Obama emphasizes urban revitalization

Changing policies takes time

Steve Hawley, Oct 15, 09.

President Obama is using stimulus funding and interagency coordination to encourage urban renewal, according to the Washington Post.

The article notes:

The approach is winning applause from local officials and urban thinkers, who credit the administration for quietly beginning the most ambitious new policy for the nation’s cities since the Great Society programs of the 1960s. But the plan involves fundamental changes in the way federal agencies dole out assistance to urban areas, making its success uncertain.

“Federal policy,” Obama said in July, “has actually encouraged sprawl and congestion and pollution, rather than quality public transportation and smart, sustainable development.” However, the article notes that changing those policies will be a very slow process.

Obama has created a new White House Office of Urban Affairs and encouraged multiple agencies to work together to confront urban issues. Officials from the Office of Urban Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency have been visiting cities this year to observe innovative urban initiatives.

Observers note that Obama’s approach stems from his days as a community organizer in Chicago. “He has ridden on the bus and the El and he knows urbanism,” said John Norquist, president of the Congress for the New Urbanism and former mayor of Milwaukee. Norquist appeared in Houston last month as part of Houston Tomorrow’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

Most of the efforts have not gained much attention, says the article, but Obama has more plans for the coming year:

In its budget for next year, the administration has proposed creating programs that would fight poverty through tightly linked services and improvements. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative would expand on the Hope VI program, which financed the redevelopment of decrepit public housing by funding projects that improve surrounding areas, by adding housing, sidewalks, parks and other amenities.

Also, the Education Department is offering planning grants to nonprofit organizations to develop full-service programs to guide young people from birth through college. The hope is to replicate the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone, a nonprofit that provides services such as medical care, day care and charter schools, and is credited with increasing academic achievement for many of the 11,000 students in its programs.