of the Inner City, page 11.)

Community Efforts

Not all efforts to alleviate conditions are of recent vintage

nor have they been of national scope. In many cities, e.g., Indianapolis,

 

l?Qp_cit. page 127.

18Financial Publishing Company, Payment Table for Monthly
Mortgage Loans. (Boston: Financial' Publishing Company, 1961).

29

(—

Ind‘ana; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Pontiac, Michigan; and

notably Flint, Michigan; municipalities and private agencies have entered
into community projects to raise the level of living conditions of the
poor and to prevent neighborhood deterioration. These efforts have been
markedly successful but have had one great flaw: they lead, almost
invariably, to the perpetuation of do fagtg segregation. The thrust of
the Civil Rights movement has negated many things gained by these programs.
Local neighborhood efforts to clean up-fix up-paint up have often been
viewed as a kind of "Uncle Tomism." It appears that the neighborhood

must be desegregated before local community action programs can become

effective.

Educational Solutions

"slum dweller" has

The extremely high gestation rate of the
contributed to the overcrowding of the inner city. Daniel P. Moynihan
in his controversial study of the urban Negro family estimates this
gestation rate to be 1.7 for the poor Negro and the poor Puerto Rican

. .. . 19
to 1.0 for the middle class urban dweller.

Neighborhood Schools

 

In those residential areas which are in the process of being
"slummed," the influx of people has inundated the schools. School
administrators and teachers, faced with increased classroom loads, have
tried to maintain some semblance of order, but the odds have been tremend-
ous. Frederick Shaw points up one aspect of this problem:
When James Conant visited slum schools in big cities, he fodné
teachers and administrators struggling against ‘appalling odds.’
These schools are too difficult and the rewards are too small
for many teachers. As a result, theoneed for teachers in swch
schools tends to outrun the supply.“

The local neighborhood school that had typically contained some twelve

to fourteen rooms, capable of housing from 360 to 400 children, now,

when the influx is in full time, may find from 600 to l000 children at

the door each September. If this circumstance were not staggering enough

by itself and restrictive enough of good educational practices, such

schools are often afflicted by the "hot seat" problemr-that condition

 

19Daniel P. Moynihan. The Negro Family: '5 Case for National

Action. (0.5. Department of Labor: Washington, D.C., 1964)

 

an
'Frederick Shaw. "Educating Culturally DeprivEd Youth in
Urban Centers," Aghi.Delta Kappan (fiovember l963), page 97.

31

which exists when and where the school population change rate is greater
than 25 per cent. (In 1953, the school princiapl, Mr. Kulaga, reports
that the change rate in the airview School in Flint, Michigan, was in
excess of 105 per cent.) Generally Speaking, orderly, sequentially
structured education is quite difficult with a change rate greater than
20 per cent.

As the schools become overcrowded and as every available space
is needed, just for horsing the students, the school programs suffer.

In some school systems, the teacher-pupil ratio soars to almost unbeliev-
able heights at the Opening of each school year.

Extra facilities often are moved onto the school grounds. These
temporary, mobile classrooms reduce the open area about the schools until
in some instances the playground areas are so restricted as to necessitate
the blocking off of traffic so that the streets adjacent to the schools
can be used as playgrounds.

An extreme shortage of teachers, caused in part by the rapid
expansion of the suburban schools tends to lower the level of the educa-

tional effort of the schools.

The Nature of the Student

 

A cruel paradox has ensued: the very children who have the great-
est need for high excellence in education are often in areas where the
provision of such education is the most difficult. This factor, coupled
with some of the circumstances surrounding children in the inner city,
has compounded the problem by the square. Mel Ravitz remarks in his

paper on the role of the school in the depressed inner city setting:

32

Many of these children of the depressed areas come from home
situations that are deplorable, where the primary need is for
the services of a nurse, a dentist, a dietition, where there
is abject poverty, where there is much overcrowding in poor
housing, where many kinds of psychological problems beset the
members of the family. Often, too, the families are split,
with the mother assuming responsibility for both parents.
Even if the family has not Split, the controls that once
applied in the rural setting have been broken in an urban
setting that is hostile, uncaring, anonymous, and which has
forced restructuring of the family. The parental images that
the children now see areqimages of despair, of frustration and
of enforced idleness....‘
David Reissman, Martin Deutch, Benjamin Bloom, Robert Strom, to name
but a few writers, have viewed the problems of the inner city schools
as some of the most critical in our era.

In general, it has been recognized that education--the one medium
that is regarded as being most efficient in enabling peeple to escape
slum conditions—~seems to be the hardest to provide. Overcrbwding, rapid
change of school populations, fewer teachers, lower aSpirational levels,
socio—economic deprivation, and the general chaotic environment of the

inner city, have made the inner city school generally an invalid educa-

tional entity.

Busing

Many solutions for upgrading tho educational environment have
been suggested and many have been tried, with varying degrees of success.
Transportation of inner city school children to outlying suburban areas
where populations densities are lower and middle-class conditions prevail

has met with mixed reactions and mixed success.

 

2J'Mel Ravitz. "The Role of the School in the Urban Setting:
Depressed Areas." Paper delivered at Teachers College, Columbia
University, July 2-13, 1962.

33

The primary focus of proponents of the busing solution has been
based in the assumption that de facto segregation along racial lines is
contributory to deterioration of the educational endeavor for the inner
city and suburban child alike. The transfer of children from all-white
Sohcols to all-Negro inner city schools is a common feature of many
large city systems' efforts to upgrade the educational conditions for

the inner city child.
Administrative Rules

At times, the efforts toward desegregation of schools by adminis—
trative fiat have resulted in some rather peculiar reactions. In the
State of Massachusetts the State Legislature decreed by statute that
when any school receiving the State Support Program exceeded a one—to-
one white—to—Colored ratio, immediate steps must be taken to establish
the balance. In a section of the City of Boston there was a school whose
student body was 85 per cent American Chinese with the balance of students
Caucasian. This particular school had an outstanding education program
and placed many of its students in the upper ranges of the National
Merit Scholarship Program. Chinese students are classed as being non-
white and so, by law, a balance was established at 50 per cent Chinese-
American students and 50 per cent Caucasian. This modification was done
over the heated protests of the parents of the Chinese students.

ther cities have resorted to actual change of boundary lines
and the development of new kinds of facilities to establish racial

balance.

uni: .0.
New Peeilltles
~—

 

Certain cities, no:a:ly among them Pittsburgh, Pennsylvaric, have

seen aoan sting many of the inner city nigh school uildi ngs and have

a n .3

concentrated their effcris on building one la: 3 ce:.tral high sch:ol for
3:; cf the chi Hi en who live in the city. Tie school buildings released
from high school service are bei; in some instances, oznverted t:
specie lizeo ufi.o schools. ese schools are staffed with special
teachers and are provided w: th par :icrlar materials and devices to

aSSist in the ehucaticn of the Childrer from the deoressed areas :f -m-

Tue scnool dist ri t of the City of New Ycr has developed a

J

program Cf educa'lz oral parts, patterned after some corcepts developed

by Dr. Max Web er, now school c mmissior -er for the sch-to ls cf Puer.t Rico.

I'-
:3
H.
(a)
h
l-J.
Q
Ho

3 designed to force the involvement of many strata of society,
born colored and white, in a single schc:l complex. Critics of the
educational park state that this educazisual developmezt. designed to
effect do segregation, Becomes ineffective aftc er a p-ricd of two or

1,, '

no So not wish to have their children atten;

a:

three years. ,ne persons

3

such schools, move out of thc affected iistri; or send their children
to a no —public school.

The en ral idea embodied in the educatio.al park has been

(0

00

‘9

expl *red in several eastern cit l 33. Gas rather e ab: rate venture of
rhis nature, wfth the help of funding from a: agency of the For

Fe n1ation—-the Educational Facilities Lab:ratory-—was developed in the

community of E‘st Orange, New Jersey. As at educa -ionale entity, the

East Orange unit is proving to be quite successful. There is some
doubt as to its effectiveness as an agent for social change as far as

integrationIdesegregation is concerned (Plate II).
Elementary and Secondary Education Act

The largest single effort, conceived and developed to enhance
the educational climate for the poor, is the Elemeatary and Secondary
Education Act of 1963 (PL 39—10). Under the various entitlements cf
this act, especially Title I, special provisions have been made for the
Children of the poor, the inner city dweller, the children of the
unemployed and the rural poor of the nation. Title IV of the act, in
particular that aspect of the title dealing with the National Teacher
Corps-a program specific to the problems of teachieg in depressed
school areas-—has been the subject of considerable controversy. Resist-
ance to funding the National Teacher Corps has been the result of the
concern of several members of Congress that such a program w0uld infringe

the right of local control of education.

Head Start

 

0f the many programs authorized and funded by the United States
Office of Education, the siagle one that is best known is the program
called Head Start. The purpose of this program is to educate the pre-
school child in those elements which are considered necessary to his
success in school. In general Head Start Programs seem to be accomplish-

ing this rather well. William Brazziel in writing an assessment of the

program in the Phi Delta Kappan remarks:

 

 

. I‘
/. - / xvi/{141$ 5.. x \ u as:
,7 u l/ \& x \ x

4»/,
, .2ng / . .
3 (i7 \ . . ‘ \A\\\\uwu.\u .<.H .< 8:358 .< .m
..; s . - an vwcmwmwn .Qoma n uuwnonm
xuwm Honouuooavm venomoum

 

3

.H.z .umamuo uwmm
«w; A

              

l

,
\\r\\\\\\x \H‘
§..,
\l . \.\

\ u\

\\A
- .-n» “5‘.hw
1/ . v.51

     

 

 

7%

mitt m2

 

 

History EFCES of the future will recrrd :ne Sixties as the
era was“ Americats tried very hard t: ::e .épe their s h::ls
to make educatio a; rp75: unity more u al. Head Start will
proba ly be recor ed as one of the sc.e:al pr;grams 2hi h
were the cutting edge and wh ich2 el ei p i. it the way l"n this
mammogh, Teart—warming off'rt.

