HUD's New Direction

Found in the American Prospect:

The Reverse Commute

... Shelley Poticha, a small woman with a big assignment. As director of HUD's new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, Poticha is working to encourage a suburban nation to live in ways that make it feasible to walk, take public transit, and bike. Her goal is to make suburban sprawl a thing of the past by equipping local governments with the tools to build neighborhoods centered on public transit and walking.

....housing will no longer be classified as "affordable" based on the rent or mortgage alone; under a new system in development, financing formulas will factor in residents' transportation and utility costs, too.

....New measures to reverse the march of spraw may be too little, too late. It took seven decades and trillions in federal investment to create the sprawl that the Obama administration is now moving to brake. The first interstate highways rolled out in the 1950s with the present-day equivalent of $300 billion in federal funds. The suburban home industry was fueled by subsidies that today amount each year to almost twice HUD's entire budget.

***

"The risk is that the culture war ... will spill over into this field," .... "What should be a bipartisan, economic, and environmental quality-of-life issue becomes, 'Everyone who owns a car is the devil and is going to drive us off a cliff,' versus, 'The other side wants to take our cars away from me, and you're going to rip my hands off my steering wheel when I'm dead and cold.' ...

...A household with access to transit spends 9 percent of its income on transportation, compared with 25 percent for the car-dependent. Making households conscious of the true expense of car dependency is an important part of the Obama administration's sustainability project. ...

...In the stimulus, most transportation spending went to roads and highways because state agencies already had plans ready. But for the first time, a single program, called Transportation Investments for Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), supported any mode of travel a local government cared to pursue, from rapid bus transit to bike lanes. Its $1.5 billion in grants lured proposals from unlikely places...

But mostly the administration is moving to do things for which it doesn't have to ask Congress to pay, such as influencing consumer choices through devices like the location-efficient mortgage, which gives homebuyers who settle near mass transit more borrowing power. The Obama administration is betting that such gestures can influence individual decision-making on a large scale by tilting economics to favor certain geographic choices over others.

History suggests that the landscape changes when economic habits become cultural ones, so ingrained that most of us don't realize why we act as we do. ...

"In my mind there's just a big myth that we can't change," Poticha says. "That isn't true. If we give people better information about making choices and then we deliver some options for them, there are just a lot more ways that we can grow our communities."

FTA to Include Livability in Funding Decisions

Although this kind of policy decision is not very sexy and it will not make the evening news, it is a critical change to the way Federal Transportation dollars are allocated. Via tha FTA website:

Obama Administration Proposes Major Public Transportation Policy Shift to Highlight Livability
Changes Include Economic Development and Environmental Benefits

In a dramatic change from existing policy, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today proposed that new funding guidelines for major transit projects be based on livability issues such as economic development opportunities and environmental benefits, in addition to cost and time saved, which are currently the primary criteria...

“Our new policy for selecting major transit projects will work to promote livability rather than hinder it,” said Secretary LaHood. “We want to base our decisions on how much transit helps the environment, how much it improves development opportunities and how it makes our communities better places to live.”

... “No longer will we ignore the many benefits that accrue to our environment and our communities when we build or expand rail and bus rapid transit systems.”...

Ordinary Obama is Drivin'em Crazy

During my morning podcast listen, I heard a replay of both Limbaugh and Beck going crazy, insane really, hyping McCarthy and making a schoolbus fistfight into the apocalypse for white people. Ta-Nehisi Coates' response:

....But Barack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance. He tells kids to study--and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness--and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date--and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West--the way he says, "He's a jackass." He sounds like one of my brothers. And that's the point, because that's what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their nigger. And it's driving them crazy.

It's about time.

Obama Changing Transport Priorities

Congressional Quarterly, March 6, 2009 (subscription required)
Livable Communities' Central to Admin's Transport Goals

When Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood submits the administration's proposal to Congress for the next surface transportation authorization bill, it will focus heavily on the idea of "livable communities."

His plan would link land use and housing development with transportation projects and require him to coordinate with other federal agencies, such as Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services, in a way that's never been done at the federal level.

"The era of one-size-fits-all transportation projects must give way to one where preserving and enhancing unique community characteristics, be they rural or urban, is a primary goal rather than an afterthought," LaHood said at his Senate confirmation hearing.

In recent years, local and state governments have already been coordinating transportation with other development. But federal coordination would be a new development.

For the past half-century, say many observers, the federal government has ignored mobility within communities to build the Interstate Highway System to promote movement around the country. In many cases, they say, the approach has contributed to poorly planned suburban sprawl.

