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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama and the forgotten urban agenda
By Greg Hanscom
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The thumbnail version is this: Under President Obama, key federal agencies have begun to shift away from subsidizing suburban sprawl and toward reviving cities and creating dense, walkable, transit-friendly communities. Obama has put smart-growthers and new urbanists in key positions, begun to realign government agencies to prioritize sustainability, and launched partnerships and initiatives that one Bush administration veteran calls mind blowing in a good way. Even Obamas allies agree, however, that serious reform may have to wait for a second term. If there is one.
The bigger picture includes a jumble of agencies and acronyms thatll glaze your eyes and numb your brain. But heres a quick list of some of the more notable things that Obama has done for cities, followed by a tale that might make you tear your hair out.
- Obama created a special post at the White House for cities. Derek Douglas, a Yale-trained attorney who once worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as the presidents special assistant for urban affairs until he departed recently for a post at the University of Chicago.
- The administration funneled more than $2.6 billion in stimulus money to transportation projects through the so-called TIGER grants. A significant chunk of this money went to transit and complete streets projects that benefit bicyclists and pedestrians as well as cars.
- Another stimulus offshoot, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, sent $7 billion to cities and states to help deal with the aftermath of the housing crisis. The funding allowed cities to repurpose or redevelop abandoned and foreclosed properties.
- Through a pilot program called Strong Cities, Strong Communities, six struggling burgs have received expert help in the form of fellows whove helped fill understaffed city offices and promote economic revitalization.
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Over the past two years, the partnership doled out roughly $200 million in sustainable community grants to promote dense, transit- and pedestrian-friendly development. The 2011 grants helped create a loan fund to build affordable housing and a food distribution hub near public transit in Sacramento, Calif.; fund a revitalization plan for the St. Charles parish in New Orleans; improve access to public transit for low-income residents in Boston; create a sustainable building code for the Kansas City region; and the list goes on. (For a much more detailed description of all this, check out Alyssa Katzs supergreat story, Reverse Commute, in The American Prospect.)
- more -
http://grist.org/cities/president-obama-and-the-forgotten-urban-agenda/
ProSense
(116,464 posts)bigtree
(85,996 posts)You can find flashes of these policies and initiatives but it's good to see a comprehensive look at the President's efforts.
Thanks for posting.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Thanks for posting this!
ClassWarrior
(26,316 posts)NGU.
chowder66
(9,069 posts)barbtries
(28,794 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)The article goes on to describe how much of what he has tried to accomplish is being undone by the current congress.
And the bottom line is that this is the kind of basic effort one expects from a democratic president. This really isn't "compensation" for not prosecuting torturers, expanding wars, keeping Bush's Sec Def, and promoting mandates after killing off the public option.
There is such a thing as "minimum expectations" and coordinating inner city recovery agendas is on the list.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"It's not going well"
...more money is going to other initiatives, does not mean this is not "not going well." Funding for these programs have increased.
"The article goes on to describe how much of what he has tried to accomplish is being undone by the current congress."
It describes the attacks from the House, but the fact is the funding and initiatives listed in the article are in progress.
One thing is certain, the administration is working with whatever cushion it has. This article is calling attention to the House's attempts to underfund these initiatives.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)those are words about the future. They are currently seeing their funding reduced by the house basically. And as the article pointed out, the funding was never huge. It was more that things were coordinated through to the federal level.
Like I say, kinda what one presumes when they elect a democratic community organizer.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"May, might, hope those are words about the future. "
...that's a statement about going forward. The article is primarily about what has already been done.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)The efforts are being hampered by the GOP congress. The funding was puny by any measure and that's now being cut. And I'm suppose to find great interest in that whilst GITMO is still open and we're still spending whole integer multiples more in Afghanistan, not to mention that we can't seem to find money to provide health CARE to the most needy.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"And what's been done is ending...The funding was puny by any measure and that's now being cut."
...the fact that House Republicans are working to cut funding for the initiatives means the funding for these initiatives, which received little to no attention in the past, was "puny."
Let me quote directly from the OP:
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Over the past two years, the partnership doled out roughly $200 million in sustainable community grants to promote dense, transit- and pedestrian-friendly development. The 2011 grants helped create a loan fund to build affordable housing and a food distribution hub near public transit in Sacramento, Calif.; fund a revitalization plan for the St. Charles parish in New Orleans; improve access to public transit for low-income residents in Boston; create a sustainable building code for the Kansas City region; and the list goes on. (For a much more detailed description of all this, check out Alyssa Katzs supergreat story, Reverse Commute, in The American Prospect.)
Initiatives start somewhere, and the point is that these are getting attention from the administration. The goal and purpose is to ensure that the funding continues and is expanded. It's clear the administration will find funding for the programs where it can, including from its discretionary funds.
Now, these may not mean much to you, but they are vital to the programs that rely on them.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)From the very article you posted:
Peanuts, as in puny, as in "pale in comparison..."
Hey, you're the one pushing this article.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)...so the point you choose to use to denegrate the importance of the initiatives is the one designed to show that the funding isn't comparable to that of federal highways in order to illustrate how ridiculous Republicans are being?
I mean, Preuss is the person quoted earlier in the piece stating the significance of the new focus.
"Hey, you're the one pushing this article."
So the information is upsetting to you or is it the fact that I'm "the one pushing this article"?
Whichever or whatever it is, clearly something is upsetting you.
niyad
(113,303 posts)Bobbie Jo
(14,341 posts)Bookmarked. Thanks Pro!
K&R!