'4'»

U

0
~

In the main, the me my D: ogr:ms extent in e’ucational ar'1 s:cial
areas to upgrade t CCKdltiOLS of the pzor are rem ial in nature. The
six tarust if most programs, excludiag perhaps Head Start, is establishes

13 correct the symptoms or decline at; degenerati:n. Head Start di.f

I'D

g.
3.1.

’-

from mtst other przgrams inismuzh as it is primarily compensatory rs-her

 

for he lack of opportunity. the lac; of ul:ura1 bath round an. the

serves. The primary question is whether the compensatory/supportive

thr st Cf tne program is c.~ ling enough d r: tion 0 achieve lasting

The elements anf programs noted in the proceeding sections at:

paragraphs are thise things which can be c:tsiiered ta he th basic

’3
t l
-4
,1
,

\

l

aspecrs ‘_" -nner city sl m. The h7.srrrical facts s the

a

slum are most evident. pr1grams, both modern anf ancient, formal

and informal, that have been devised over the yzars to attack these
problems have arisen in response to the particular concerns of partiog a:
groups or in iv iduals. ll of tee prcEIems of the inner citv are prese:t

in the area of st dy, ah: Mo coral l~Wilssn area. The application of

 

’5

4W “ O ' V
Ml am Bra zzie-. "Two Yetrs of Head Sta t," rhi De ta dappai.
March lL67, page 344.

38

ust be preceded by an understanding of the study area and an under-
standing of the relevance of the elements of slum formation and neighbor—
hood deterioration leading to slum formation as they are manifested in
the McConnell-Wilson area. The following Chapter and sections deal with

the particulars of the study area.

Summary

The three major thrusts toward alleviating the conditions and
environmental circumstances contributing to the discomfiture of the poor
are: legislative activities, social reforms and education. Each of
these thrusts, by its focus and drive, has caused some significant changes
to occur.

'Each of the thrusts were treated in previous sections as if it
were unilateral and relatively unrelated to the others. This is, in
fact, the case—-not just with the study but in actual operation as well.
Each of the activities categorized has been conceived, developed and
implemented with little reference to the other.

Urban Renewal activities have been generated and operated with
little concern for the impact upon the educational structure. Educational
efforts have been generated, such as the Educational Park/Plaza concept,
with little reference to the habitat of the peeple and their effect on
educational programs. Civil rights activities and other socially fostered
movements have been impelled with an urgency of humanitarianism and often
have neglected to take into account the relevance of the school and the

government in readying people to take a place in a new world.

CHAPTER III

SETTING FOR THE STUDY:
THE WILSON-McCONNELL SCHOOL AREA

CHAPTER III

THE SETTING FOR THE STUDY:
THE WILSONFMCCONNELL SCHOOL AREA

The Area Today

The Wilson-McConnell school Area is made up of 85 blocks and
is pepulated by approximately 7,000 people. The population is approx-
imately 53 per cent American-Negro, 32 per cent white, and 4 per cent
Spanish-American. The majority of employed persons in the area are
hired by the General Motors Corporation, or one of its subsidiaries
located in Pontiac. For the most part the area could be characterized
as a "blue-collar" neighborhood. There are some sections of the com-
munity, particularly those immediately adiacent to the intersection of
Saginaw and South Boulevard, that could be classified as very poor.
(See Figure III)

A survey of the area conducted by the Pontiac City Planning
Commission indicates that 45 per cent of the houses in the study area
could be classified as sound. The houses classified as being in need
of minor repairs and improvements constitute 30 per cent. Those houses
classified as being in need of major repairs and rehabilitation are
15 per cent, and those that are severely dilapidated are 10 per cent
of the total (see Figure IV)-

A personal examination of the area showed that the general

conditions, i.e., city services such as street cleaning, garbage pick

39

40

.
V

A‘Nna v
l-AI’E Q

190/1/77/46

 

Figure III

41

up, police patrol, and zoning code enforcement, are adequate with the
possible exception of zoning code enforcement. There are several examr
ples of houses being modified or recently having been modified for
multiple dwelling. The existence of outside Stairways to second floors
of single family dwellings is a common characteristic of such modifica-
tion.

In several instances, small home-based businesses are in evidence.
These include: patio block manufacturing, beauty salons, reweaving, rug
and carpet cleaning, car repair, and junk collection. These observations
have been verified by Mr. David VanderVeen who represents the City
Manager's Office in the consortium established to develop a project for

the area. His comments may be found in Appendix A of this study.

These changes, multiple occupancy, small home—based businesses,
and expanded service type businesses, were in evidence prior to 1960
but in fewer numbers. The change is presently more evident. The
respondents contacted during the survey taken in conjunction with this
study remarked on these changes.* PrOperty owners, particularly, both
white and colored, were concerned with the changes occuring. Out of
65 respondents, 21 mentioned the change of the neighborhood in context
with some remark concerning the number of children in front of houses
and the gangs of teenage children congregating around the ice cream
stands and corner businesses, such as gas stations and small grocery

stores. The McConnell-Wilson area has changed markedly over the years

 

*See Appendix B for Sample of instrument used and compilation of
data.

42

since its development as a residential neighborhood.
Beginning§_of the_M£Connell-Wilson Residential Area

The sections and blocks treated in the study area were relatively
open country in the early 1920's. There were very few houses and much
of the land was devoted to small truck—gardens or was unused. The
increased development of automobile and truck manufacture caused the
change to occur.

The expansion of the General Motors Pontiac Division and the
General Motors Truck Division brought a rapid influx of people. The
majority of these people came from Detroit, though many of them came
from the Eastern Seaboard manufacturing communities. The persons and
families coming into Pontiac in these early years were of Anglo-Saxon
ancestry. Commonly, the wage earner was a skilled machinist or machine
Operator. There was little available housing for these newcomers.

With the assistance and encouragement of the General Motors
Company, the open tracts and truck farming areas surrounding what is
now the McConnell and Wilson Schools were subdivided into building lots
of forty by one hundred twenty feet. The new area was built up into
residential blocks quite solidly by 1932.

Many families of experienced factory workers moved into Pontiac
from Detroit during the late 1920's. During this same period, a verit-
able migration of Border State and Appalachian State workers to Pontiac
developed. This migration was the result in part of the recruitment
practices of the several large automobile manufacturing companies during

this period. Henry Ford's famous eight hour work day and five dollar

43

per day pay scale attracted thousands of persons into the area of south-
eastern Michigan. Competition for labor made the adoption of Ford's
practices a necessity throughout the automobile industry. The great
influx of persons into the Pontiac area during the 1920's and 1930's
is shown by the population increase of over 50,000 people between the
years of 1910 and 1930. The 1920 census shows a growth of 135 per cent
over the 1910 census figure of 14,532, and the 1930 census shows a growth
of 89.4 per cent over the 1920 figure to achieve a total of 64,923. The
gain from 1940 to 1960 was 24.8 per cent to bring the population to the
1960 total of 82,233. The present population within Pontiac City proper
is estimated at some 89,000 people. The non-white population in 1960
was 17.4 per cent. In 1967 it is estimated to be in excess of 23 per
tent by tho §3§£§ Engagement Index.

During the decade from 1930 to 1940, the population change in
Pontiac was minimal as reflected by the figure 2.6 per cent. This
change was consistent with the diSparity between the birth and death
indices of a population within the age groups typically found in urban,
manufacturing settings. In the decades from 1940 to 1960 the population
surge reflects the situation noted in Chapter II, page 13, of this
study. A great number of the newcomers to Pontiac are Southern Negroes.
Over 54 per cent of the present Negro pOpulation in Pontiac were born
out of the State of Michigan.23

While the southern whites were tolerated by the earlier resi—

dents, they were considered to be inferior workmen by the predominantly

 

23U. 3. Bureau of the Census. U. S. Census of Population: 1960,

Vol. I, Characteristics of the Population. Part 24, Michigan. U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1963.

44

Irish, Welsh, Scottish and English northern workers. These first-
arrived workers advanced to foremen and supervisors, leaving the lower—
paying jobs to the relatively unskilled southern emigrant. The southern
worker was commonly the production line or assembly line worker.

A small area southwest of the McConnell-Wilson areas was
populated by the relatively few Negro families living in Pontiac in the
1920's and 1930's. The greater share of the Negroes were employed as
domestics, porters, and some were sweepers and freight handlers in the
industries.

During the depression years of the late 1920's and early 1930's,
Pontiac remained relatively stable. The reduced work-week was a common
feature during this period. The employed, relatively well-paid factory
workers residing in the McConnell—Wilson area maintained their homes
in the section. Many of the recently emigrated southern whites went
back to their home states.

With the war years of the 1940's, Pontiac again boomed and the
population increased proportionately with the expanded economy. During
this time more Negro families moved into Pontiac. The majority of these

were housed in the southwest area of the community.

Racial Change ig_Residents

 

About 1955, following an upsurge in consumer goods production
and a very high rate of well-paid employment, Negro families began to
move into the McConnell-Wilson area. (See Table I.) The oldline, white
residents, many of whom had built their homes there some forty years

before, began to move and sell to the Negro families. This change in

 

 

46

population characteristics is best illustrated in the fact that 50.4
per cent of the children attending McConnell school and 86.3 per cent of
the children attending Wilson school in the 1966 school year were Negro.
This can be compared to 12.1 per cent Negro students at McConnell ani

15.3 per cent Negro students at Wilson in 1956.*
TABLE I

ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE DATA ON RESIDENCY IN STUDY AREA

 

 

 

McConnell/Wilson

Date of Entrance N W SA Total
Prior to 1955 3 11 14
1955 3 2 5
1956 2 3 5
1957 2 — 2
1959 1 1 2
1959 2 — 1 3
1960 6 - 6
1961 6 — 6
1962 9 - 9
1963 7 - 7
1964 3 - 3
1965 n. 65 — - 0
1966 - - 0
1967 1 - l

45 17 l 63**

 

*Source-officia1, verified School statistics from Human Resources
Proposal as of March, 1967.

