The Urban Team

I have a very good friend named Sean Donovan (not spelled the same as new incoming HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan but a sound-alike), so it's been enough of a tickle seeing Barack Obama saying things like "Shaun Donovan will bring fresh thinking unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas." that I haven't really looked into Donovan's policies. Call it a personal failing. But Donovan, the former New York City housing commissioner, looks like a good choice. New York over the past decade has been a place with lots of money and the wherewithal to experiment, and Donovan has gotten results.

Obama praised Donovan's record at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where he managed a $7.5 billion plan that put a half million New Yorkers in affordable housing. The Harvard-educated architect also kept foreclosures away from New York's low- and moderate-income home ownership plan, with just five foreclosures out of 17,000 participating homes.

What's more, Donovan foresaw the housing crisis and made preventing foreclosures a top priority of his department.

In the middle of 2004, I sat down with Donovan (I was at Newsday at the time) for a chat about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's initiative to tackle the shortage of low- and middle-income housing in the city.

To my surprise, Donovan brushed aside my questions about the city's initiatives and began talking at length about the coming "flood" of foreclosures he anticipated among highly leveraged apartment buildings purchased by recent immigrants -- and a looming subprime crisis for one- and two-family homeowners in up-and-coming neighborhoods in southeast Queens and central Brooklyn.

I left the meeting a little shaken: At the time housing prices in previously depressed parts of the city were booming and the city had been able to sell off almost of all its once-massive stock of foreclosed properties to private owners and investors. The future looked bright to almost everyone -- but not to Donovan, who was planning for the looming disaster.

Maybe this is someone who understands that homeownership is not a virtue on its own, without the necessary safeguards to sustain it.

Meanwhile, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion will head up a new Department of Urban Affairs. I'm not sure why that couldn't have been incorporated as a division under HUD, but the fact that Donovan and Carrion probably worked together on a multitide of issues means that they may be able to manage any turf wars. Urban policy is going to be crucially important over the next term - urban areas will be the recipient of lots of infrastructure spending, and the recession will impact urban areas in a pronounced fashion. I would like to see resources put toward creating more walkable and livable cities, with smart growth, green jobs and lots of transit. There are a lot of good ideas for urban policy here. In this case, having a President who spent most of his collegiate and post-college days living in urban environments and working on these issues is undeniably an asset.

...incidentally, the Sean Donovan I know has a very cool art blog focused on exhibits in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Not a cabinet-level post, mind you, but worth a read.

Ride The Ride

When gas prices shot up over $4 a gallon this summer, people turned to mass transit out of necessity. The conventional wisdom was that the plummeting of prices over the last few months would lead to a return to the same old habits. That may be in the future, but the latest numbers show that no, people actually LIKED riding the train or the bus or the subway, and they've kept at it.

Americans rode subways, buses and commuter railroads in record numbers in the third quarter of this year, even as gas prices dropped and unemployment rose. The 6.5 percent jump in transit ridership over the same period last year marks the largest quarterly increase in public transportation ridership in 25 years, according to a survey to be released today by the American Public Transportation Association.

Ridership growth began hitting record levels last year and continued through the first and second quarters of this year, spurred in large part by gasoline prices that topped $4 a gallon in July, the industry group said. But the third-quarter increase is notable, it said, because gas prices began falling and unemployment rose, trends that tend to drive ridership down.

Part of this is the increased urbanization of America, as more and more people move into metro areas. Part of it is the increased recognition of carbon footprints and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But a big part of it is that riding mass transit can improve quality of life. I took the bus quite a bit this summer, and I read more, I walked more to the bus station, and I generally felt a bit more productive. My workplace has changed and is a little further off the bus line, but I took it just last Friday.

The combination of increased demand for transit and the need for government to be the spender of last resort creates a unique moment, if done right, to really make major investments that would change the lifestyle of Americans in positive ways. So many suburbs are built on streetcar lines that have long since been dismantled, it would be easy, in theory, to resuscitate them. And we can build the light rail and high-speed rail corridors that have made Europe much easier to get around than this country. Perversely, however, state and local governments are shedding so much revenue right now that they may face cutting back on transportation services. It is essential that the Obama Administration makes a particular focus on backstopping state transit systems with budget problems. It's a tangible benefit to communities to bolster the transportation sector. And people want it.

The Urban Man

Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker writes about Obama and the promise for America's cities.