"It should not be that radical an idea to link up land use with the infrastructure policies that go along with it," Robert Puentes, a Brookings Institution expert, said. "The problem is institutional inertia and the previous lack of federal leadership to encourage this kind of integrated thinking."

LaHood has already met with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to discuss how affordable housing can be built near public transportation, neighborhood street blocks can be shortened to promote walking and bus routes can be expanded to reach more areas.

Joel Szabap, the Transportation Department's deputy assistant secretary for policy, said both Cabinet secretaries are on board.

"In a perfect world, you build where people live and want to live," Szabap said. "You will see an administration proposal focused around livable communities."

For most Americans, daily car trips are only a couple of miles long. The theory is that many people drive largely because viable alternatives such as public transportation or safe sidewalks for walking or biking do not exist.

"When you are ready to give up your keys, you need to have other options," said James Corless, campaign director of Transportation for America. "Those departments should break down silos. . . . This is not about Congress telling communities they need to become more livable, it's about them providing the resources." Strong Congressional Support

Key lawmakers who will help draft the surface transportation authorization and spending bills this year already have signaled their support for this integrated approach to transportation.

John W. Olver, D-Mass., chairman of the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, said his panel intends to open the dialog between the housing and transportation departments.
...
"By coordinating housing and transportation policy to encourage smart land use, we can generate economic growth and create vibrant communities where people can live and work with a smaller carbon footprint," Dodd said in a February speech. "The lack of national leadership I've described at the federal level for much of the last several decades is,in many ways, only matched by our lack of creativity."
...
"The challenge has been just as all of the states started moving toward major smart-growth programs, the national government was simply not involved, and in many cases they were hostile to it, favoring major road construction over transit or walkability projects," Glendening said. "It is very clear to all of us that the Obama administration clearly gets it on smart growth."

Even with the administration and lawmakers' support, pushback will come from road builder groups that have enjoyed decades of being at the forefront of the transportation debate...

Don't ReInflate that Bubble

We should not attempt to re-inflate housing prices. Many people paid too much for new houses built in greenfields. Better said by Yglesias:

...It’s important to understand, however, that we’re not talking about real assets that vanished. The houses are still there, and they’re still as good or bad or useful or non-useful as they ever were. What’s vanished is a speculative mania, and public policy can’t—and shouldn’t—create a new one.

Those Days Are Over

"The days where we're just building sprawl forever, those days are over."

- Obama at a town hall event in Ft. Meyers, today. On C-Span, second to last question (at time 58:15), from a city councilwoman.

Also on the White House blog:
1:07 p.m.: Question: How can you help with infrastructure and transportation? Answer: We've got a lot of work to do. Nods to American Society of Civil Engineer's recently released 2009 Report Card for American Infrastructure, which gives the country's roads, bridges, and ports a national grade of D. Makes a case for high-speed rail and mass tranit -- says the days of sprawl are over. "Everyone recognizes that's not a good way to design communities."

Verbatim:

“We have to target billions of dollars at infrastructure spending. And states all across the country are going through what Florida is going through. There was a study done by the American Association of Engineers… that might not be the exact title, but engineers from all across the country …. we get a D in infrastructure all across the country. We saw what happened in Minneapolis, where a bridge collapsed and resulted in tragedy. And not only do we need to rebuild our roads, bridges, ports, levees… our damns. But we also have to plan for the future. This the same example of turning crisis into opportunity. This should be a wake-up call for us.”

“You go to Shanghai, China right now… and they’ve got high-speed rail that puts our railroads to shame. They’ve got ports that are state of the art. Their airports, are… compared to the airports that we…you go through Beijing airport and you compare that to Miami Airport?”

“Now… now…look.. this is America. We've always had the best infrastructure. We were always willing to invest in the future. You know somebody… Governor Christ mentioned Abraham Lincoln. In the middle of the Civil War, in the midst of all this danger and peril, what did he do? He helped move the Intercontinental Railroad. He helped to start land grant colleges. He understood that even when you are in the middle of crisis, you got to keep your eye on the future. So transportation, when it is not just fixing our old transportation systems, but it’s also imagining new transportation systems. That’s why I’d like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. I would like for us to… to invest in mass transit, because potentially that’s energy efficient. And I think a lot more people are open now to thinking regionally in terms of how we plan our transportation infrastructure. The days where we’re just building sprawl forever… those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats… everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to design communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this kind of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation. That’ll make a big difference.”

Lego Goes Urban - Obama Inauguration

See the 56th Presidential Inauguration Made Completely Out of Lego!