**Two respondents had no recollection or estimate.

47

Summa

When viewed from the observations made in preceding pages, the
McConnell—Wilson area exhibits many of the characteristics of a develop-
ing slum. The poPulation density is increasing; the level of city
services, though presently adequate, must wane with the increased pOpu1a~
tion; multiple occupancy is being developed; juvenile crime is on the
increase; prostitution is evident; commercial activities are invading
the area; building deterioration is evident; and last, but not least,
the street congestion is beginning to pose a critical problem as far as
human safety is concerned.

The entrance of the Negro families into the area in such relative-
1y large numbers is an indicated pattern. The quality and ages of the
houses in the neighborhoods are such as to enable the less affluent to
buy them. A recent change in the condition of the Negro working man has
made it possible for him to purchase or rent in the area. The average
house in the area, in fairly good repair, in an all white neighborhood,
would sell for arcund $9,000 at present day market levels. Because of
the Negro influx, panic selling has lowered the prices of many of the
houses by about $1,500. This has placed the houses in the buying range
of persons with relatively low incomes.

Predictably, if the few white householders place their houses
for sale in the future as the deterioration of the neighborhood continues,
the asking prices for those houses will-if they are to be sold at all-
lower to a point below present price levels. Thus the area will become

accessible to yet a lower socio-economic group.

/’9€7§ EC'JHJ
2— an". ,, :-
g-rv.

[ ’oo'. .
4—, ,, . t...
.

6-4b398ound
7— 3O 70 Sound

‘m fT/

 

Figure V
Condition of Dwellings

49

It becomes increasingly apparent that the classical pattern,
delineated in Chapter II, page 13, of this study, is in the formative
stage. The upward-bound, stable, sober family man who moved to the area
to ive his family and himself a better environment will, of necessity,
move again as soon as he is able. It is appropriate to note that thirty
of the sixty-five respondents indicated they were leaving the neighbor—
hood, or were uncertain about staying. Seven of the thirty were white

householders.

50

Some Approaches t Problem Solution

 

 

ne control of the deterioration process in WilsonaMcConnell
area involves the control of many variables. Some of these variables
are within the control province of the City of Pontiac. Some of these
variables are within the control province of the Pontiac School District.
Yet other of these variables are in the control province of the people
of the residential area themselves. Each of these provinces of control
has been traditionally delimited. A sort of "render unto Ceasar...."
limitation of span of control has been established by long years of
unilateral action.

It should be apparent that each of these control provinces deals
with the same people, the same environments, and the same problems.
While it has and continues to be the common practice to say, "That is a
city problem," or, "That is a school problem," or, "That is a police or
social worker problem," each problem.is part of a problem £25. Each of
the problem sets of the area has at least three critical elements.

These elements, varying in intensity in each problem and problem set

are: The People; The Social Pattern; and, the Ecology_g£ Environment.

 

Unilateral action, unilateral responsibility, and unilateral
control, while highly ordered and defined--at least on paper—~and struc—
tured to assure some basic responsibility must, because of sharp limita-
tion, attack only one or two of the elements in each problem or problem

set.

51

Some Critical Elements

 

The problems now existing in the WilsonuMcConnell area are
approaching a crisis level, and individually and in aggregate, have
caused considerable soul searching, solution develOpment, frustration
and anxiety. The aggregate of these problems has caused--and causes to
be maintained--extensive examinations of the traditional institutions
and values and plans and projections to the future. It is obvious at
this writing—-solutions to the problems have not been discovered. It
is also obvious that time is rapidly running out. The luxuries of
leisurely, detached perusal and relaxed academic contemplation cannot
be afforded in this era. The pressore on the society and its institun
tions is reaching a critical stage.

It is the opinion of many that the inner city neighborhood as
a place of habitation is moribund. Some commentators state, "Only a
containment policy supported by intensive dole will prevent social chaos

"24 This is a solution which can

from engulfing the whole society.
control the pressure for, at the longest, a decade; a costly solution
both economically and in terms of human resources, it is true, but
nonetheless a solution.

If one could but isolate a single element of the problem aggre-
gate as being the most significant or the most contributory to the total
problem, the search for the solution would be vastly simplified. Many

agencies and people have stated that if you solve this one thing--

educational inadequacy, de facto segregation, integration, poor housing,

 

24Comment by Dr. Harold Gores, Ford Foundation, in a personal
interview, November, 1966.

inequity in employment or family deterioration——then as a consequence,

a total solution will evolve.
The Synergetic Nature 2§_Elements

The aggregate of problems afflicting this inner city area, taken
at once, constitute a system of interrelated forces. This is a chaotic
system which reacts and interacts within itself so as to cause new
pressures, new problems and new crises to emerge. Exterior to this
problem system, pressures and emergencies of a relatively remote national
or international nature predicate conditions which cause interior changes
to occur. These interior changes combine with already critical situations
and an explosion or degeneration of new intensity, direction or dimension
results. These modifications are often of the nature of a synergism,
wherein the combined effect of discrete actions of two or more individual
elements combine to cause an action which is greater than the sum of
them taken individually.

In the conditions described in preceding sections, inasmuch as
so much of the problem aggregate is in synergistic relationship, single
element modification such as the change g£_educationaljpattern; the
change Eggm gg_facto segregation, or any other like endeavor has on-y
minimal impact and often shows no discernible positive change.

While the problem of attacking and modifying this chaotic aggre-
gate may seem almost impossible, certain critical combinations of elements
within the problem aggregate can be manipulated and may cause a synergism
to occur which will have a positive effect toward ordering, in a bene-

ficial way, useful forces and so help to control the morbidity of the

53

inner city area and to establish an ecology within this inner city area,

thus making it a fit place for the living and growth of pe0ple.

Population Density and Space Use

One of these critical combinations that exists is population

density/space use. It is apparent to even the most casual observer

 

that too many people are living too close together in this inner city
area. It is also apparent that the use of the land is coming to be
related more to some economic aspects than it is to peeple. Often

more than twenty people are crowded into a single family dwelling while
on either side a vacant lot or a burned out shell of another structure
occupies space. An empty store, an abandoned gas station, a deteriorated
warehouse occupies space needed for human living. The result of such
unreasonable land use is to so impact the population living in the

inner city as to, in the words of Justice Douglas, "suffocate the spirit

"25 This

by reducing the people who live there to the status of cattle.
misuse of land is often the resultant of ineffective or unenforced

zoning laws and building ordinances as noted in earlier sections of

this study.
Law Enforcement_and §gcial Services

A second critical combination is the law enforcement/social

services. Police activity in areas of high p0pu1ation density are

primarily ones of apprehension and conviction. Enforcement and crime

prevention are often neglected in the welter of crises and emergencies.

 

w _... -.-

q
A. q . ,
ioc cit. page

54
In some inner city neighborhoods, crime prevention has assumed an almost
ritualistic configuration. The writer's unpublished paper on the topic
of the police role in the inner city neighborhood states:

The commonly held view of those engaged in police work, with
very few exceptions, limits the role of the police officer to
the control of anti-social persons in our society. The term
anti-social is used here with intent. Few officers look upon
their role as one of defining what constitutes anti-social
behavior or what an anti—social individual is.

Definition of what is an anti-social act, or who is an anti—
social person, is left to those elements of the society-the
courts and/or city hall-dwho employ or relate to the officer
in some control position. This observation is stated quite
plainly in those writings dealing with the role the officer
is to play such as; training manuals, handbooks, and execu-
tive directives.

In practice, however, whether intentfully or not, most officers
exhibit a tendency to view with suspicion certain classes of
people as being prone to being anti—social or disruptive.

Even when pripg facie evidence of criminal misconduct is

lacking, rousting or controlled harassment, is viewed as part
of crime prevention.

This tendency to be judgemental before the fact....is offi-
cially decried.

It is the prejudgemental dimension of the police relationship

which causes much of the discord, particularly with the

racially different or the culturally different in our society.26

Due to different philosophical commitments, social agencies often find
themselves working at cross purposes with the police. Areas of com-
paratively high population density and disorientation require the kind
of personalization of police operations that is characteristic of social
agencies. One of the ways this personalization can be obtained is
through close interdepartmentalizaticn of the social agencies with the

police force.

 

26Robert J. Marsh. "Modification of the Police Officer's Role
in Inner City Neighborhoods." Developed in conjunction with Dr. Orden
Smucker, Michigan State University, January, 1967. Unpublished,
available in mimeograph.

55

Lack 2; Political Structure_and Remoteness

 

The lack 2; political structure of the population coupled with

a feeling of remoteness from "City Hall" creates a situation in which

 

a sense of helplessness begets anxiety, which begets hostility, which
results in overreaction--often of a violent nature on the part of the
community and its people. As there develops a feeling against and a

lack of identity with the community, there is little sense of responsi-
bility or concern generated for the destiny of the community. An actual
pattern of involvement might be structured so as to give the people a
voice in the community—civil pattern. Through this involvement, decisions
made in the city councils might often have more relevance and application
to each individual area and reflect that area's unique or different

problems.
Educational Pattern and Value Systep;

The feeling, often not unjustified, that there is little valid~
ity in the educational system as far as the needs and wants of the inner
city population are concerned causes a conflict synergism-~commonly
dySfunctional—dwithin the education pattern/value systgppsgggggggg.

This conflict is not a confrontation of disparate goals but is
rather a marked difference of perception as to the mode of goal achieve-
ment. Quite apart from the polemics so current in present discussions
concerning middle class values, the goals of the American citizet--
whether white or colored, rich or poor--are remarkably congruent. These

goals are not only obtaining irreducible needs but, as the more affluent

U1
Ox

society grows, material wants become goals. While the nature of these
wants is not such as to make them reprehensible or subject to scorn,
their relative inaccessibility to some of the population makes the modes
or values, necessary to the attainment of those wants, become suspect.
Thus, educational patterns which are preceived by the relatively afflu-
ent, upward mobile society to be essential are often rejected or
repudiated. As a consequence, the inner city student, since he is
generally influenced by the milieu it which he lives, may find little
validity in education. Therefore, he may often cooperate only in

token fashion with the educational pattern.

