This work was supported in part by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
![Choices for 76 map](https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/300/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=a3caaccc7dc350801e79218324bc686fa83d8500ca31b47d0a6310fc919d365f 171w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/600/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=57a5b00d976f2acd80ec08116502556ca3fddfdb45f36a5c6041c8fa70eb8800 343w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/900/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=f0404960463ce0cc43c3c40c9e158c8171a95b99f8c9eb39f55c9bcd5c36f25e 514w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1200/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=406c549a36517a164e5b359b99e56afff729a237a0bd3b879e63f36eb60f0f54 686w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1500/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=18f6378ee111e4e5e3b26a0051384e77e5228a4d77fb722d32ee5134d273c75b 857w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1800/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=1087d496d083c1ff44a19409376c6b13846567c41fab3ab6702061b1916cde7c 1029w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2100/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=72b34d567c575884962588ded18040d2cd198421c8a7bad979e077f4543ecf1b 1200w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2400/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=93d91a72f1cdf0b2d390cf8424705d35ced4ceacc94eb9e6b89feb663b3c7a89 1371w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2700/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Choices-for-76/Choices-for-76-map.png?bossToken=7cae7571b3875099d1143ce967a429e0cba43412a2933ea970544d36174e657b 1543w)
Prudential COHO Action newsletter, February 1973
![1973 Choices76 comic](https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/300/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=26a8e54b5f67fa4f188cf3b472d81a48d9cd86287a47a477aced6778b6f6c486 171w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/600/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=5c6308417065e73efa4340ae1420724c04506412e9c337f6295b14b9c239952b 343w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/900/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=49a069ee76b418c11008784fb382b35fa44eddc08d99cf927c7f98db3fba239f 514w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1200/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=3c23df70c619b8829ee0994b5c2c435986dcc3e2964690b2db6d764ffdc6140e 686w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1500/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=d47013a17c3d65e52c8f90b3173efcefcf9d2cdb187a2f973b6fa4c0cf193330 857w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1800/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=c4345bc482ea5642264c8a4e44042f143d69297a79a4c38e83080d79f8efcc3b 1029w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2100/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=743f3dfd38f66679201d0c908623026badf0d4cfc8f9205d60084bc184b4791e 1200w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2400/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=f6392eeaeaa53a465192ee854446eb6aacfa6bc05190214104d26995af3637e2 1371w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2700/quality:80/general/Timeline/1973_Choices76_comic1.jpg?bossToken=36a0aa302fb67cc7d2f23bab955f7a7005009ad8c46b364767f9bbff10bd2524 1543w)
The issues and arguments pro and con were presented in five films, each shown on every single television channel covering New York City, Newark, New Haven, Bridgeport, Paterson, Trenton, and Long Island, plus two channels in Hartford (outside of the New York Region) - 19 in all. Showings were spread over Saturday-Sunday-Monday periods beginning March 17-19, 1973, then every two weeks until May 15-17. An average of 600,000 of the Region’s households was tuned in to each one-one household of every 11. The films were also recorded in Spanish.
Housing: A Place to Live
Cities & Suburbs: Centers or Spread City, Part 1
Cities & Suburbs: Centers or Spread City, Part 2
Transportation: Master or Servant
Environment: How Fine a Place?
Poverty: The Great Obstacle
CHOICES did “astonishingly well,” according to the TV stations’ liaison to the project. Network documentaries shown in prime time tend to get only about half as many viewers as CHOICES programs did. While the number of households tuned to CHOICES dropped from the 700,000 households or more tuned into the first program to slightly below half a million tuned to the last one, the drop appeared to be caused by a general drop in television watching as winter turned to late spring. In fact, throughout the series, CHOICES programs kept about the same percentage of the households tuned in to television at the hours it was being shown - about 5%. Furthermore, its audiences were more stable through the four 15-minute quarters than audiences for television programs as a whole.
Ballots to register people’s choices on the issues were widely available. An average of 26,500 ballots was submitted after each of the five presentations, 41,000 after the first - following considerable organizing effort and publicity - tapering to 14,500 after the fifth. Three-fourths of the ballots came from persons who had watched the television presentations.
Some 20,000 persons took part in at least one discussion of the issues following the TV shows, meeting in small groups in homes, churches and offices. Two out of five ballots came from those who had discussed the issues first.
Written background information was available in a paperback, How To Save Urban America, in book stores and on newsstands and sent free to all social studies teachers in the area. Several companies distributed copies or sold them at a discount to interested employees. About 100,000 copies were distributed.
Participation was encouraged by staff and volunteer organizers, assisted by: a few newspaper ads, a few TV spots, three television programs describing CHOICES, radio programs and announcements, and the extensive newspaper coverage. The six major organizing efforts centered on: 1) church membership, (2) employees of contributing corporations, (3) schools and colleges, (4) civic and political groups already interested in urban and planning issues, (5) in New York City, the borough presidents’ offices and their own community planning boards, (6) the black and Puerto Rican communities, which were organized by a separate Committee on Minority Affairs that also commented on the films as they were developed and produced their own ballots and background reading for two of the Town Meetings.
All 46 daily newspapers in the Region publicized the project; 36 ran at least one article or editorial on CHOICES every week, on the average, over the 13 weeks just before and during the project. Twenty-six ran at least four of the five ballots as a public service, thirteen published background information on the issues before people voted, and six publicized the ballot results extensively.
Mayor John V. Lindsay proclaimed March 31, 1973 “CHOICES for ‘76” day in New York City, commending the “unique opportunity provided by the Regional Plan Association to make [citizens of New York] heard on the issues of housing, transportation, environment, poverty, and cities and government.”
Regional Plan Association was awarded an Emmy and the Architecture Critics’ Citation for CHOICES for ’76. The CHOICES project should be seen as an effort to improve the kind of pluralistic political process that now shapes policies in our large urban areas but not to replace it and not to try to structure civic activities through one frame. The attempted improvements are in five directions:
- Enlarging the number and broadening the type of people involved in the civic-political process;
- Providing positive options - citizen groups are adept at stopping proposals but not at finding solutions;
- Providing better information on which people can base their views;
- Giving more people practice in the processes of civicpolitical action, practice absorbing the background information, discussing the issues in small groups, facing the hard trade-offs and making the yes-or-no choice that finally has to be made; and
- Stimulating a sense of community both by the process of discussing serious issues with colleagues or neighbors and by seeing the reality of a regional community.
Funded By
- Office of Policy Development and Research of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Chase Manhattan Bank
- Coca Cola Bottling Company of New York
- International Business Machines
- The Bell System
Other Reports in this Series
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