The fine folks at LegoLand California are modeling the historic scene depicting President-elect Barack Obama taking the Presidential oath of office on the steps of the Capitol. President-elect Obama and his wife Michelle, and daughters Sasha & Malia, along with Vice President-elect Joseph Biden are replicated as mini-figures in LEGO brick. Hundreds of LEGOLAND mini-figures have been “invited” to witness the inauguration. Bush-41 snoozes on the main dais with wife Barbara (in her signature hairdo and pearls). There are even some celebrities in the crowd!

More than one-thousand mini-figures have been created out of thousands of LEGObricks to be a part of the festivities. Mini-figures include President-elect Obama and his family, Vice President-elect Joseph Biden and Jill Biden, President George Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynn Cheney along with former President George Bush Sr. and Barbara Bush. Other mini-figures depicting ceremony participants include: Senator Dianne Feinstein, Dr. Rick Warren, Aretha Franklin, John Williams and performers Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo-Ma, Gabriela Montero, Anthony McGill, the Unites States Marine Band, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Park guests can also find Oprah Winfrey in the crowd witnessing this momentous event as well as read fun facts about past inaugurations such as "who gave the shortest and longest inauguration address" and "which inauguration was the first to be televised." The historic scene is on display from Friday, Jan.16 through Memorial Day Weekend.

Click any picture for a larger view, or get some background from the builder here by clicking the video in upper right.

A toast and blessing to our new president and his quintessentially-urban first family from all of us here at CityKin.

Connected Street Proposal to Obama

....the stimulus must distinguish between the right kind and wrong kind of pavement — those investments that make communities more livable and sustainable versus those that weaken our strategic position and make families frighteningly vulnerable to volatile energy prices.

...networks of highly connected walkable streets are at the heart of great urbanism and of emerging standards for green neighborhood development...

...CNU’s Connected Networks Proposal gives Congress and the Obama Administration a simple and direct means for identifying and funding walkable, high-value networks. In contrast to most federal funding programs, which target sections of individual state highways and other major roads in isolation, CNU’s proposal would apply a new “network” designation to entire areas meeting specific connectivity standards...

...connected streets are the necessary framework for enduring neighborhoods where shops, schools and other places that serve our daily needs can be found within convenient walking or biking distance... -Congress for the New Urbanism

Toledoan Tells Obama to Read Jane Jacobs

Keith Wilowski, a man who just last week announced he is running for mayor of Toledo, is here in August asking Obama to read Jane Jacobs:

Hat tip to John Massengale.

Obama Cake

Seen at Cub Scout cake auction:

 

New Office of Urban Policy

Obama has announced he will establish an Office of Urban Policy. HUD (The Dept. of Housing and Urban Development) never quite filled the bill for addressing the holistic approach to city issues. It will be very interesting to see who is assigned to head this new office.

NCLB Testing vs Portfolios

An Education Week article says Obama, doesn't want to dump the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) testing, but wants to reform it and include alternative testing, such as "Portfolios". If you are like me, you are asking, what is a portfolio? Well this is their description:

...portfolios ..and other forms of assessments that may be a little bit more expensive ...are allowing us to make sure children are getting the proper analytic kinds of tools. ...we're talking about tests that require children to assess their entire year ... to put together through writing and through speaking...we're looking at language skills as well as writing skills to get a sense of how well they've learned their lessons.

Obama Economy Speech

My thoughts exactly:

Part of the reason this crisis occurred is that everyone was living beyond their means – from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street. CEOs got greedy. Politicians spent money they didn't have. Lenders tricked people into buying home they couldn't afford and some folks knew they couldn't afford them and bought them anyway.

We've lived through an era of easy money, in which we were allowed and even encouraged to spend without limits; to borrow instead of save.

Now, I know that in an age of declining wages and skyrocketing costs, for many folks this was not a choice but a necessity. People have been forced to turn to credit cards and home equity loans to keep up, just like our government has borrowed from China and other creditors to help pay its bills. But we now know how dangerous that can be. Once we get past the present emergency, which requires immediate new investments, we have to break that cycle of debt. Our long-term future requires that we do what's necessary to scale down our deficits, grow wages and encourage personal savings again.

-Yesterday's entire speech here.

Exceptionalism vs Nativism

Sean Hannity and Andy Martin, two exceptional haters:

...(Andy Martin) ran for Congress in Illinois under this campaign committee: "The Anthony R. Martin-Trigona Congressional Campaign to Exterminate Jew Power in America," ....

After the mid-1990s, Martin-Trigona re-surfaced in Florida with a name change ("Andy Martin"), ran for public office multiple times as a Republican (even the local GOP repudiated him), then became a vocal supporter of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign, and finally an obsessive "investigator" of Barack Obama, trafficking in the filthiest and most deranged muck that for months stimulated the darkest crevices of the right-wing slime machine. As The New York Times put it, Martin "is credited as being among the first -- if not the first -- to assert in a chain e-mail message that Mr. Obama was secretly a Muslim."