American cities have in the past offered, and do now offer, abundant opportunity for our nation. However, the narrative in past decades for too many cities - be it perception, reality, or a combination of both -- has been marred by the flight of industry and the disappearance of jobs; the rise of lawlessness and plague of gangs; the decay of once proud institutions and schools that fail to educate at the levels that we expect; and too many people living at the margins of America's promise of abundant opportunity [...]

About 18 months ago, I was proud to be one of New Jersey's first elected officials to endorse Senator Obama. When I first met with Senator Obama, it was clear to me that he had a deep and unique understanding of the central importance that our cities play in America's revival - that was one of the several reasons for my early endorsement and continuing support. He is committed to strengthening the federal commitment to our cities through several key initiatives, including:

• Creating a White House Office of Urban Policy to develop a strategy for metropolitan America and to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs.

• Stimulating economic prosperity in urban areas by supporting job creation, enhancing workforce training, and increasing access to capital for underserved businesses.

• Increasing the supply of affordable housing, and ensuring that middle-class Americans get the financial assistance they need to purchase or keep their own home.

• Strengthening our transportation systems, including our roads and bridges - which also will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.

• Reinforcing and refocusing on education programs that support teachers in urban schools, expand early childhood education and reduce the high school dropout rate. He also speaks to urban innovation and reform.

• Creating a new green economy, which will not only lower carbon output, increase energy efficiency, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil but also create new businesses and tens of thousands of new jobs.

• Support local law enforcement through fully-funded programs that place more police officers on the street and help address police brutality and accountability issues in local communities.

Since leaving Hawaii after high school, Barack Obama has lived in Los Angeles (at Occidental College), New York (Columbia), Boston (Harvard), Chicago and Washington D.C. I don't think we've had a President in a long, long time who has spent so much of his life in the largest American cities, particularly as someone who has experienced them at the ground level instead of as a titan of industry or commerce. I do believe this will have an impact on urban policy, particularly in transit and infrastructure. You don't have to walk too far in a city, even one that's gentrifying, to find a pothole or an abandoned building or a crumbling set of pipes and bridges. It also happens to be easier to enact an energy efficiency policy in the cities. New York City, with its density, expansive subway network and intermingling of commercial and residential spaces, is arguably one of the greenest cities in the world.

This doesn't mean that Obama will be carting everyone up and moving them into skyscrapers. It means that a strong metropolitan policy has an impact on the whole nation, including the outlying areas. This was one of the most appealing qualities of Obama to me, and I hope it will be a hallmark of his Administration.

McCain vs. Obama on Energy and Transportation

The Jeddah conference began and ended with nary a word of hope for anyone suffering through high gas prices, and it's clear that they will continue in the near term. In the medium term, the Republican robots calling for more domestic drilling are trying to play the country for suckers. Everyone knows (and I'm including the Republican Speaker of the Florida House on this list) that snapping your fingers and yelling "Drill!" won't immediately alter the price of oil. Moreover, Big Oil already has millions of acres of leased fields that they refuse to bring online, and industry analysts have finally figured out this shell game. Plus, talk of "environmentally safe" drilling is disingenuous, especially considering that the Interior Department - George Bush's Interior Department - is right now suing a company for damaging the environment on a field in Wyoming.

Now, John McCain did something right today. He advocated for an X-Prize type of solution: $300 million dollars for any company that can build a superior car battery. In general I think these are well-spent endeavors; the company that receives the prize can plow that money into assembly and distribution, and they have an incentive to deliver the goods quickly. He also called for bigger fines on any carmaker who violates current fuel efficiency laws, and a large tax credits for purchasers of zero-emission vehicles.

Of course, this is completely askew with his call for more offshore drilling, and maybe that's because he's taken more money from Big Oil than any other Presidential candidate. But it's also because McCain has become the Sybil of this Presidential election, with a sop to moderates one day and the hard right the next. Of course, on the important issues, he's going to stay with the Bush-Cheney agenda.

But what I really notice about McCain's proposals, even the decent ones, is that they exist on a narrow field where the car-based economy remains prominent. All of his ideas have to do with making cars more efficient, stretching the gallon of gas out of existing structures of transportation using technological advancement and market forces. That's maybe a part of the solution, but if we're going to reduce the cost of transportation and mitigate global warming, we have to find different ways to commute. And those solutions are readily available; in fact, people are already taking advantage of them:

Record prices for gasoline and jet fuel should be good news for Amtrak, as travelers look for alternatives to cut the cost of driving and flying.