The curriculum, climate, personnel, techniques, standards and
materials of the inner city school are dictated by an agency which
relates to the entire city. This agency, the central office, attempts
to translate into educational programs the goal attainment prerequisites
of the total society. The.result of such generalized planning and
policy establishment, based upon criteria which may have relevance only
within the stable economically sufficient area of the school commurity,
is to place almost insurmountable barriers to full educational attain—
ment in the way of the children of tne poor.

To be gainfully employed, to be socially acceptable, to be
regarded as a worthy member of a community, each person is required to
manifest certain characteristics. He must have achieved to a certain
educational level; he must hold certain attitudes; he must behave in
conformance to a set of values and traditions. All of these things are
often lumped together in what are called middle—class values. Without

a cataclysmic change in our trtal soci;—ecrnomic system and ethical

57

commitment, the required academic achievement levels, the required
attitudinal postures, the required affective behavior patterns of present
day American life will obtain for several generations as.£hg goal
attainment prerequisites.

The problem of assisting, if not requiring, the inner city
student to ascribe to the goal attainment prerequisites is twofold.
The two facets of this problem are: first, to demonstrate painstakingly
the relative rigidity of the goal attainment prerequisite structure in
a meaningful fashion to the children and parents of the inner city;
and second, to provide a reasonable and coherent system for the acquir-
ing of that structure. This latter aspect of the problem is most
difficult. This reasonable and coherent system can be erected only by
those who know the child most intimately and know the problems of that

child in the society.

Summary

The foregoing paragraphs represent an attempt to define some
of the control factors in the ecology of the city. Many other critical
areas of a synergistic nature exist within the ecology which are not
treated in this study. The elements herein noted are those which are
most evident. Dealing with these elements in a systematic fashion can

cause ositive interaction to revent social and material de eneration.
P

58

U)

tazement of Hypotheses

 

 

The problem of dealing with the critical elements as delineated
in the immediately preceding section in an articulated, systematic
fashion is compounded by the sharply defined lines of demarcation be
between the agencies that must interrelate their activities if the
program is to accomplish its goals. The validity of certain hypotheses
is a critical condition to goal accomplishment. Three major hypotheses
were developed for examination in this study. These hypotheses are:

l. A significant number of organizations will indicate their
willingness to work together for the benefit of the commun—
ity in a joint city-school sponsored program.

2. Diverse agencies can be so interrelated and structured

as to implement a program leading to community modifica—
tion and that such a procedure can be outlined, detailed
and communicated.

3. Federal agencies, state agencies and local government
agencies, business and industrial organizations, and

philanthropic foundations will support a program leading
to community modification.

Examination of flypotheses

 

To examine the validity of these hypotheses a series of actions
were developed and implemented. The first of these was to establish
with several significant groups the basic idea of control.2£ SEE ecology
through_cooperative planning and action. The concept of control of the
ecology was divided into two distinct but interrelated realms of action,
the Human Resources Center Concept, nd the General Neighborhood
Rehabilitation Program. This division was based on the idea that

though many groups and agencies should be involved in the planning

59

process, the leadership and areas of critical decision rested in the
hands of the Pontiac School Board and the Pontiac City Council. For
purposes of clarity and simplicity of communication to general audiences,
the entire concept was communicated under the title of the Human
Resources Center. (The total interrelated concept is more accurately

called The Residential Enclave.)

 

After consultation with personnel of Michigan State University,
the School District asked the City Council, through the offices of the
Superintendent of Schools, to appoint a member of the City's staff to
help communicate the idea of the program to the people of the area.

The City Manager appointed a member of his staff as co-director of the
initial phase of the program to work with the school district's appointee.
A coordinated and mutually designed media for communicating with the
public was organized. Using this pattern of communication the two
representatives Spoke to and discussed with many groups in the community
details of the aspects of the program. (A detailed listing of the

groups contacted may be found in Appendix C of this study.)

A second action taken to test hypotheses was the deve10pment
of a schedule of patterns and actions to lead into and regulate the
overall planning and implementation of the concept. This schedule of

patterns was developed using techniques common to systems analysis.

 

Time aspects of the schedules were developed using the techniques of
PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) and a modification of
the CPM (Critical Path Method). Details of these techniques are treated

. . n 2 .
by O'Neal and Clayton in the Systems En ireering handbook, 7 by O'Brien

 

 

2.7"“ -
Robert E. MachoJ. (Editor) System4quineering_Handbook.
(MoGraw—Hill Book Company, New York, 1965) Section 36-5.

60

V

in flit}. Construction Mai-.aggnent,ln and by Boguslaw in The New
Utopian .29

A third action taken to test hypotheses was the establishment
of liaison and a series of meetings with various federal, state, and
philanthropic funding agencies, with the intent of enlisting the
support of these agencies. These meetings and resulting discussions
were conducted throughout the deve10pment of the program plan.

Results of these examinations are treated in detail in Chapter

IV Cf this Study.

 

 

 

 

 

28 . .
3 me; J. O'Brien. CSM in C;EPtIU“ii”n Mn agemvfit: Scheduling
by tre 3:. :21 Path Me‘h i. {Mcfixameill Rook Compaiy, New York, 1965)
29

Robert Boguslaw, The New Utopians. (Prentice Hall, Englewcod
Cliffs, New Jersey, 1966).

CHAPTER IV

THE COOPERATIVE PLAN FOR THE
CONTROL OF DETERIORATION

61

CHAPTER IV

5E COOPERATIVE PLAN FOR THE
CONTROL OF DETERIORATION

Objectives

One objective of the plan is to interrelate the activities of
many significant agencies so that a combination of forces may be brought
to bear on the factors leading to deterioration of the McConnell-Wilson
area in Pontiac, Michigan.

A second objective is to establish the foundation for further
action to establish a program of ecological maintenance for the McConnell~

Wilson area.
Rationale

The rationale for this plan has been treated in considerable
detail in other sections of this study. In brief, the underlying
rationale is that preventive action against deterioration taken at this
time, gig; cognizance of the nature of; factors leadmgsdgerioration,
can accomplish more than can programs of a compensatory or remedial

nature taken after total deterioration has become a fact.
Structure

Because of the complexity of the problem and the far-reaching

effects of the actions taken, the program has been divided into the

62

following three phases:
Phase I. Communication and enlistment of support.

Phase II. Intensive study and programming of action.

Phase III. Implementation and Operation of the program.
ktails of: Phase I

At the request of Dr. Dana P. Whitmer, Pontiac Superintendent
of Schools, the writer prepared a basic task analysis for the coopera-
tive plan. This task analysis has served to generate the overall
control pattern for the program, and delineates in broad and general
terms certain basic elements of the program.* (See Figure VI.)

Phases II and III are not dealt with in this study; the inclu-
sion of them in the overall systems diagram is not essential for
clarity.

Upon the conclusion and acceptance of the task analysis, a
time dimension was established which was related to the terminal date
of Phase I, July 1, 1967. Definition in detailed form prepared by
Dr. Whitmer's office may be found in Appendix D of this study.

With the assistance of personnel from the Mott Institute for
Community Improvement at Michigan State University, a meeting was held

to review the basic rationale for the development of the Residential

 

*A.note about the interpretation of the Task Analysis diagram
is in order. This type of diagram has tWO major functions: the first
is to show the sequential pattern of tasks and is based on a logic
pattern. This logic pattern is most rigorous and controls the sequence
of action. The second is to demonstrate logical lines of review and
check. These lines are deve10ped quite arbitrarily and are directly
related to the structures and spans of control of the organizations
involved.

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Enclave. Upzn the general approval of the group, made up of members
of the School of Social Work, the Department of Siciology, the Institute
for Community Development, the School if Urban Planning an; Landscape
Architecture, and members of the College of Education, the decision was
made to implemert and organize the planning process in line with the
sys tems plan .

Immedia;e steps were taken to appoint a working :c-director
from the City and a working co-director frcm the School. Throughout
the planning and the communication steps, these individuals held bi—
monthly meetings to review programs and to develop changes therein as
indicated by their contacts in the community. Coincicent with these
activities, resoluticrs were passed by many of the organizations that
were contacted endorsing the Human Reso"rces Concept, a term and name
which was used to simplify understandings about the total idea. (It
should not be inferred that there was any attempt or intent on the part
of any of the groups involved in communiCLtion t; mislead the a diences.
The basic need for an easily unders:o;d term that cc Id be easily
communicated was met by the use of the :erm_flgmar Resources Cente£_in

lieu of the term Residential Enclave.)

 

The exact procedures as o.tlined in the task analysis were
followed throughout the succeeding months and proposals for the estab-
lishment of Ease II were prepared ant presented to the appropriate
agencies. For the Human Resources Cente, the propcsal has been submit-
ted to the United States Office of Education under the provisions of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 79-10), Title III.

‘1

lie General Neighborhood Rehabilitation Project prepared by the cit

65

of Pontiac, has been submitted to the United States Department of
Housing and Urban Development, as a special project under the general
provisions of the Urban Renewal Act (P.L. 87-70). Each of these
proposals was developed with the cooperation of the co—directors and
an interrelationship of goals. Each of the proposals is basically
independent; however, since the programs are so closely interrelated,

details of each program are an essential part of both proposals.

 

Description of the Proposed Human Resources Center

The Human Resources Center is envisioned to be a rather elabor-
ate campus type Educational Park. It will serve to house, for educar
tion, some two thousand elementary school pupils from the McConnell-
Wilson area. Certain pupils now attending Central Elementary School
will also be included in the attendance area of the Center. In addition,
the Center is envisioned by the School District as serving the continu-
ing education needs for some seven thousand adults in the area. This
latter figure is very conservative as the Center with sophisticated
programming will serve almost two times that figure. (A brief summary
of the Human Resources Center prepared by Mr. VanKoughnett may be found
in Appendix E.)

The site for the Center has been selected with the cooperation
of the City Government. This site will contain approximately thirty
acres. Detailed location of this site is noted in Figure VII. In the
development and modification of the proposed site for the Center, several
blocks of rather deteriorated housing will be condemned and razed.