Over the weekend, Sean Hannity hosted a show on Fox News entitled Obama & Friends: The History of Radicalism. The star of Hannity's smear fest was none other than Andy Martin, who was featured as an honored, credible investigator and source to expose "the real Barack Obama." There wasn't a hostile or adversarial word uttered by Hannity about or towards Martin. To the contrary, Martin's claims were the basis for many of the Fox News show's allegations against Obama...

Martin then linked Obama to Louis Farrakhan, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Catsro, telling Fox's 2 million viewers: "So if you love the Cuban revolution and Castro and if you love what's happening in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez, you'll love Barry Obama -- Barack Obama, as he calls himself -- in the White House."

Hannity never once said a negative word about Martin; never challenged him on anything he ever said or did; and never informed Fox viewers about Martin's despicable, truly demented history. Instead, Martin was Sean Hannity's respected source, presented as an "Author and Journalist" to support Hannity's "reporting."
Full article here in Salon

[Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. ...Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I'm afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has those prejudices.
-Conservative Writer David Brooks

If you haven't seen it, you may want to see this video of Donna Brazille speaking about Obama and how far this country has come. We are an exceptional country, just not in the way Hannity wishes we were.

Ralph Stanley for Obama

Ralph Stanley radio spot supporting Obama. The old-time clip of the Stanley Bro.s playing is good too.

Palin's education policy:

Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate...

Transcript

UPDATE: See here a proposal for an amendment to the Constitution.

Neighbor on Health Care

Chris Glass explains who he is supporting in this election.

New Obama Urbanist

Sen. Obama says his administration would shift urban-policy making to so-called smart-growth strategies that synchronize transportation, commercial and housing needs for entire regions, rather than following the tradition of focusing first on fighting poverty and crime. He would fund $200 million in annual grants to develop "regional clusters," such as the high-technology-focused area known as the Research Triangle in North Carolina…..

Wall Street Journal:

Barack Obama's campaign plans to relaunch his "urban agenda" Monday in what people close to the strategy say is an effort to assure urban leaders and voters of the Democratic nominee's commitment to cities and minorities without alienating skeptical white voters.

The plan features an increase in the minimum hourly wage, a new White House office focused on metropolitan areas and $60 billion to establish a national bank to finance public-works projects.
...
Michael Coleman, the black mayor of Columbus, Ohio, will lead the discussion Monday before the caucus. A series of town-hall meetings staged in various cities will follow, each led by mayors and other local leaders.

...Sen. McCain hasn't released a formal policy identified as targeting urban issues.

via: Smart Growth America

Biden Supports Rail

...Biden commutes back-and-forth from Delaware to Washington regularly on the Acela, so he appreciates what high-speed rail can do. What’s more, Wilmington recently lost its scheduled air service making Delaware a plane-free state that depends on rail for its connectivity. ... he’s still one of the best friends rail has in the Senate. Beyond that, Biden’s son sits on the Amtrak board and unlike some of Amtrak’s leadership (which besides Biden is heavily dominated by Republicans) is actually a forceful advocate for Amtrak and for improving rail.

-Yglesias

Obama Crowd on Fountain Square

Crowd Shots:

Kids on Shoulders:

Clapping:

All in fun, or are they sore losers?:

Bronze guy on snake watches Obama:

Cop and Tarbell:

Just married, very happy couple:

Arm in arm:

See Obama at Fountain Square Monday

...On the Jumbotron:

Cincinnati’s Duke Energy Convention Center will be packed next week when presumed Democratic and Republican presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain address members of the 99th Annual NAACP Convention.

Most of us will not have access to the convention center, but all of us can be part of this historic moment in Cincinnati and presidential history. Speeches by the candidates will be broadcast live on Fountain Square. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Obama is scheduled to speak Monday July 14 at 8 p.m. McCain is scheduled to speak on the final day of the convention, Wednesday July 16, sometime late at night when everyone is asleep.

Local Republican and Democratic party officials as well as local Obama and McCain campaign leaders are expected to be on the Square as part of a “viewing party” to watch the speeches. Local NBC affiliate, WLWT-TV, Channel 5, has indicated it will pre-empt regular programming at the time of the speeches and carry them live, allowing them to be broadcast on Fountain Square.

UPDATE: If you want to actually get into the convention, day passes are apparently available starting today for $30 for adults and $15 for children. You do not need to be a NAACP member.