The Political Interest

By Michael Kramer

Politicians do penance in places like Harlem and the South Bronx. They tour and deplore and promise, and very little ever changes. Last week it was Bill Clinton's turn. At a church in Harlem across the street from an abandoned building and down the block from a crack house, the master of empathy was strangely subdued. Perhaps because so much of his agenda is perceived of as dead or dying, the staple of such appearances, a litany of Administration accomplishments, was largely truncated. There was a bit of boasting ("We've done more in 20 months than anybody has in a month of Sundays"), but Clinton's overall tone was plaintive. "One of the things I ran for President about," he said, setting a rather minimalist goal for an activist leader, "was just to get us to face our problems again . . . and go to work on them instead of just talking about them all the time."

Given his muted remarks, Clinton seemed hardly aware that some in Harlem are already beginning to feel the effects of his presidency, a definite, substantive change in direction as, however incrementally, Clinton refocuses government spending and moves to implement proposals that have languished for decades.

Along Harlem's main thoroughfare, 125th Street, business is booming, a function of indigenous forces mostly but of Clinton's policies as well. The vacancy rate for commercial property is less than 2%, and space is renting for more than $30 per sq. ft., about the same as in midtown Manhattan, an astounding surge. New stores will soon dot the cross streets, and nearby housing units are being rehabilitated. The private investment responsible for most of this growth is following rising incomes and the return of better-off families. Perhaps most important is the anticipated designation of the area as one of the nation's first six empowerment zones. "EZs," as they are known, are the latest incarnation of an old idea formerly called enterprise zones. What Clinton's added to the notion beyond tax incentives for businesses is a panoply of social services (day care and job training being the most prominent) designed to produce a work force capable of staffing the enterprises likely to be attracted by the tax breaks. After the Harlem-South Bronx EZ is formally approved later this year, the Federal Government will pour $100 million into the area, an amount New York City and State will match. Added to the total $300 million will be about $70 million in low-interest loans from Fleet Bank. "Only some corporations see the opportunities available," says Fleet's James Murphy. "Others will wake up before long and leverage the thing further. Harlem's coming back, and the EZ deserves a lot of the credit."

Coming back and being back are different, of course. Harlem's depression is still staggering. Single female-headed households account for 63% of all households with children. Forty-two percent of the population has an income below the poverty line. Black men living in Harlem are less likely to reach age 65 than men in Bangladesh. The murder rate for males nationally is 10.2 per 100,000 people; in Harlem it's over 100. The area's infant-mortality rate is 60% higher than that of New York City as a whole and can be attributed largely to alcohol and drug abuse by expectant mothers.

Some of this horror will be alleviated by Clinton's crime bill; more cops | will walk Harlem's streets. Increased Head Start slots are coming too, along with new antidrug programs and additional dollars for day care. Above all, the newly expanded earned-income tax credit, a Clinton triumph, will lift about 54,000 working-poor families out of poverty. When fully implemented, about $100 million in new credits will come back to Harlem, and most of that money will be spent right there.

Public education, in trouble everywhere and in crisis throughout New York City, is worse in Harlem, where union rules ensure that the least competent teachers are assigned. As a result, barely 40% of students are performing at or above grade levels. At Junior High School 43, which is fairly representative, class size averages more than 30 students, discipline is hit or miss, books are scandalously lacking and there aren't even enough chairs to go around. Like airlines that overbook, the school counts on absentees. When "too many" students miraculously show up, teachers negotiate among themselves for chairs. Most of this tragedy is due to local budget cuts. One promising program is Teach for America, which trains eager, idealistic college graduates to serve in the nation's most distressed regions. By including Teach for America in his National Service plan (which already has 20,000 Americorps volunteers, more than the Peace Corps ever had), Clinton will add teachers to the classrooms of Harlem. If he wins his fight to redistribute $11 billion in federal education aid according to need, those classrooms will get more money too.

Jimmy Carter first visited what will soon be the Harlem-South Bronx EZ in 1977. Ronald Reagan toured the same streets in 1980, declaring he'd seen nothing "that looked like this since London after the blitz." Neither delivered more than rhetoric. Clinton has pledged the least, but at least he's delivering something.

With reporting by Lina Lofaro/New York