New York: Incitement to Excellence

• Share

(9 of 10)

"No Tool." Lindsay's major assignment was on the Judiciary Committee, where he compiled a solid record. He helped draft the 1964 civil rights bill, then labored as one of its four floor managers to get it passed. He was also a major force in getting the 1965 voting rights bill approved. Lindsay backed Indiana's Charles Halleck last January in his losing battle against Michigan's Gerry Ford to retain the House minority leader's post, hoping to strike a bargain that would open the way to key positions for his brand of liberal Republicans. Nevertheless, Ford has high respect for him. "He is a good advocate, a good lawyer," says Ford. "He was not just a tool of the extreme civil rights people. In any area where John would participate, he was knowledgeable and effective."

His effectiveness was particularly evident midway through his mayoral campaign, when he came out with a batch of well-researched—if occasionally uto-pian-sounding—"White Papers" defining his proposals for "the City of Tomorrow." It was not clear where all the money would come from, but his ideas mostly made sense. Among them:

-CRIME. To counter the city's never-ending crime—a theft every three minutes, an assault every twelve, a rape every six hours, a murder every 14—' Lindsay proposed to enlarge the police force and build a "massive mobile patrol system" by doubling the number of patrol cars; a squad car would patrol each block in high-crime areas every two minutes.

-NARCOTICS. He urged 24-hour surveillance of every known pusher, earlier identification of teen-age users, community clinics for those seeking advice, a city hospital exclusively for addicts.

-HOUSING. To aid the more than 1,000,000 New Yorkers who live in rotting tenements outlawed more than 70 years ago, Lindsay proposed creation of a new Department of Housing Maintenance to put teeth in the housing codes, and advocated a "vast community-improvement program" that would take advantage of available federal funds to boost middle-income apartment construction and slow the flight of middle-income families to the suburbs.

-TRAFFIC. To speed subway travel, he proposed construction of several new lines, triple-tracking, and staggered working hours for New Yorkers. As for auto traffic, he suggested expansion of cross-town express routes, priority lanes for busses and trucks, more municipal parking facilities, and relocation of the city's cargo docks so that freight-laden trucks would no longer burden Manhattan streets.

-CITY FINANCES. A five-point program that included Pentagon-style cost-analysis techniques, bold tax revision, and expansion of the city's economy to create 200,000 new jobs and thus broaden the tax base.