European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 14, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns James j. Kilpatrick Hud scandal responsibility belongs to Reagan for conservative pro Reagan republicans i count myself Amon the these have been disheartening limes. Since the first or the year it has been one damned thing after another. In my Bailiwick we hunger for some really Good news. The scandals within the savings and loan Industry were bad enough but at least these were More private scandals than Public scandals though heaven knows the pub Lic will have to pay most of the bailout Bill.  is More deeply distressing is the unfolding Story of scandals within the depart ment of mousing and Urban development. The More one cams of urn Rotten affair the worse it gets. It now appears that the taxpayers will take a loss of at least $2 billion on the com Little slay Little greedy Little deals that were made. Let it be said up top the primary responsibility for this Deba Cle lies squarely in the Lap of Ronald Reagan the Buck slopped there. Lor the eight years of his administration it now scorns evident the president paid virtually no attention to this huge costly department. For political reasons that Are understandable if not altogether Admira ble he named a Token Black to be Secretary of  was silent Sam Pierce the invisible Man. What a Choice Reagan did nothing. I in acc did Noth ing or less than nothing lie filled top executive positions with political has beens or no Var acres. He named As his chief Deputy a pretty Young thing whose talents Lay principally in tending bar. Shein turn brought in her buddies at Hud the career people called them the brat pack after them the deluge. It is True but in the context of my theme it is irrelevant that the housing scandals had their roots in the Carter administration. It is equally True that a Large share of the blame belongs to a Congress that was supposed to be Over seeing the department but failed Misc Abl to do so. And yes one cannot Over look the horde of speculators developers consultants and influence paddlers who swarmed in but to criticize greedy men for being greedy is like Cril Ici ing eats for having claws. It is the Haynes Johnson songs Liberal Bult h we wasted Alu ivus nature of the Breed. There is plenty of identifiable blame to pass around. But the hearings before a sen ate subcommittee put a Finger softly on a general source of the whole infection. Twas the  thus everyone was to blame and no one was to blame. Congress had authorized in the Section 8 rehabilitation program a system that was positively guaranteed to produce the wretched result that now unfold. It was All Well intentioned or at least politically and socially  insiders it was also immensely Profita ble. The idea was to rehabilitate housing for lower and Middle income families. Using a mortgage loan from Hud plus other millions of dollars in tax credits Developer would acquire a suitable prop erty the housing units would then be rehabilitated and rented to eligible  rent would be subsidized for 15 years. The system was As risk free As a govern ment Bond. In one Case documented by the committee the Developer s own capital in vestment was Zero. Not a dime. In a Tulsa okla., project capitalized at More than $8 million the Developer helpfully risked precisely $14,690. In an $8.6 million project near Denver the Developer s generous contribution came to $45,882. After deduction of costs for acquisition and development the entrepreneurs proceeds came to $1.9million. The smart Fellows who thought up the Denver project were former top officials at Hud. This was typical. The committee looked at 23 projects in Colorado Nevada Oklahoma and Wyoming. Former Hud officials were involved in every one. Among the cats that came for the Cream was tames Walt former Secretary of the Interior who licked up $300,000in consultancy fees in Exchange for a Wink a nod a nudge and a couple of phone Calls. He knew the right numbers. Nothing illegal. Nothing even  was the  Well this disgusted conservative Calls it shameful and i say the hell with it. Various inspectors general warned of the scandals but they warned pianissimo. No one would have paid much at Tention if they had howled like hound dogs baying at the Moon. We voted Rea Gan into office on a pledge to bring Hon esty and efficiency into government. The boys and girls at Hud and on the Hill looked at thai pledge and snickered. Us Vemi pro ii Synol Cau Price of Urban neglect makes so Bill look tiny i Hose clanking sounds in the background in Washington these Days Are the sounds of heavy Bills coming due. 1 hey arc not just Ordinary big Bills of the kind considered routine in washing ton with those legendary billions Squir Reed Here and there. Measured by any Standard these Are historic Bills. Collectively they amount to trillions of dollars. To bail out the savings and loan Indus try americans will Shell out an Esti mated $300 billion with final payment not completed until 2020. Then there Are the other billions hundreds in All likelihood that will be spent for such things As cleaning up the nation s deteriorating nuclear plants and installations bailing out the debris left from the department of housing and Urban development scandal the Pentagon procure ment scandal and other assorted disasters. Nor is that All. Additional billions will be needed to clean up the environment and make it Safe to assure an adequate health care system to fight the War on drugs and to go to Mars which president Bush proposes and which would Cost about $400 billion alone. Then there arc inescapable costs of dealing with More mundane but vital problems. As David s. Broder commented recently in the Washington Post the nation s governors focused during their recent meeting in Chicago on the need for vast sums of Public Money to be spent to repair and modernize the nation s infrastructure highways Bridges dams air. Rail water and sewage systems in serious need of attention. Addressing Only the transportation aspect of the infrastructure he quotes the governors task Force report As saying it will Cost Between $1 trillion and $3 tril lion to bring America s transportation infrastructure into reasonable condition within the next 20  those Are not typos. The transportation Bill alone runs into trillions. All of these Bills arc the Price of neglect by political leaders and by people unwilling to pay the Price for improvement. But the greatest Bill has yet to be presented despite its mounting costs to the nation. It involves Urban Vio Lence and the disintegration of the poor est sections of cities. Two recent Page one stories gave a realistic glimpse of what amounts to a near total breakdown of society. The first in the new York times described a violent weekend incident. On saturday with the temperature in the mid-90s, a Public Pool in upper Man Hattan was jammed As usual and As usual there was trouble. About 3 p.m., a lifeguard told a group of men standing near the deep end that the area had to be closed and that they must Muoc. When they refused police were called to escort them out. Two hours later one of the men re turned. He slipped through a Hole in the surrounding wire Fence and began shoot ing wildly with a handgun toward the lifeguard. At least eight shots were fired. Two of them hit the lifeguard in the leg As he dived into the Pool and three others struck bathers. A 20-year-old Man was shot in the right thigh and a boy 13. Was shot in the left Arm. A girl 13, was shot in the head and was admitted to the Hospital in Crit ical condition. The times quoted he brother and sister As saying they had been told she was brain  while the Spray of bullets in the midst of a summer Day was an unusual event at the Pool police said violence there is a slant fights Between rival gangs with knives and bottles who stake out part of the pools As their territory. With slight provocation or none they pick fights with members of other gangs or anyone who dares to move near them. The second talc of Urban violence appeared in the Washington Post. "4 die in morning of violence Here the headline informed readers. The article recounted the grisly statistics of the toll the latest homicides including a boy 16, who died in his grandmother s arms after being shot in the head brought the number in Washington this year to 269, or 78 More than this time last year. In the next Day two More people were killed. Every Urban Center suffers under these conditions which Are becoming worse. The Cost of years of social neglect and indifference is rising and this great est of unpaid Bills will involve something far More precious than dollars. Its Cost is nothing less than repairing incalculable damage to human lives and restoring the Basic civility and Mutual Trust upon which this society must depend if it is to survive