REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION RODNEY E. SLATER
LEDROIT PARK TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNITY AND SYSTEM PRESERVATION PILOT PROGRAM GRANT ANNOUNCEMENTS
MARCH 17, 2000
WASHINGTON, D.C.Good morning. On behalf of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, I am delighted to join you this morning to announce a $500,000 federal grant to assist in the revitalization effort for the historic LeDroit Park.
The Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot Program, known as the TCSP program, created by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, gives state and local officials the opportunity to use transportation funds to build more livable communities. And with today’s announcement we are making LeDroit Park a more livable community.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to being good neighbors to the District of Columbia. The President, when he first arrived in Washington, toured Georgia Avenue and made a commitment to renew our Capital City, to make it the finest place to live, to learn, to work. Today’s announcement reflects the strength of that commitment and ensures that our nation’s Capital has the needed tools to reach even higher heights and dream even bigger dreams in this new century and new millennium.
Today’s TCSP grant will help restore Anna Cooper Circle, named for one of LeDroit Park’s early residents, to its former glory. Ms. Cooper, a former slave and a graduate of Oberlin College, understood the power of education. She founded Freylinghuysen University to provide educational opportunities for working blacks unable to attend school during the day.
The Anna Cooper Circle revitalization project fits well with President Patrick Swygert and Howard University’s planned renaissance for LeDroit Park. Howard’s LeDroit Park Initiative, in partnership with the Fannie Mae Foundation, is restoring this neighborhood to the days when poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, civil rights activist, Mary Church Terrell, General Benjamin O. Davis, and other legendary figures of the African American community called this neighborhood home.
A revitalized LeDroit Park will not only help the neighborhood, it will help the city by energizing Mayor Anthony Williams’ campaign to encourage the 24 million tourists who visit our nation’s capital every year to look beyond the Mall. He wants visitors to walk neighborhood streets, to dine on U Street, to visit the Lincoln Theater and the many other historic sites that can be discovered off the beaten path.
Let me take a moment to thank an array of supporters who come out early and often on behalf of LeDroit Park. The people who stayed the course, the people who had the courage to imagine a future for LeDroit Park, the people who are committed to the survival of this grand neighborhood and are here today to witness its rebirth, the people who call LeDroit Park home.
Mrs. Teresa Brown, Founder, LeDroit Park Historic Preservation Society
Mrs. Arlene Patrom, VP, LeDroit Park Historic Preservation Society
Ms. Geneva Perry, LeDroit Park Historic Preservation Society
Mr. Lawrence Guyot, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner
Mr Nik Eams, Chair, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner
Mr. David Corry, President, LeDroit Park Civic Association
Mrs. Anita Rice, Past President, LeDroit Park Civic Association
In addition to the $500,000 grant for Anna Cooper Circle, we are announcing over $435,000 to help ease congestion on Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the region’s major transportation corridors. That’s a total of nearly $1 million in TSCP grants for livable communities in the District of Columbia.
Today, across the nation, we are releasing more than $31 million in TCSP grants for livable communities. Nearly $4 million of that will stay right here in the Metropolitan Washington Region for communities in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to making America’s communities more livable by preserving green space, easing traffic congestion and employing smart growth strategies. In partnership with the people of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, we can help protect the region’s environment while continuing to grow the area economy.
More importantly, and I will close on this, is that we all remember why we are here today -- why we are making this announcement: it is for people.
I have said many times that transportation is about so much more than concrete asphalt and steel. It is about providing opportunity for all. Our real product is not highways, or airplanes, or cars. Our real product is getting people to school, to work, to health care -- to connect people to all the opportunities available to them.
So let this be the challenge: to do all we can to give all Americans the chance to live their dreams -- to reach even higher heights in this new century and new millennium, for I know our best is yet to come.
# # # #