Sanford Street (see Figure VII) 11 be closed at Whittemore and Wall

66

Streets. This closing of Sanford, classed at the present time, as a
secondary artery and heavily traveled by trucks, will cause much traffic
to la diverted to the East and West of the site of the Center. The
immediate result of the closing and blocking of Sanford will much relieve
the congestion in the area. The razing of the already deteriorated
houses for the site of the Center will be a step to eliminate some of
the already existing blight. It becomes obvious that the razing of
these old, deteriorated dwellings and the reduction of multiple dwel-
lings in single family homes will misplaCe and leave homeless a number
of families. There is already a low-cost housing project in Pontiac
which can be exp.nded to serve as temporary housing for residents
misplaced by the project.

Since Citv Ordinances limit the development of certain busi-
nesses within prescribed limits of adjacency to educational facilities,
certain taverns that are it the area will be forced to move. (The
laws imposed by the City in the matter of location of bars falls under
the Control of Nuisance provisions of the City Charter and Statutes
and not under the provisions of the Zoning Code.) Inasmuch as the
location of a bar may be restricted by provision of the License Board,
the relocation of those Lars in the WilsonnMcConnell area is very
doubtful.

In addition to its educational function, the Center will serve
as the location of many other offices. Among these are: the Oakland
County Department of Health, the Family Services Bureau, the Police
Precinct serving the area, and certain other social and civil agencies

such as the Michigan State Employment Security Commission. It is

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Figure VII

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68

believed that the physical proximity of these agencies will be of benefit
to the residents of the area and that su:h proximity will do much to
enhance cooperation between these agencies.

Certain cultural facilities are envisioned in the Center; among
these are a Civic Auditorium, a small theatre and other recreational

facilities for children and adults.

Details of the general Neighborhood gehabilitation Project

 

Under the provisions of the Urban Renewal Act (P.L. 87-70), the
sponsor of such a program must guarantee to the Federal Government that
existing zoning laws will be enforced. These guarantees are not mere
tokens but definite programs of building code and zoning code enforce-
ment are prerequisites for the operational funds for the program.

In addition to enforcing the already existing laws and of a
consequence the elimination by due process of law of the violations
already existing, funds will be appropriated by the City to assist
persons in the neighborhood to bring their housing up to standards.
Certain vacant land or unused areas will be converted to single family
dwelling sites, and certain subsidies of a public or private nature
will be established to help build low cost, adequate housing for the
persons diapossessed bv enforcement of the restrictions against multiple
occupancy.

The City Government has indicated that it plans to increase
the level of municipal service in the area. Garbage pick-up schedules

will be revised and the area will have high priority for street repair

69

and maintenance. The City Council has resolved to enter into a study
of police practices to better serve the area.

In general the Neighborhood Rehabilitation Project encompasses
the total upgrading of the physical environment of the neighborhood
and the continued maintenance of a high level of service and control to
prevent deterioration. The combination of these two forces, the Human
Resources Center and the Municipal Rehabilitation Program, seem to have
the potential for the establishment of a residential enclave. a controlled
ecology for the growth and health of the people of the McConnell and

W1 ls on area.

CHAPTER v _

DEMONSTRATION 0F VALIDITY OF HYPOTHESES,
CONCLUSIONS AND PROGNOSES

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u

 

 

7O

CI-LAP TER V

DEMONSTRATION 0F VALIDITY OF HYPOTHESES,
CONCLUSIONS AND PROGNOSES

Proofs __o_§ Hypotheses

 

The first hypothesis noted in Chapter III of this study is:
A significant number of ogagizations will indicate their willingness
to work together for the benefit of the community. Attesting to the
validitv of this hypothesis is the fact that nineteen significant
organizations in the City of Pontiac have indicated, in writing. their
intention to work in Phase II of the program. They have been working
in Phase I. (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People has indicated its willingness to work in the program. The
letter from this group has been drafted but is not included due to the
organization's meeting for approval being held the first week in July,
195 7.) True copies of these letters may be found in Appendix F of
this study.

The second hypothesis of this study is: Diversejggncies can
be so interrelated and structured as to implement airoggam leadinug
communitz modification and thatfl a procedure can be outlined,
detailed and communicated. The close cooperative interrelationship of

the City and the School Board can be attested to by the very fact of
the joint appointmnt of co-direetors of the Phase I element of the

arc/gram. The two representatives worked together in the presentation

" -Jaxn . ‘M.
'

 

-!

 

71

of the program to the various audiences in the community and the State

and National Governments. Proof of this portion of the hypothesis can

be found in the resolutions passed by the Board of Education and the

City Council. Further proof of this aspect of the hypothesis is

manifested in the inclusion of the details of the General Neighborhood

Llabilitation Program in the proposal for the Human Resources Center.
The o:::tlining and detailing aspect of the hypothesis may be

vicyed as valid in that the task analysis, developed at the inception.

of the program, has governed its progress and that deadlines for action,

indicated in the analysis, have been met (Figure VIM

The third hypothesis has been proved as valid in part. That

hypothesis states: Federal agencies, State agencies,,business and

industrial organizations,4and philanthropic foundations will support
apprggrangeading to community modification. To date, though state

and federal agencies have indicated considerable interest and given
indications of a high possibility for support. the only tangible evidence
of support of the program has been a grant from a philanthropic organi-

zation, the Mott Institute for Community Improvement, in the amount of

ten thousand dollars ($10,00C) to support Phase I of the program.
Proof of this support may be found in a true copy of the Memorandum of

Agreement between the School District and the Mott Institute (Appendix G).

Conclusions

01). the'basis of data collected during the survey phase of the

program, conversations with residents of the area, and with persons
engaged in the program, and the overall cooperative spirit manifested

 

72

by residents and officials, it appears that the methods outlined and

developed hold considerable promise for the eventual control of deteri-

oration in the McCOnnell—Wilson area. The major conclusion growing

out of this study is that the school can and must interrelate its
efforts with those of the other agencies of the commity if a meaning-

ful program of community improvement is to be successful. Education

cannot flourish in an area in which social and environmental conditions

are chaotic. Only by cooperative effort on the part of the school,

the city government and the social agencies can an ecology be maintained

wherein the benefits of education can accrue to the people of the inner

city.

The deuemphasizing of the racial aSpects of the program by the
definition of the basic assumptions seems to have allayed the fear of
many of the Negro leaders and Negro members of the community that the

program was a containment effort directed against the Negro and designed

to perpetuate de facto segregation

Prognosis

While further development of the program and movement into

Phases II and III are dependent upon Federal funding, certain benefits

have already accrued to the people of the area. The people have been

made aware of the consequences of some of the developments such as
multiple occupancy. intrusion of businesses into a residential neighbor-

hood, and the need for communication and community articulation with

the school district and the city government.

 

Out of these first efforts at cooperative action has grown a
greauw:understatding of the interrelated nature of the inner city
whidisfimmld work for the betterment of all of the people in the area.

Significantly, though this program has not as yet entered into

 

true operational aspects-—this will be in Phase III-people in the city
government and in the school district already are envisioning that this
kind of develOpment may be the shape of the future in Pontiac, and that

this kind of development may be replicated throughout the city and its ,7.

suburbs.
Implications for Future Studies and Research

As mentioned in Chapter II of this study, the excessive rate

of student turnover constitutes a very real problem for schools in

inner city areas. A most valuable service could be rendered by a

study leading to a program to minimize the dysfunctional effect of

this turnover on the educative process. [2.1

A second area that would lend itself to further study is the i

amplification of tie school's supportive role for the inner city 3‘
P

student so as to compensate for the certain social conditions that he

faces because of his race.

Summmu

 

The residential enclave is no panacea for the ills of the inner
city; IIt is a method of control of the deterioration which is caused
by'xnnialityg indifference and loss of human dignity. The residential

enclave cannot change the mind of the person who would move to the suburbs

74

becamnahe does not wish to live in the same neighborhood with a Negro,

exSpmHSh-American, a Jew, an Italian. or a Catholic. It can hold in

the anuithat person and his family who would move out of the area

because of crime in the streets, unsafe conditions, low levels of

umnicipal services or a less than adequate school system.

It should be borne in mind that poverty-—economic poverty-~in

our society places the individual and his family in a condition wherein

they become vulnerable to exploitation. It is the obligation of those

in leadership positions to help the poor to escape from this condition

of vulnerability. "The Lord helps him that helps himself," is a most

pious concept. It would seem to be the obligation of the society to

help_him who cannot help_himself.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

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Maclver, R. M. ed. The Assault on Poverty: An Individual Responsi-
bility. New York: The Institute for Religious and Social
Studies, 1965.

May, Edgar. The Wasted Americans. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

Marquis, Stewart D. A Bibliogrgphy on Systems. East Lansing, Michigan:
Institute for Community Development, Continuing Education Service,
Michigan State University, March 1966.

McGeoch, Dorothy M. Learning to Teach in Urbpp Schools. New York:
Columbia University, Teachers College, 1965.

MCKee, James B. Changing Patterns of Race and Housing: A Toledo
Study. Reprint from Social Forces, Vol. 41, No. 3, March 1963.
East Lansing, Michigan: Institute for Community Development,
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McKee, James B. Communipy Power and Strategies in Race Relations:
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tute for Community Development and Services, Continuing Education
Service, Michigan State University.

93

McMonagle, J. Carl & Hotaling, Robert B. The Impact of Highyay Trans-
portation on Regional and Community Development. East Lansing,
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Meier, Richard L. A Communications Theory of Urban Growth. Massa-
chusetts: MIT Press, 1962.

Meier, Richard L. & Duke, Richard D. GamingSimglation for Urban
Planning. Reprint from AIP Journal, January 1966. East Lansing
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Moore, G. Alexander Jr. Urban School Days. New York: Hunter College,
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Parker, Seymour & Kleiner, Robert J. Mental Illness in the Urban
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I
«‘5'; (H _5 4:7 Sr

 

81

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APPENDICES

 

til 1:11.342} .r!
I

The City of Pontiac's Relating to the Development of
a Human Resources Center

An important part of the proposed Human Resources Center includes the
redevelopment of a system of sound and vibrant residential neighbor-
hoods.

