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Gale's NPA Song
Reflection on Agalia Cincotta, by Father Ed Mckenna
Gale Cincotta, Colorful and Tireless Housing Activist, by Lew Schielman
Gale Cincotta a "National Treasure", by John D. Hawke, Jr.
Cincotta a "Role Model for Women", by Hedy Ratner
Gale Force Sweeps Through Nation, by Dan Baron
Legacy of Gale Cincotta Lives on, by Jamie S. Gorelick
We All Learned from Gale, by Ted Wysocki
Gale strikes again, by Joe Mariano
Cincotta's Legacy, by Jeff Doman

Gale's NPA Song
(To the tune of "The Caissons Go Rolling Along")
Over hill, over dale
The NPAers hit the trail
And the buses keep rolling along.

Hit the here, hit them there
We will hit them everywhere

And the buses keep rolling along.
So it's NPA, out to save the day
For the neighborhoods across the U-S-A

We will fight, fight, fight
Till the enemies get it right
And the buses keep rolling along
Gale Cincotta (6/19/98)

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Reflection on Agalia Cincotta
Gale knew by an inner light what the old Roman phrase meant: "Vox populi vox Dei est." The Voice of the People is the Voice of God! Hence her very developed institution is known as "National People's Action."
With its non-partisan, deeply American roots in fairness for all... Otherwise, why would so many civic leaders have agreed to its polite but firm requests?
I know from looking out at you, her large family, children and grandchildren, her friends from so many neighborhoods of the City and the Nation that Gale Cincotta's work will not fade from the scene. Her fire is still upon the earth.
Father Ed Mckenna
Gale Cincotta Eulogy
August 18, 2001

Gale Cincotta, Colorful and Tireless Housing Activist.
"She set the bar," said Joseph Ventrone, a staff member of the House Housing Subcommittee for 18 years before moving to HUD recently. "She's done so much to advance the cause of housing and housing finance in the true sense. Her work is going to live on.
"The group (Organization for a Better Austin) drew on the tactics of community organizing made popular by Saul Alinsky to fight panic peddling, blockbusting, slum landlords and to bus area elementary students to other neighborhoods. Ms. Cincotta was one of the first local community organizers to look beyond the geographical boundaries of such groups.
She built coalitions around specific issues such as abuses in the Federal Housing Administration's housing programs... Her latest battle was being waged against abusive lending practices. She founded the Illinois Coalition against Predatory Home Loans, which compelled the City of Chicago to pass one of the first local anti-predatory lending ordinance in the country and led the state to pass prohibitions against predatory lending.
Ms. Cincotta maintained a full schedule until the end of her life. She was most recently in Washington at the home of Vernon Jordan, whose wife serves on the board of Citigroup, a target in NPA's predatory lending campaign in March. The evening before her death, from her hospital bed, Ms. Cincotta told the new executive director of the National Information Training Center, Joe Mariano, to "get the crooks."
Lew Schielman
American Banker
August 20

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Gale Cincotta a "National Treasure"
With Gale Cincotta's passing we have lost a true national treasure. Gale was an American original, who developed the practice of community advocacy to a fine art. While some viewed her as a kind of urban terrorist, who could organize a boisterous demonstration in a campaign to highlight the plight of inner city neighborhoods, to others she was an inspirational leader, who knew how to get things done and pursued the interests of those she represented with all the vigor at her command. But however one felt about her, it is clear that no one in our time did more than Gale to raise our collective consciousness about the corrosive effects of redlining - a practice she viewed as her call to action.
John D. Hawke, Jr.
Controller of the Currency
August 16

Cincotta a "Role Model for Women"
"Gale was a role model for women...and in her absence we are all called... to challenge the powers that be and to never take NO for an answer."
Hedy Ratner
Co-Director Women's Business Development Center
Chicago, IL

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Gale Force Sweeps Through Nation
Somewhere in heaven, Gale Cincotta is giving them hell....She knew that many people don't have a voice in their communities, government, can't afford a lawyer it they need one and don't want to rely on the media or the occasional whistle-blower to confront problems in their neighborhood. So they organize - and do whatever it takes to be heard. Gale and her colleagues could be impossible, but they were impossible to ignore. A couple of days after Gale died, I was reminded of that city councilman who saw nothing wrong with holding a public meeting in a virtually empty room. Oh, how I wish he had met Gale Cincotta. She would have wiped that smirk off his face - and he might have learned the true meaning of a famous quote by Margaret Mead" "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Dan Baron
Times Staff Writer
Sep. 4, 2001

Legacy of Gale Cincotta Lives on
She pressed and prodded when she thought we weren't doing enough and cheered when she thought we'd gotten it right..... she has left in you and your colleagues, a great legacy.
Jamie S. Gorelick
Vice Chair of Fannie Mae

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We All Learned from Gale
To paraphrase Bruce Springstein, I learned more from Gale Cincotta than I ever learned in school... We learned countless alphabets of acronyms and initials that represented the good (CRA) and sometimes the bad (FHA) but most often the home (NPA). But most importantly, we learned that The Next Move, as Gale wrote for 183 issues over 27 years, The Next Move must always be ours; for there is always another injustice to fight against and another solution to organize for. As the headline of her last column proclaims, let us "Break Open the Champagne. then get back to work."
Ted Wysocki
President and CEO of Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations

Gale strikes again
Richard Hartnack, a senior vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago once explained that his bank's agreeing to invest $120 million in Chicago's neighborhoods had begun with a call from Gale Cincotta requesting a meeting. Getting such a call, he said, was like "running a nice, quiet prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam and having Rambo drop in." "She said it's about the people who live, work and worship in the neighborhoods," Mariano said. "She believed they were the biggest resource, not some expert in a think tank in D.C."
Joe Mariano
NTIC Executive Director

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Cincotta's Legacy
You wanted it better,
Not for some,
but for all.
You brought good people together,
To answer this call.
With all your good works
A great movement was born
Of people united
To live a better way
Inspired by your guiding spirit everyday.
Jeff Doman
Former NTIC staff
August 18, 2001