REMARKS BY AL GORE
                       THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF
                       ARCHITECTS

                       I am here today to announce a bold new initiative to support
                       America's communities in their goals of growing according to
                       their best values. It is an initiative that will help us build more
                       livable communities in which to raise our families -- places
                       where young and old can walk, bike, and play together; places
                       where we not only protect historic old neighborhoods, but
                       where farms, green spaces, and forests can add life and
                       beauty to the newest of suburbs; places where we can work
                       competitively, and still spend less time in traffic and more
                       time -- that most precious of commodities for the families we
                       really are -- with our children, our spouses, our friends. 

                       Across America, we are discovering that livable communities --
                       places with a high quality of life -- are more economically
                       competitive communities. That may be why Nobel
                       prize-winning economist Robert Solow calls livability "an
                       economic imperative." 

                       The way we build and develop determines whether economic
                       growth comes at the expense of community and family life, or
                       enhances it. Now, we have seen a new vision of how to build
                       and plan better -- so that a strong economy energizes the
                       strong neighborhoods that support strong families. By helping
                       communities pursue smarter growth, we can build an America
                       for our children that is not just better off -- but better. 

                       This particular building -- the American Institute of Architects
                       -- is a suitable setting for presenting this important issue. You
                       have often, through the years, been the keepers of an
                       American treasure we are only beginning fully to appreciate:
                       the architecture of community. At our best in America, we have
                       built for people gathering together: from the open village
                       greens of our serene old New England towns, to the mixed-use
                       downtowns of our most vibrant cities, to the leafy beauty of a
                       safe, well-thought-out suburb -- our architects and developers
                       have a rich tradition of building in ways that have enhanced
                       civic life and family well-being. 

                       There is now a resurgence of interest in this kind of building
                       for people. Better planning is moving, in a grassroots way,
                       from community activists to local zoning board members to
                       visionary retail and residential developers. All of these
                       Americans are putting together parts of a bigger picture -- a
                       way of life in which economic dynamism, green spaces, and
                       friendly civic streets all coexist. Some call it the movement for
                       "livability." 

                       You know just how important this movement is -- and I know
                       that is why AIA started its exciting new Center for Livable
                       Communities just three months ago, to help communities with
                       their growth strategies. In too many places across America,
                       the beauty of local vistas has been degraded by decades of
                       ill-planned and ill-coordinated development. Plan well, and you
                       have a community that nurtures commerce and private life.
                       Plan badly, and you have what so many of us suffer from
                       first-hand: gridlock, sprawl, and that uniquely modern evil of
                       all-too-little time. 

                       Frank Lloyd Wright once said that a doctor can bury his
                       mistakes -- but an architect can only advise his client to plant
                       vines. 

                       If only it were that simple to remedy the mistakes that
                       decades of bad zoning and planning have imposed on our
                       cities, suburbs, and natural landscapes. 

                       The problems? In many older communities, walkable main
                       streets have emptied out, leaving a nighttime vacuum filled
                       with crime and disorder. As I noted at the Brookings
                       Institution last summer, the sprawl that has developed around
                       our cities has transformed easy suburbs into lonely
                       cul-de-sacs, so distant from commercial centers that if a family
                       wants an affordable house, a commuting parent often gets
                       home too late to read a child a bedtime story. Even worse,
                       after all those hours stuck in traffic, the freedom of the open
                       road can explode into commuting-induced road rage. 

                       Development has become something to be opposed instead of
                       welcomed; people move out to the suburbs to make their lives,
                       only to find they are playing leapfrog with bulldozers. They
                       long for amenities that are not eyesores -- just as they long to
                       give their kids the experience of a meadow, that child's
                       paradise, left standing at the end of a street. Many
                       communities have no sidewalks -- and nowhere to walk to,
                       which is bad for public safety as well as for our nation's
                       physical health. It has become impossible in such settings for
                       neighbors to greet one another on the street, or for kids to
                       walk to their own nearby schools. A gallon of gas can be used
                       up just driving to get a gallon of milk. All of these add up to
                       more stress for already overstressed family lives. 

                       This kind of sprawl is harder on families than just the long
                       drive to work and back; it means working families must sink
                       thousands of dollars into extra commuting costs, when they
                       may want the choice of devoting those funds to a year of state
                       college. It means that people leaving welfare and eager to
                       work have no way to get to where their new job is, and still
                       pick up a child in day care. It means that resources are
                       siphoned away from older neighborhoods to build ever more
                       distant new amenities in new communities. It means that air
                       and water quality go down, and taxes go up. We can do better.

                       And we are -- guided by our citizens. The good news is that
                       many communities are coming together -- from families to
                       local activists to mayors and county executives -- to craft
                       solutions. I've seen it with my own eyes. In Sacramento,
                       townspeople and developers reclaimed an old brownfields site
                       and turned it into a thriving residential community. In Denver,
                       the community is converting the old runways of Stapleton
                       Airport into an appealing new neighborhood with open spaces. 