From a physical condition standpoint, the following applies to the
area served by Central, McConnell and Wilson Elementary Schools. This
section of Pontiac is a part of the city's older development; plotting
dates back to the 1860's, with most of the housing constructed in the
early 1900's, 1920's and 1930's. Many problems have developed with
the aging of the area. The irregular shape and smallness of size of
some of the lots has rendered them unusable.

Although the bulk of the housing was high quality at its time of
construction, a gradual decline in housekeeping and failure to keep
pace with contemporary codes for health and safety has resulted in
umny and frequent substandard dwellings.

There also is evidence of a large amount of residential overcrowding.
Frequently, two, three, and in some cases four families appear to have
squeezed into structures built for single families, but have not had
proper structural alterations to house more than one family.

From an environmental standpoint, the residents are being encroached
upon by incompatible uses of land-such as dry cleaning establishments
and cement manufacturing plants. These businesses and industries
generate considerable heavy truck traffic on streets which were designed
for residences, and seek parking facilities where none exist.

There also is evidence of widespread neglect in neighborhood upkeep,
which is demonstrated by untidy, dirty yards and the frequency of
junked automobiles.

When added together, these characteristics point to a need for social
and physical renewal. To determine the type and extent of physical
renewal which should be applied, the conducting of a General Neighbor-
hood Renewal Plan (GNRP) is proposed by the city staff.

The GNRP is a preliminary plan which outlines the urban renewal activi-
ties pr0posed for the GNRP area. The document provides a framework for
the preparation of urban renewal plans. The plan is financed through
the Federal Government's Department of Housing and Urban Development,
which contributes two-thirds of the cost. The remaining one-third is

82

83

paid by the city. The city administrative staff is in the process of
preparing a GNRP application and hopes to be able to submit it to the
Department of Housing and Urban Development sometime during July 1967.
If approved by the Federal Government, the detailed preparation of a
GNRP would extend over approximately eighteen months. The result would
be a plan which would delineate specific urban renewal projects, esti—
mate the menpower and finances involved, program when the various
projects would begin and end, and include an application for the first
project. In short, the GNRP programs and outlines the city's activities
in working with the residents of the area involved toward comprehensive
neighborhood renewal. Both the City and the School District recognize
that the development of human resources and programs serving the needs
of people are shared by various governmental agencies and should be
conducted in partnership. The activities of the city's General Neigh-
borhood Renewal Plan, therefore, are proposed to be conducted in
conjunction with programs carried out by the School District for this
area.

Another important step in developing human resources in partnership
concerns the actual development of a Human Resources Center Campus.

In addition to school actitities on a large site proposed in the area,
the city is seriously considering the development of a Community Center.
This would take the form of a building designed to accommodate city
recreation and activities, library facilities, health activities, youth
assistance activities, and other related functions which would work
with the School District in serving needs of people in this area.

Along with the preparation of a GNRP, the city proposes programs

which can be housed in the Human Resorces Center.

Prepared by:
J. David VanderVeen, Study Director
Human Resources Center - City
June 12, 1967

84

Sample Questionnaire with Compiled Data

Questionnaire:

 

Items to be completed by the interviewer.

 

 

1. Street and number

2. Type of dwelling SF _5_7_ MF __5__ APT _2__ COMER__1_

3. Ethnic Element AN £6 WA/s 11 SA _2__ 0TH __

4. Condition of Dwell S 3.1: MIN D __8_ Maj D __8_ D11 __5__

5. Date and Time of Int Day Mo am
. Dm

Gain from Respondent:

6. Sex M _2_Z_ F _3_§

7. Approx. or Actual Age. 20-25 _§__ 25-30._l2 30-40.2£

40-50<_ll SO-older.pi_

8. Number of years in present loc. See Table I

9. Previous loc. Pont. 13 Det. 9 Mich. 8 Other 30
Abbrev.

10. Employed Yes 30 No 8 HSWF 23 Ret. 4
11. Number of Children in School
12. Own 47 Rent 11 Visiting 7

 

13. Staying 35 Going 9 Uncertain 21

Do you KNOW of the plans for this area? Yes 42 No 23

Where did you hear about the plans? Paper 6 PTA 21
Conversations 15 Radio/TV Other

Who started the idea? School 31 City 10 US Gov 1 Other

What do you think about the idea? For 31 Anti 3 Indif. 8
How do you like the area? Good 21 Fair 41 Poor 3
What things do you think could be improved?*‘

schools 50 Houses 20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Police 18 Alleys 3O
Streets 35 Other
Lights 19
City Services
What about the level of taxes? Too high 16 OK 49

 

*This aspect of the survey has little validity. Most respondents were
prompted by the interviewer by mentioning these items when the respond-
ent did not volunteer information.

00
U1

The Human Resources Center concept has been presented to the following

groups and organizations:

Webster P.T.A.

Parent Executive Committee

Frost P.T.A.

City Departments

Wiener P.T.A.

Citizens Steering Committee

Franklin P.T.A.

McConnell P.T.A.

Wilson P.T.A.

Bagley P.T.A.

Bagley P.T.A.

Teachers Steering Committee

Eastern P.T.A.

Central Elementary P.T.A.

Republican Women's Club

P.T.A. Executive Committee

Whittier P.T.A.

Whitfield P.T.A.

McCarroll P.T.A.

Exchange Club

Alcott P.T.A.

Wiener P.T.A.

Twain P.T.A.

West Side Kiwanis

Soroptismists

High 12 Club

Civitan

Lions

Rotary

P.T.A. Council

Educational Facilities Laboratory, Ford Foundation

United States Department cf Housing and Urban
Develtpment

Community Development Institute cf Michigan State
University

Vational Association for the Advancement of Colored
PeOple

Urban League

Department of Public Education, Michigan

Mott Institute for Community Improvement

Draft Copy:

86

Plans to be followed in the Development of the
"Educational Park Concept."

1. Development of Community Support and Understanding.

1.1

Feb. 23, Mar. 24

April 26

May 4
May 11
June 29

August 2

August

August

1.2

Aug. 24 or
Sept. 14

Sept. 21 or 28

1.3

October 1

Prior to Official Decision to Proceed.

1.1.1 Contacts with Mott Institute for Community
Improvement

1.1.2 Contacts with Educational Facilities
Laboratory

1.1.3 Contacts with Publisher of Pontiac Press.
1.1.4 Contacts with the Mayor and City Manager.
1.1.5 Contacts with G.M. Plant City Committee.

1.1.6 Joint Board of Education-City Commission
Discussion Meeting.

1.1.7 Contacts with AFL-CIO Council - (Rgsolution)

1.1.8 Consideration by PSDCCHRrwith recommendation
to the Board of Education - (Resolution)

Official Action to Endorse Concept and Proceed.

1.2.1 Resolution by Board of Education
Accompanied by rationale or reason.
Emphasis on the community c00peration
idea.
Endorsement of concept and authorization
to proceed.

 

1.2.2 _Resolution by City Commission
Accompanied by rationale or reason.
Cooperative project of City and Schools-
in appropriate ways.
Endorsement of concept.

Following Official Announcement and Decision to
Proceed.

1.3.1 Develop a printed brochure that explains the
idea—-in simple formr-graphs or pictures. Use
this brochure in contacts with individuals
and groups.

October

I!

H

87
1.3.2 P.T.A.'s at McConnell, Central, Wilson
(Resolution)
1.3.3 Present to the P.T.A. Council.

1.3.4 NAACP Education Committee (Resolution)

 

1.3.5 Urban League Education Committee (Resolution)

 

1.3.6 Chamber of Commerce Board (Resolution)
1.3.7 Pontiac Pastors Association (Resolution)

1.3.8 Ministerial Alliance (Resolution)

 

1.3.9 Service Clubs, Community Clubs and Groups.

1.3.10 Community Councils associated with the O.E.O.
Programs.

1.3.11 Real Estate Board.

1.3.12 A series of explanatory articles in the
PONTIAC PRESS

1.3.13 Public Service Feature - WPON.

Rationale or Reasons Included in Resolutions by the
Board of Education and City Commission.

2.1

to
O
N

2.3

Concept of need to plan for the "development of
human resources" just as we now plan for land use,
zoning, streets, water, sewer, etc.

Need for enriched educational programs-10nger day,
year round schools-recreation, cultural. Human
development.

Need for educational, recreational, cultural, social
opportunities, outlets for out—of—school youth and
adults. Life long Opportunities. Personal human
development.

To reinforce 2.2 and 2.3 above-i11ustrated with
the community-school concept and McConnell Program.

Stimulate and maintain a stable, attractive resi-
dential community.

The way of the future in public education.
To assume larger tasks and roles.
Illustrate by expanding Federal Programs.

November 1

December 1
to June 1

88

2.7 Find a term such as
"Community Institute"
"Community Educational Center"
"Educational Park"

2.8 Describe what it would be.

Steps in Planning.

3.1 Get endorsements of community organizations as
indicated in Item 1.

3.2 Meet with representatives of E.F.L. with this
evidence and request a planning grant.

3.2.1 Consider bringing-representatives of E.F.L.
to Pontiac where they could meet with the
Board, Commission, and other groups--for the
purpose of convincing them that there is a
dynamic, general support for the idea.

3.3 Employ a Planning_Director. Provide office space,
materials, secretarial service, etc.

 

3.4 The Planning Director would engage in activities
such as

3.4.1 Developing a community self-survey--using
area residents to gather data, identify needs
and ambitions of residents for their commun—
ity, etc.

3.4.2 Work with planning consultants-such as Geer
and Associates-~in land use surveys, zoning,
location of educational park, streets, utility
services, costs.

3.4.3 Work with school district personnel in area
of educational Specifications for the
facility.

3.4.4 Investigate and follow through on possible
Federally funded programs, foundation grants,

etc.

3.4.5 Prepare a written document, or several docu-
ments from the planning process.

a) A master plan for area.

b) Location of educational facility.

