Building a Nation That Thinks Locally

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Building a Nation That Thinks Locally
By Alan Greenblatt, CQ Staff


The Chicago chapters of Barack Obama ’s memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” are filled with tales of civic engagement at the most basic level, of encounters with police and patronage. In them, Obama also recounts the glum realization that federal agencies won’t fill in the gaps when local authorities falter, noting that when he worked as a community organizer, federal officials could be less than sympathetic to the needs of public housing residents for basic assistance in problems ranging from plumbing and roofing repairs to asbestos cleanups.

Now that he’s the president, Obama wants to dramatically reshape the relationship between the federal government and cities. In fact, many mayors are optimistic that this White House will foster the strongest federal-local relations seen in decades. “We have been accorded outstanding access to the administration,” said Tom Cochran, the executive director of The U.S. Conference of Mayors. “If you compare the relationship we’ve had with the previous administration, it’s 1,000 percent better.”

Obama and members of his staff, as well as Cabinet secretaries, have been meeting regularly with mayors since December. In February, the president fulfilled a campaign promise by creating a White House Office of Urban Affairs.

With that office still setting up shop, the new president has yet to announce any major policy initiatives affecting cities. Due to the haste with which it was enacted, the $787 billion economic stimulus package provides funds mainly to existing programs, funneling most dollars through states and providing little direct aid to cities and counties.

But the broad outlines of Obama’s intentions are clear. He may have started his career working on the kind of anti-poverty programs that were a hallmark of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, but he’s less interested in restoring urban policy to its former prominence than he is in revamping it.

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=weeklyreport-000003093491

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