And they are good news, up to a point.

Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues — all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month.

But the railroad, and its suppliers, have shrunk so much, largely because of financial constraints, that they would have difficulty growing quickly to meet the demand.

Many of the long-distance trains are already sold out for some days this summer. Want to take Amtrak’s daily Crescent train from New York to New Orleans? It is sold out on July 5, 6, 7 and 8. Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 5? The train is sold out, but Amtrak will sell you a bus ticket.

“We’re starting to bump up against our own capacity constraints,” said R. Clifford Black, a spokesman for Amtrak.

I rode the bus to work twice last week. There's a public meeting about light rail coming into my town this week. People are ready for mass transit solutions that improve stress, quality of life, their personal budgets and environmental damage. The problem is the investment in rail and bus and subway lines is just not there. It won't surprise you to know that John McCain is a longtime opponent of Amtrak.

Barack Obama, however, has lived in a city, has served constituents who mostly commute by train and bus, and understands the external benefits to mass transit. His speech at the US Conference of Mayors stressed all kinds of innovative transit solutions.

Let’s invest that money in a world-class transit system. Let’s re-commit federal dollars to strengthen mass transit and reform our tax code to give folks a reason to take the bus instead of driving to work – because investing in mass transit helps make metro areas more livable and can help our regional economies grow. And while we’re at it, we’ll partner with our mayors to invest in green energy technology and ensure that your buses and buildings are energy efficient. And we’ll also invest in our ports, roads, and high-speed rails – because I don’t want to see the fastest train in the world built halfway around the world in Shanghai, I want to see it built right here in the United States of America.

The entire heading of the speech was a "Metropolitan Strategy" for America. I don't think there's been one before, and it's important that the connections between cities and their outlying metropolitan areas are made. By allowing those who live outside the city center a transportation option outside their cars, we can reduce oil dependence, clean the air and water, mitigate global warming and most importantly improve people's outlook.

Now, Obama isn't perfect on this front. As Ezra Klein noted he mentioned filling the Federal Highway Fund before investing in intercity rail, and his position on ethanol is dispiriting, although inevitable given that winning Iowa was the difference between his winning or losing the nomination. But clearly, the fact that he's at least THINKING about high-speed rail and metro development and mass transit puts him light years ahead of McCain. Then there's the answer to this question.

What do you see as the gravest long-term threat to the U.S. economy?

Obama: If we don't get a handle on our energy policy, it is possible that the kinds of trends we've seen over the last year will just continue. Demand is clearly outstripping supply. It's not a problem we can drill our way out of. It can be a drag on our economy for a very long time unless we take steps to innovate and invest in the research and development that's required to find alternative fuels. I think it's very important for the federal government to have a role in that process.

McCain: Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we're in against Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences.

McCain is a caricature about anything outside of his military comfort zone. Obama understands how energy issues threaten our long-term survival, and is going to be aggressive in coming up with alternatives.

Not So Souljah

Was Barack Obama's Father's Day speech about families and the black community a Sista Souljah moment? Only if you watch it in a vacuum. Yes, Obama reconstituted the Bill Cosby argument and took black fathers to task for their failures of personal responsibility, but he didn't recognize areas of institutional racism, growing inequality, the struggles of breaking out of the permanent underclass, profiling, and other things that tend to hinder family development. However, he DOES address them in his urban policy plan, which talks about improving education and job opportunities in the inner city, with better housing, tax incentives, and anti-poverty programs. So you have to offer a fuller picture to judge whether he was denouncing black fathers unfairly.

...also, you have to see how he extended out the concept of responsibility.

[O]ur young boys and girls see…when you are ignoring or mistreating your wife. They see when you are inconsiderate at home; or when you are distant; or when you are thinking only of yourself. And so it’s no surprise when we see that behavior in our schools or on our streets. That’s why we pass on the values of empathy and kindness to our children by living them. We need to show our kids that you’re not strong by putting other people down – you’re strong by lifting them up. That’s our responsibility as fathers.

And by the way – it’s a responsibility that also extends to Washington. Because if fathers are doing their part; if they’re taking our responsibilities seriously to be there for their children, and set high expectations for them, and instill in them a sense of excellence and empathy, then our government should meet them halfway.

Just A Thought

Who was the last President who represented the inner city at some point in his career? Obviously, the majority of recent Presidents were Governors who represented entire states and not cities, but even in their early career, I can't think of anyone. Senator Obama would be a first in more ways than one.