89

c) Specifications-site and buildings.

d) Financing

e) Etc.
Begin 4. Implement as rapidly as possible.
June 1,
1967

DPW
8—4-66

HUMAN RESOURCES CENTER

Introduction

An American city should be the best place in which to live. A city can
provide for all human needs-homes, residential areas, jobs, food,
clothing, education, recreation, social expression, cultural enrichment,
churches, and a vast array of services to people. Yet, the people of
America worry about the future of their cities. Some say that cities
are sick, that they have no future. Many Americans flee from the cities
to establish residence outside of the city. Many people feel that the
city cannot or does not offer people the kind of life that is good--
attractive residential areas, security, stability, rich educational
programs, opportunities for recreation, personal help when it is needed,
or cultural advantages. In brief, many people find that cities just do
not provide people the environment in which there is stimulation of and
Opportunity for Ehg_fu11 development of human resources, the most

prized asset of the city.

A detailed discussion of the needs, objectives, procedures and planning
of the Human Resources Center in Pontiac, Michigan. will be discussed
in the narrative section of this application. However, it is felt a
brief overview is needed before the application is reviewed.

The Human Resources Center as now envisioned in the Pontiac Schools
would encompass the attendance areas of four to six present elementary
schools. From an educational standpoint, these schools would be com-
bined in a one campus facility utilizing new planning in the physical
structure, in the educational program and technology. and the elementary
school grade level organization. From a neighborhood standpoint, it
would utilize planning at the city level to maintain and improve the
physical structure of the neighborhood through city resources and a
General Neighborhood Renewal Planning grant. From a service standpoint,
it would include localizing the present services available to children
and adults from the School District resources, the city resources, the
county resources, and the state resources.

Therefore, to accomplish this, we are actually studying a three-fold
attack on the needs of a neighborhood community. 1) Through the public
schools and nearby universities the educational needs of all peOple in

91

the neighborhood will be met plus an improved regular elementary school
day program and the extension of the community school concept as visioned
by the Flint Community School Program. 2) The living conditions within
the neighborhood will be studied by existing city departments and through
various federal programs financed under the Department of Housing and
Urban Development. 3) The combination and focal point of all service
agencies in the area whose major goal is to assist people in obtaining
and maintaining the basic necessities for family life and self-improve—
ment will be explored. Attachments show interest and commitment from
departments and agencies representing the three areas mentioned above.

T'I'ACHMEN TS

CITY OF PONTIAC, MICHIGAN

CITY MALL

September 22, 1966

Dr. Dana P. Whitmer
Pontiac Board of Education
350 Wide Track Drive, East
Pontiac, Michigan

Attached is copy of Resolution adepted by the Pontiac City Commission
at a meeting held Tuesday, September 20, 1966, relative to the developm
ment of a Human Resources Center in the southeast quadrant of the City
of Pontiac.

Very truly vours,

Olga Barkeley
City Clerk

OB/fs 4

September 14, 1966

MEMORANDUM.0F AGREEMENT: between the Mott Institute for Community
Improvement of Michigan State University and the Pontiac Board of
Education.

1. The Pontiac Board of Education agrees to employ a Planning
Director to develop planning and procedures concerning the
Human Resources Center Concept, which extends and intensifies
the Community School Concept.

1.1

1.2

It is agreed that this person shall be selected by and
contracted with the Pontiac Board of Education.

It is agreed the tenure of the individual so employed
will be at the discretion of the Board.

2. The Mott Institute for Community Improvement Michigan State
University agrees to pay to the Pontiac Board the sum of
$10,000 to help to defer the costs of employing such a Planning
Director.

2.1

 

9/12/66

9/16166

9 19 66

Payment will be made to the Pontiac Board of Education by
the Michigan State University Business Office on the receipt
of notification of employment of a Planning Director as
noted in paragraph 1. Such notification shall be submitted
to the Mott Institute for Community Improvement by the
Superintendent of the Pontiac Public Schools as authorized
by the Board of Education.

Signature

William B. Hawley
Director, Mott Institute for Community Improvement

Dana P° Whitmer
Superintendent, Pontiac Board of Education

Philip J. Mayp
Business Office, Michigan State University

SAINT FREDERICK SCHOOL

May 30, 1967

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett,

Thank you for explaining the recent developments of the program
for the Human Resource Center to be built in the eastside of Pontiac.

Knowing that a proposal such as this necessitates much planning,
I realize how important it is for us to cooperate in the preliminary
stages.

Since Sister Annette will be here next year, I have explained the
plan to her and have encouraged her to follow its development closely.

We are extremely interested in it and will be happy to participate
in a study of the school community in this area.

In case you wish to contact Sister. her address is:

Sister Annette
St. Francis de Sales
15379 Pinehurst Ave.
Detroit, Mich. 48238
Tel. no. UN l-6969

Re: Title I program for 1967—68

At this time we anticipate a continuance of the same program we
have had in 1966-67. However, if there is difficulty in finding a
teacher, etc., an alternate proposal of having a librarian is enclosed.
If additional funds are available, we would like this program to be
implemented also.

We will concur with whatever adjustments have to be made in our
absence during these summer months.

Sincerely,

(Signed) Sister Jane Therese
Grade School Principal

RESOLUTION
Adopted by the Board of Education
School District of the City of Pontiac
August 24, 1966

Moved by Marshall, supported by Anderson, that the following resolution
be adopted:

BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED THAT
The Board of Education of the School District of the City of Pontiac

(1) Endorse the concept of the Human Resources Center for development
of the McConnell School area as part of a total development plan
for the southeast quadrant of the city, and

(2) Invite the City Commission of the Citv of Pontiac to join with
the Board in a coordinated planning and development project as
outlined in this proposal,

(3) Proceed with apprOpriate pre-planning in cooperation with other
groups and agencies within the city at the state and federal
level, and

(4) Direct the administration to pursue plans for implementation
of this resolution.

ST. TRINITY EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH AND SCHOOL

June 5. 1967

Mr. B. Van Koughnett
Pontiac Board of Education
Community Action Programs
9 Victory Court

Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. Van Koughnett:

We, the staff of St. Trinity Lutheran School, are aware of the Human
Resource Concept. You may include us in future studies relative to
this concept.

Sincerely,

Herman Schmidt
Principal

RESOLUTION
Adopted by the Pontiac Citv Commission
September 20, 1966

"By Comm. Marshall, supported by Comm. Fowler, Whereas, the Pontiac
Board of Education has endorsed the concept of a Human Resources
Center for the development in the McConnell School area as part of
the total development plan for the southeast quadrant of the City;
and

Whereas, this project would provide facilities for enriched and
extended educational programs for students, out-of—school youths
and_adults; and

Whereas, citizens of the MCConnell School have demonstrated their
interest in the construction of a new building which would be
designed to accommodate a community school program as well as a
regular day school program by presenting a petition signed by 256
area residents with the Board of Education on April 27. 1966; and

Whereas, this Commission believes that a Human Resources Center is
needed in the above area to provide facilities whereby public and
private agency services to the people may be coordinated and centered
for the people living in the area and to promote stable, racially
integrated residential areas;

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that this Commission hereby endorses the
Human Resources Center, a concept initiated by the Pontiac Board of
Education and agrees to jointly sponsor the development of said
concept with said School Board;

Be It Further Resolved, that a pre—planning study grant be requested
from the Mott Institute for Community Improvement to be used in
defraying the cost of the initial study for said project."

May 29, 1967

Mr. B. C. VanKOUgh-flelit
11 Victory Court
Pontiac, Michigan 4205;

Dear Sir:
As President of the McConnell P.T.A. and a member of the MbConnell

Community, I was delighted with the successful parent involvement in
the feasibility study of the Human Resources Center.

The study points out a great need for a new school and additional
services to best serve the children in our community.

The present plans are well organized and being implemented as soon
as possible, I hope.

Our community is willing to become involved in future planning of a
Human Resources Center.

Mr. VanKoughnett, please remember, our children come first in every-
thing, so keep us abreast of all future plans.

Sincerely yours,

Mrs. Frank Benion
263 So. Paddock St.
Pontiac, Michigan 4805:

June 1, 1967
435 Irwin St.
Pontiac, Michigan

Mr. B. C. VanKoughnett
and Associates

Dear Sirs:

I am writing in regard to the initial study of the New Human
Resources Center. I have attended several steering committee meetings
and others and feel that I have gained a much greater insight of the
problems and their solutions as you have proposed.

We at Wilson feel that it will be a great uplifting of the whole
community if the Center can become a realization. Therefore, I hOpe
we can be included in the In—depth Study as much as possible.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Roderick E. Hoover
President of P.T.A. (1967-64)
Wilson Elementary School

163 West Rundell
Pontiac, Michigan
June 1, 1967

Mr. B. C. VanKoughnett
Director-Community Action Programs
11 Victory Court

Pontiac, Michigan 48058

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

In getting Council affairs settled for the end of school year, I
noticed we had failed to inform your department of action we had

taken this year regarding the Human Resource Center. At the
January 10, 1967, meeting of the Pontiac Council of Parent-Teacher
Associations, the following resolution was passed:

The Pontiac Council of Parent-Teacher Associations endorses the study
of a Human Resource Center.

Sincerely yours,

Lucille Goines, President
Pontiac Council of Parent-Teacher Associations

CITY OF PONTIAC, MICHIGAN

CITY HALL

April 21, 1967

Mr. J. D. VanderVeen
Co-director for Planning
Human Resources Center

Dear Mr. VanderVeen:

This department is most interested in working with those responsible
for the development of the Human Resources Concept proposed for the
southeast section of the City of Pontiac.

It is my belief that major sections of the City can only be renewed
when all of the agencies representing government and social services
work together to solve the physical, social and economic conditions
which contribute to blight in a particular area. This department

is ready to spend whatever time is necessary to deve10p and carry
out plans which will ultimately lead to the development of the

area presently being considered to be served the Human Resources
Center.

Sincerely,

James L. Bates, Director
Planning and Urban Renewal

JLB /bb

CITY OF PONTIAC, MICHIGAN
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

CITY HALL

April 19, 1967

Mr. J. D. VanderVeen
Co-Director of Planning
Human Resources Center
City Hall

Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. VanderVeen:

We wish to offer our endorsement of the human resources center
concept proposed and presently being planned to serve the area in the
southeast quarter of the city.

Such a concept, designed for a broad range of community uses could
further the coordination of existing programs serving the public and
act as a physical stabilizing influence in the surrounding residential
area.

