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FDIC Federal Register Citations

From: David S White [mailto:ccswhite@juno.com]
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 3:16 PM
To: Comments
Subject: RIN 3064-AC50

Dear Mr. Feldman,

I'm a concerned citizen who volunteered in Utica, NY's, central city area called Corn Hill for a decade in the late 70s and early 80s. A major problem then was a tendency for financial institutions to "redline" certain areas, so that credit, investment, economic development, and vital services were unavailable to those that needed them most.

When innovative solutions were devised, such as the Neighborhood Housing Services and the CRA, neighborhoods began noticeable improvement. Public-private partnerships bloomed, people became more educated and concerned with the general good of large sections of the city, and spreading blight was replaced by constructive progress both materially and in good relationships among many segments of the community.

Your proposed changes will hinder this movement toward a society that works for all people, that we all want. The Ownership Society must apply to all our citizens in all areas. People who become informed and work cooperatively with city officials, lending institutions, and established groups like NHS, become contributors to society rather than drags on it. Working together we can solve inner-city problems in a constructive way. We need more innovation and creativity, not a pulling back to the days when good, intelligent, trustworthy people of all income groups and races were marginalized due to where they lived. A sound society will encourage all these people to participate, prosper, learn, and live together in harmony. An integral part of this forward movement is the full participation of lending institutions, especially in underserved low and moderate income areas.

I personally live in a modest suburban town, but made it my business to learn about the plight of the poor in the inner-city. I learned a great deal about practical solutions and the wonderful people of all income levels and races who want only the best for themselves, their neighbors, their society, and who work hard if given the chance. They need what all of us need - health care in the form of neighborhood clinics for those without a vehicle, supermarkets with reasonably-priced food, home ownership or affordable rental housing, recreation centers, small business loans, clean streets, repaired sidewalks, police presence -basic services we all pay taxes for.

I sincerely hope FDIC will keep the investment and service requirements for banks at the current $250 million in assets, keep the current requirement that these banks must make community development loans, investments, and services, and that community development activities must be directed to low and moderate income individuals in rural areas. We live in central New York where full-time, year round workers (male) earn $32,194 in Oneida County and $29,908 in Herkimer County. Females earn two-thirds of that. (Utica Observer-Dispatch 9/14/04.) Our area is desperately in need of innovative public-private partnerships and increased involvement of banks and financial institutions. We need publicly-available data on the small-business lending of mid-sized banks.

Two other federal agencies recognized the harm to underserved communities of the proposed changes and dropped them, and I hope you will do the same.
Thank you very much for considering these comments.

Sincerely,
Carol S. White

Last Updated 09/28/2004 regs@fdic.gov

Last Updated: August 4, 2024