Urban Policy Revisited—Issues Resurface with a New Urgency

In 1969, U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then Director of President Nixon's Urban Affairs Council, began a new national process of looking at the urbanization of the United States. This process was confirmed in the Urban Policy Reports required of the President under the 1977 Housing and Community Development Act. President Carter's two reports (1978 and 1980) detailed specific national initiatives to deal with urban problems. President Reagan's reports (1982, 1984, 1986, and 1988) sublimated urban issues under macro economic and fiscal strategies. In 1988, complex urban issues identified by Moynihan are resurfacing with a new urgency, building demand for revitalized federal initiatives.