Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1968

62

Advocacy and Urban Planning

place within city hall (as in Oakland), while in others it took
place outside city hall (as in San Francisco). The choice, however, was not one for local officialdom to make entirely independently, for up to 1967 it was not necessary for OEO's resource
stream to pass through city hall.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), in administering the model cities program, follows a
more institutionalized route than OEO. The program is clearly
directed at and through city halls. While citizen participation is
mandated, its form and substance are left for local definitiona definition which must be approved by local governmental entities.
Despite their differences, the war on poverty and the model
cities program contain, implicit in their framework, a welcome
definition of local government different from that subscribed to
by historical addicts of governmental reform and a planning
process quite contrary to that practiced by most professionals.
Both programs view one of the prime functions of city government as resource distribution and direction. Both programs favor
a local political system where political dialogue concerning resource allocation is a way of life and incremental decision-making
a process and a product. Rather than utilitarian objectives, the
war on poverty and the model cities program suggest specific class
and/or caste objectives, and seek from local government a recognition of these objectives.
Decision-making concerning resource allocation, whether public
and/or private, is premised in both programs as a result of constantly competing (and shifting) interests and constantly competing (and shifting) objectives. Both attempt to present a frame
of reference, a set of conditions where competing objectives and
interests can be debated and resolved through the process of
adaptation, compromise, negotiation, and even contention. Both
recognize the historical weaknesses of the poor in playing the
resource-allocation game and both consciously attempt through
fiat and process to redress this balance and assure for them an
improved delivery system and some involvement in deciding the
content of, and control over, that system.