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Bush seeks to improve urban areas
By PETER WALLSTEN © St. Petersburg Times, published August 12, 1998
His stop in St. Petersburg followed a visit to Tallahassee's Frenchtown neighborhood. "We want to engage each and every urban core resident to be part of the solution," Bush said, standing with supporters there. "We want to create citizens of community, not clients of bureaucracy." Bush's plan calls for 20 "Front Porch Communities" -- yet to be named -- which would be the focus of the state's revitalization efforts. He would establish an Office of Urban Opportunity in the governor's office to coordinate efforts and help communities find resources. The state would provide loans for economic development, business tax breaks and housing assistance. Government also would coordinate more assistance by churches and other community groups. Bush, who lost the governor's race four years ago on a platform of limiting government, acknowledged his Front Porch Florida plan is not a typical Republican initiative. It would cost at least $20-million its first year, $8-million a year thereafter plus $5-million more for scholarships. "I think it's a wise investment," he said. During his appearances Tuesday in Tallahassee and St. Petersburg, Bush was flanked by black activists from all of the state's major urban areas. That support was the result of Bush's outreach to Florida's African-American voters. In 1994, Gov. Lawton Chiles won 95 percent of the black vote. This year, opinion polls show Bush winning support from as many as one in five black voters -- a total that would be devastating to the campaign of Democratic Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay. Since 1994, Bush has devoted much of his time to learning about Florida's inner cities. He worked with the Urban League of Greater Miami to open a charter school in Liberty City, and in recent months has toured schools and community centers. "Mr. Bush has shown his interest in making things happen, and the African-American community in particular needs more action and less talk," said the Rev. Manuel Sykes, pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. The MacKay campaign suggested Bush was not taking the right approach. MacKay spokeswoman Michelle Kucera said inner cities would be helped the most by "putting education first," the catch-phrase for the education plan MacKay announced Tuesday. "It looks like the first thing (Bush) is talking about is creating a large bureaucracy and throwing more money at it," Kucera said. The Bush plan would build on several programs that already exist in state government. For example, he would give more money to the Black Business Investment Board and Black Business Investment Corporations, which try to steer business to black-owned businesses. He would boost their $2-million budget to $7-million next year. The state already has a network of "enterprise zones," including those in distressed parts of St. Petersburg and Tampa, that offer tax breaks for corporations to locate there. But Bush said the biggest concern he has heard from inner-city residents is that government tries to fix problems without consulting them. Under Bush's plan, residents and leaders in the 20 communities would help shape their own "action plans." The program would offer $50-million in corporate income tax breaks over 10 years for developers of low-income rental housing. It would create a $5-million loan fund to start-up businesses. Bush's plan also would promote home ownership by directing cities to help residents fix up, rent and eventually own foreclosed or abandoned homes. Bush's education plan, released last week came under criticism for its approach of rewarding high-achieving schools and punishing the struggling ones. But his urban initiative would send financial awards to teachers and administrators who manage to improve their urban schools. Borrowing an idea from Texas, where Bush's brother George W. Bush is governor, Bush wants to give college scholarships to the top 10 percent of urban high school graduates -- even if they don't have the grades or test scores to qualify for the existing Bright Futures Scholarships. Bush also wants to get churches and other community groups involved by funding a mentor program for needy kids. Churches would be encouraged to "adopt" a welfare family. In many respects, the Front Porch Florida plan resembles the urban initiative that has been under way in St. Petersburg since 1996 civil disturbances, local officials said. "I think it's a great piece of work," said Doug Tuthill, who has worked on the St. Petersburg plan through the University of South Florida. "It's taken all the lessons that we've learned over the last two
years in St. Petersburg and packed them in a statewide initiative."
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T. PETERSBURG -- Visiting a neighborhood where racial violence
erupted two years ago, Republican Jeb Bush on Tuesday proposed
a "front porch" approach to improving life in Florida's troubled
inner cities.
