Words of HUD head hit home

There's a big divide in America that could be called "the tyranny of the ZIP code," a member of President Obama's cabinet said in Lancaster on Thursday.

If you live in the right ZIP code, with more access to opportunity, your chances of succeeding are much better.

And "while we have made real progress, despite the economic headwinds we're still facing," more needs to be done to level the playing field when it comes to housing and other opportunities, Shaun Donovan said.

Donovan, U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary, spoke to some 800 people at a Building One Pennsylvania conference Thursday.

He was the main speaker at a 90-minute event at Bright Side Baptist Church which drew political, social and religious leaders from across the state.

The goal of the grassroots, nonpolitical Building One Pennsylvania is to "present an agenda for change to state and federal policymakers that will stabilize and revitalize our communities," its officials said.

It is an "emerging coalition," speaker Tom Gemmill of Lancaster's St. James Episcopal Church said. The common ground, he said, is that "we are the older cities, boroughs and towns" in Pennsylvania.

Another speaker, Columbia Mayor Leo Lutz, said, "Like many of our communities, our problems are not caused by local decisions, and they will not be solved by local decisions."

Lutz could have moved away from his proud river town, he told the audience, but "instead of leaving, we rolled up our sleeves" and went to work.

"My father always told me, 'Don't complain … do something about it.' "

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray was impressed both by the turnout and the magnitude of the main guest speaker for Thursday's session.

"I think it says a lot, that people from the Cabinet are coming out here to the neighborhoods, really, to hear what people have to say about our problems and discuss possible solutions," he said.

The community leaders in the coalition hail from municipal, school, faith-based, business, labor and civic organizations.

Building One Pennsylvania wants state and federal leaders "to hear from communities across the state," official Janis Risch said, "and begin promoting common-sense, bipartisan solutions to these challenges that compromise the state's overall economic health and safety."

An earlier Building One Pennsylvania session, held in Columbia in August, drew 600 people.

Make no mistake, Donovan said during his half-hour address: "When you join your voices together, you can make change, real change, in people's lives."

Communities have to realize that a regional approach is needed to truly tackle the problems they face in the 21st century, he said.

Donovan also spelled out a number of initiatives that Obama has undertaken in an effort to improve things for the less-well-off in America.

Another speaker said improving the lot of all Pennsylvanians "is a bipartisan issue" involving "things like (better) roads, sewers. They don't know Republican or Democrat."

doconnor@lnpnews.com