                       In Portland, I helped dedicate the new light rail system --
                       already beloved by its users. It is easing traffic congestion,
                       and building a Portland with, in the locals' own words, "fewer
                       arteries and more heart." 

                       This truly is a movement. In the 1998 election, more than 200
                       communities discussed -- and the vast majority adopted --
                       measures to manage sprawl and enhance local livability. 

                       The time has come to learn from this citizen ingenuity and
                       apply it to a bigger canvas. In the metropolitan Atlanta region,
                       the average working parent has to drive 34 miles a day. Taken
                       all together, metropolitan Atlantans are literally commuting
                       long enough every day to reach the sun. Atlanta is growing so
                       far toward Chattanooga, and Chattanooga toward Atlanta, that
                       the joke is that the two will merge into a huge, uninterrupted
                       expanse of development called Chatlanta -- or perhaps
                       Atlantanooga. Fortunately, metropolitan Atlanta is now coming
                       together to seek a better way. And Chattanooga has long since
                       become a national and world leader in focussing its energies
                       on smarter growth. 

                       Of course, the federal government's role should never be that
                       of beauty commissar. It is not appropriate for us to get into
                       the business of local land use planning. But it is our job to
                       work with states, such as Governor Glendening's Maryland, to
                       support their remarkable smart growth efforts. It our job to
                       amplify citizens' voices, and make it easier for communities to
                       get their hands on the tools they need to build the way they
                       want. It is our job to keep learning from community successes,
                       and do what we can to support them. 

                       At its heart, this is about seeing the practical wisdom that lets
                       us leave behind false choices. It need not be citizens versus
                       developers, business versus the environment, cities and
                       suburbs versus meadows and farmlands. When we see our
                       connectedness and craft solutions for the common good, we
                       see that the right solutions are good for business, as well as
                       for the environment and for families. 

                       The regions that have embraced livability have learned that it
                       doesn't just generate common sense -- it generates dollars
                       and cents too. Companies such as Intel and Hewlett Packard
                       can go anywhere. As livable communities have learned to their
                       joy, they go where the quality of life is high, because that is
                       where qualified people want to live. 

                       Today, I am proud to take the first big step in this effort by
                       launching our new Livability Agenda for the 21st Century -- to
                       help communities have the tools and resources they need to
                       preserve green spaces, ease traffic congestion, promote
                       regional cooperation, improve schools, and enhance economic
                       competitiveness. 

                       First, I am pleased to announce that in the budget we will
                       submit to Congress next month, we are proposing $700 million
                       in new tax credits for state and local bonds to build more
                       livable communities. These new "Better America Bonds" will
                       help communities reconnect to the land and water around
                       them, preserve open spaces for future generations, build and
                       renovate parks, improve water quality, and enhance economic
                       competitiveness by redeveloping old factories known as
                       Brownfields. We estimate that this proposal will leverage
                       nearly $10 billion of investments in our communities over the
                       next five years -- and will go a long way toward preserving a
                       high quality of life across America. 

                       Second, we are taking new steps to ease traffic congestion so
                       parents can spend more time with their kids and less time
                       stuck behind a steering wheel. Last year, President Clinton
                       gave communities unprecedented new opportunities to invest
                       in mass transit and reduce traffic congestion. Today, we are
                       proposing the single highest investment in public transit in
                       history -- $6.1 billion to help communities develop alternatives
                       to building more clogged highways. We are also proposing a
                       record $1.6 billion for state and local efforts to reduce air
                       pollution and ease traffic congestion. 

                       Third, we are taking new steps to promote regional
                       cooperation, so entire regions work together for smart growth
                       and competitiveness. Issues like traffic, air pollution, and jobs
                       don't recognize defined borders, and neither should our
                       solutions. To promote cooperation among neighboring
                       communities, we are proposing a new $50 million Regional
                       Connections initiative -- to aid in the development of truly
                       regional game plans for smarter growth. 

                       Finally, we are proposing targeted initiatives to help
                       communities meet the new challenges of growth in the 21st
                       Century. In our grandparents' day, schools and civic buildings
                       were proud local showpieces, and anchorstones for the
                       architecture of community. At a time when too many schools
                       are arbitrarily built in the middle of cornfields, away from the
                       center of communities, we are proposing a $10 million grant
                       program to encourage school districts to involve the whole
                       community in planning and designing new schools -- a project
                       the AIA will be closely involved in as well. We are proposing
                       nearly $40 million to provide communities with easy-to-use
                       information and technical assistance to develop strategies for
                       smarter growth. And since livable communities must be safe
                       communities, we are proposing $50 million to promote the
                       sharing of crime-data across jurisdictions, to track down
                       criminals who cross state lines. 



