National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C.            Vol. 32, No. 12 * June 26, 2000

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All-America Cities Mirror Civic U.S.A.

By Neal R. Peirce

Washington Post Writers Group

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(Neal Peirce is a syndicated columnist who writes about local government issues. His columns do not reflect the opinion of County News or NACo.)

A tumultuous scene of banners, placards and bands. A crowd of cheering delegates. Suspense, decision and then an outpouring of emotion.

No, this isn’t a political convention. It’s the final session of the All-America City Awards, the nation’s premier contest to identify and honor top examples of civic action.

It happened in Louisville June 3. Some 2,400 activists and civic supporters from 30 finalist communities packed the hall as the 10 All-America Cities for 2000 were announced.

Rarely is such a cross-section of America seen in one place – from little kids to seniors, whites to blacks to Hispanics to Asians and Native Americans. All were cheering and hugging, many in tears, as Jury Foreman Dorothy Ridings, president of the Council on Foundations, announced winners from Worcester, Mass., to Clinton, Mo., Lancaster, Pa., to the twinned cities of Fargo, N.D. and Moorhead, Minn.

The famed pollster George Gallup, who served a quarter century as foreman of the All-American City awards jury, told me one could “trace the whole history of this country’s civic improvements” from the yearly competitions. Last week I got to serve on the 51st All-American Cities jury and found he’s still right.

The pressing issue of the ’40s, for example, was government reform. In the ’70s, it was resurgent neighborhoods. Today one finds civic America busily focusing on programs for youth – creating safe places, courses, career chances for the emerging generation that today’s national and state politics largely ignores.

A second priority: multi-culturalism, making polyglot America function at the grass roots.

Coming on fast is regionalism – strategies to break down the rigid lines that hinder unified action by neighboring cities, towns and counties.

Take the Lower Naugatuck Valley – seven southern Connecticut towns now combining their energies on health initiatives, brownfield cleanups, anti-crime projects and sharing leads for recruiting firms.

Last June the towns opened a joint $4.5 million Boys and Girls Club, paid for by PTA penny drives, kids’ car washes, bake sales, business donations, town and state funds and a $1 million bond issue. Four hundred children come daily for games, tutoring, a gym, homework and computer rooms. Area schools send busloads; a van goes from town to town scooping up kids.

That’s remarkable collaboration for New England, where towns have historically shown stony indifference to each other. Delirious joy erupted among delegates from the seven towns – Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton – as their All-America City award was announced. “We’ve had an inferiority complex,” said Bill Bowanda, vice president of Griffin Community Hospital. “Now this seven-town region has put that to bed forever.”

A new face for America’s big suburban counties is emerging in Montgomery County, Md., traditionally an affluent bedroom area for Washington, D.C. Montgomery’s stronger than ever economically, generating most of its own jobs.

But it’s bursting with so many immigrants that one of four residents was born outside the United States. Natives of 185 countries speak 125 languages.

So Montgomery has set up a Language Bank composed of volunteers who serve as on-call translators. Fluent in 33 languages, they help immigrants who need help with medical care, legal advice, social service applications, even locating housing.

The Language Bank impressed the jurors as a model for increasingly multicultural communities nationwide. So did Montgomery’s BROTHERS program of mentoring and education for minority and at-risk males who often fall victim to negative peer pressure to join street gangs or use drugs. BROTHERS has a simple design: College students mentor high school youth, who in turn mentor middle school and elementary children.

Ingenuity marks the All-American Cities and runners-up too. Clinton, Mo., tackled its biggest killer – cardiovascular disease – with a center featuring fitness training, nutrition, weight control and counseling to stop smoking. Appropriately adjacent: Clinton’s new rails-to-trails walking path.

The post-World War II town of Park Forest, Ill., boldly demolished its dilapidated retail mall and is creating a full Main Street center with shops, stores and new housing. Gastonia, N.C., boasts of Unity Place – “a parable of art’n’heaven” – an historic church building that now houses the town’s United Arts Council’s shows and performances plus regular services for St. Stephens AME Zion Church.

What virtually every All-American City demonstrates is boundary crossing – citizen activists, local governments, nonprofits, businesses assuming a kind of collective responsibility. Such partnerships may not be easy. But civic America seems to believe that in today’s world there’s no other choice.