Health services specifically may be augmented and made more readily
available to potential users of such services and an improved understand-
ing of environmental health is a significant factor affecting individual,
family and community health promoted.

Very truly yours,

Charles S. Cohen,
City Sanitarian.

CSC/ef

CITY OF PONTIAC, MICHIGAN

CITY HALL

April 18, 1967

J. D. Vanderveen
Co-Director

Human Resource Center
City of Pontiac
Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. Vanderveen:

May I take this Opportunity to express our interest and whole-
hearted endorsement of the proposed Human Resource Complex for the
City of Pontiac and the School District of Pontiac.

The Youth Assistance Department will cooperate in every feasible
way in offering coordinated social services to the children and parents

residing in the complex area.

The concept of Human Resource Center for education and social
services is certainly a needed addition both for culture and education.

Sincerely,

GEORGE P. CARONIS
Coordinator

GPC/jb

OAKLAND COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

March 23, 1967

Mr. B. C. Van Konghnett
Director

Community Action Programs
9 Victory Court

Pontiac, Michigan

I was greatly impressed with your presentation and ideas for a resources
center for the City of Pontiac. The area under consideration has been
an area of concern for this Department. Our studies have shown a very
high incidence of health problems, particularly tuberculosis, venereal
disease, low immunization, and poor housing. Our present health
services in Pontiac are inadequate and poorly coordinated.

I would heartily endorse a feasibility study aimed towards improving
all services, including public health, for the people of this community.

Sincerely,

BERNARD D. BERMAN, M.D., DIRECTOR
OAKLAND COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

BDB/mu

OAKLAND COUNTY
COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES BOARD

June 1, 1967

Mr. B. C. VanKoughnett, Director
Co-munity Action Program

9 Victory Court

Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

As a result of our meeting in March in which we discussed your concept
of a Human Resource Center, I am pleased to inform you that such a
program as described by you is both provocative and stimulating to the
mind.

The initial steps taken seem sound and have great potential. I commend
you on your efforts so far, along with the far sightedness of your
sponsors.

As we discussed at our meeting, either I, or my representative, would
like to be involved in the planning for the second step of this

proposal.

Sincerely,

R. E. WALDEN, M.D.
Psychiatric Director

REW3ged

OAKLAND COUNTY
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

March 17, l967

Mr. B. C. VanKoughnett, Director
Community Action Program

9 Victory Court

Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

It was with considerable interest that we learned of the proposed
Human Resources Center for the City of Pontiac and appreciated very
much the effort you put forth to inform us in some depth of its
objectives and the planned procedure. The objective is laudable and
so much in consonance with that of this Department that we will be
glad to assist within the limits permitted by the various applicable
statutes and regulations.

In a material way I can see that such a location might well be USBd
as a location for an office similar to the Contact Offices which the
Veterans' Administration found so helpful at one time. This could
easily include general counseling, of course. Because of the many
problems, this might have to be on a part time basis, but some possi-
bilities are seen in the future for such a service.

After integration into the State, the Department will then be active
in the following public assistance fields, at least:

Aid to the Disabled (AD)
Aid to the Blind (AB)
Old Age Assistance (0AA)
Emergency Relief
General/Direct Relief
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (ADC)
" " " Unemployed Parent (ADC—U)
Cuban Refugee
Hospitalization ( Title XVIII, Title XIX, and Adult
Hospitalization)
Nursing Home Care (under above or as Direct Relief or other
category)

Thank you again for taking the time to inform us in your endeavor.

Very truly yours.

“A
kb D. H. Hoard

FAMILY SERVICE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

April 13, L967

Dr. Dana P. Whitmer, Supt.
Pontiac City Schools

350 Wide Track Drive, East
Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Dr. Whitmer:

I have been meaning to write you for some time concerning the develop-
ment of the Human Resources Center on which you have been working and

giving such outstanding leadership. The article in the Pontiac Press

last evening reminded me again of my earlier intentions.

In the article there was some mention of using existing services. I
wanted you to know that when the time comes in which you would like
the cooperation of this agency, we stand more than ready to learn more
about what is going on and to evaluate in what way we can be of help.

I think your concept is an exciting one and is a very positive step
forward. Therefore if I can be of any help. I will be glad to hear
from the school district.

Sincerely yours,

Robert J. James
Executive Director

RJJzMHB

MOTT CENTER FOR COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
AT
OAKLAND UNIVERSITY

May 26, 1967

Mr. B. C. VanKoughnett, Director
Federal Programs

Pontiac Schdol District

350 East Wide Track Drive
Pontiac, Michigan

Dear mr. VanKoughnett:

It is with intense interest that I have followed your progress in
planning for Pontiac's proposed Human Resources Center. The concept
certainly has far-reaching implications for the implementation of

the "community approach" to education and can only enhance your already
successful efforts toward total community involvement in the educational
process.

Oakland University, having been intensely involved in Pontiac's
Community School efforts, is anxious to lend its support in any way
it can to the initiation and successful fulfillment of your goal-
A Community-oriented Human Resources School Center. What Pontiac
has already accomplished places its schools in a position to evolve
a truly innovative and exemplary project based on sound experience

and foresignted leadership.
Congratulations on your fine progess and success in your future plans.

Sincerely,

David J. Doherty
Director

DJD:mkb

OAKLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

April 26, 1967

Mr. B. C. Van Koughnett

Director of Community Action Programs
350 Wide Track Drive

Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. Van Koughnett:
The Community Services Division of Oakland Community College concurs
in your belief that a Human Resources Center would be beneficial to

the Pontiac area. It is a pleasure for us to add our endorsement
to your proposal.

Very truly yours,

Walter J. Fightmaster
Director - Community Services

WJF/fc

CHIGAN ST TE UNIVERSITY

MSU Teacher Education Center
Oakland Elementary Intern Program
MSU Regional Office

Rochester, Michigan

May 31, 1967

B. C. VanKoughnett, Director
Community Action Programs
Pontiac Public Schools

350 Wide Track Drive, East
Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

As you know, Michigan State University has been in partnership
with the Pontiac Schools for eleven years in providing student teaching
experiences for MSU students. Beginning next fall, we have formed a
new partnership in the Elementary Intern Program in addition to our
regular program. In this program our students will be spending much
more time in real teaching experiences in the Pontiac Schools. We
expect to have them participate in school activities during the junior
year when they will be taking teaching methods courses right here in
Oakland County. They will then be assigned regular teaching stations
during the internship year in Pontiac Schools.

Upon hearing about your proposed educational park incorporating
three or more elementary schools and the learning resources center,
I couldn't help but think this would be an excellent learning experi-
ence for our prospective teachers in training. We are constantly
looking for innovative ideas in teaching children so that our potential
teachers might experience some of these activities in their trainingo

We are also cooperating with Oakland Community College in the
Elementary Intern Program. Their graduates will be our prime source
of transfer students, and they expect to enroll 4000 students this
coming year. We expect to have some of these in our continuing program
to prepare elementary teachers. I am sure that experiences at a learn—
ing resources center as you are proposing would be many and varied
for our students.

I am most anxious to cooperate with you in any way you see fit 5:
that we can utilize the educational park to the greatest for any and
all experiences that would improve teaching nuality in our future
teachers. I would be happy to provide any additional information
concerning our program at your request.

Very sincerely yours,
R. D. Trautmann, Director

MSU Oakland Teacher Education Center
T/p Elementary Intern Program (E.I.P.)

OAKLAND COUNTY COMMISSION ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

June 5, 1967

Mr. B. C. VanKoughnett, Director
Human Resources Center

Pontiac City Schools

350 Wide Track Drive, East
Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

The Oakland County Commission on Economic Opportunity is vitally
interested in the concept of a concentration of resources, both educa-
tional, social, and municipal in a target area. We would appreciate
continuation of our current involvement in the study program by the
Pontiac Schools.

We further wish to indicate by this letter our desire to be
formally included in the future study plans of the Human Resource

Center in Pontiac.

Sincerely yours,

James M, McNeely
Executive-Director

JM/sp

SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE CITY OF PONTIAC

CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

May 31, 1967

My dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

The Central Elementary Staff has participated in the Feasibility
Study of a Proposed Human Resources Center to include Wilson, McConnell
and Central Schools.

We have met as a School Staff. as representatives to an Educator's
Steering Committee and as Members of the Parent Teachers Association
during the 1966-67 school year.

If the study is to continue, we wish to participate.

Respectfully,

(Signed) Marion B. Hinkley

May 31, 1967

Mr. B. C. VanKoughnett, Directur
Community Action Programs

11 Victory Court

Pontiac, Michigan 48058

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

As members of the Study Group for the Human Resource Complex, many
pertinent ideas were studied, pursued, and discussed. Some implications
were:

1. A special emphasis on self-image will affect curriculum.

2. A Community-Schnol (en toto) concept necessitates a
different approach to elementary school organization.

Since the concept has already been accepted and the feasibility of
the program ascertained, it is vital that an in—depth study be

conducted.

We at McConnell are greatly interested in this next phase and would
like to be an integral part of the planning committee in the future.

Yours truly,

MCConuell Commurity School Staff
Howard M. Caldwell, Principal

JOHN P. WILSOQ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

B. C. VanKoughnett

School District, City of Pontiac
9 Victory Court

Pontiac, Michigan

Dear Mr. VanKoughnett:

The staff of the Wils:n School has participated in the prelimirary
planning of the proposed Human Resources Center i: several ways. Two
teachers and myself attended two halfmday sessions to discuss the
proposal from the staff's viewpoint. The results of these meetings,
plus other meetings I attended, were discussed with the staff as a
whole at our staff meetings and their opinions were aired. Both Dr.
Whitmer and you talked with the teachers in special staff meetings on
this topic and solicited their comments. Three staff members also
attended various night meetings at the Board of Eiucation building on
this topic. Because of this much contact, I feel the staff has a good

working knowledge of the planning to date.
The staff does have some unanswered questions, and therefore
very definitely wants to be closely involved in the proposed inudepth

study.

incerely,

(Signed) Lavid E. Crawford

"’illiilllllllllES