Neighborhood Policy Options The Reagan Agenda: Fid-Bau Portal

Neighborhood Policy Options The Reagan Agenda

Clarke, Susan E.

Although neither articulated a clear, coherent neighborhood policy, presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan both came into office advocating neighborhood revitalization and increased neighborhood self-sufficiency as key elements of their urban policies. These common policy goals and shared vocabulary prompt two basic questions: How do the Carter and Reagan administration's policies toward neighborhoods differ? And are the differences important? This article uses three criteria to describe the Reagan administration's neighborhood policy and compare it to that of the Carter administration—the level of public spending on neighborhood-level activities, the process used to allocate assistance, and the mechanisms used to implement policy goals. Comparing budgetary appropriations shows that the Reagan administration's cuts in spending on spatially targeted programs and withdrawal of direct funding of neighborhood groups are major changes from Carter policies. The increasing use of tax expenditures and the reliance on market forces to achieve neighborhood policy goals, however, appear to have more significant political consequences for neighborhood groups.