City Politicians See a Friend in President Obama
White House Office on Urban Policy and revised funding formulas will be crucial
November 13th, 2008
Barack Obama is unlike many presidents that have come before him. He has more liberal stances on many issues than most who have won the White House, he will be one of the youngest commanders-in-chief ever and he is, of course, an African-American.
He is also the first president in modern American history—aside from Richard Nixon, who briefly lived in New York before winning the presidency—to make his home in a major metropolis. Though Franklin Roosevelt was born in New York, he grew up and lived in Hyde Park, miles north of that Upper East Side brownstone.
Obama’s Hyde Park, meanwhile, is smack in the middle of the South Side of Chicago, a very urban area he represented for seven years in the Illinois State Senate before winning election to the United State Senate in 2004. Even during his four years in Washington so far, this is where he kept his primary residence, refusing to move his family to the capital.
That, of course, is about to change, with the Obamas starting to pack their bags for the White House. But whether because of his background as a city resident or because of his recognition that an overwhelming majority of Americans now live either in or around cities, Obama has distinguished himself from past presidents by forming a council on domestic policy that touches on urban priorities, including in his campaign platform a plan to create a White House Office on Urban Policy to be located in the West Wing. A director will be responsible for coordinating all federal urban programs and reporting directly to the president.
Obama’s presidency also marks the end to the administration of George W. Bush, a president that New York’s congressional representatives say have neglected the country’s urban population for partisan reasons.
“It’s not going to be milk and honey flowing through the streets just because we have a new president,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens), “but we definitely are going to have a situation where some of the battles we had with the Bush Administration are going to be over almost overnight.”
One of the constant battles with Bush was the allocation of federal dollars, crucial to New York’s infrastructure and transportation expansion projects like the new Second Avenue subway line.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn), a senior member of the House Transportation Committee, has grown accustomed to fighting Republicans on transportation funding for the city. In 2005, he recalled, $286.4 billion in federal transportation funds was reauthorized—$90 billion short of what was necessary to keep the current system in good repair. Every time transportation funds are reauthorized, Nadler said, there is a fight over the allocation formula.
He expressed optimism that this might change.
“A sympathetic Obama administration might weigh into that fight—might,” Nadler said.
With Obama as president, Nadler said, New York City will have an ally that looks at investment in mass transit and infrastructure as a wise use of federal money. That could help small cities and suburbs as well, particularly if Obama undertakes the sort of New Deal-style move to create jobs by focusing on construction of public works, but large metropolises will likely reap proportionally larger benefits.
“The safe thing to say,” Nadler said, “is a lot more money for transportation projects.”
Beyond sensitivity to those funding formulas, Obama’s experience in Chicago gives him hands-on knowledge of issues plaguing big cities like public housing in New York.
Standing at the state Democratic Party’s election night reception at the Sheraton New York just before the networks called the election for Obama, Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, reflected on a candid conversation the two men had during the 2007 Memorial Day weekend at Chicago’s Grand Hyatt hotel. A conversation, Floyd said, he is sure the president-elect remembers as well.
“No matter what happens you are going to be senator or president of the United States,” Floyd remembers telling Obama. “And you will be in a position to help public housing.”
Floyd, whose union represents about 9,000 public housing employees, said the employees and residents living in federally-funded housing are banking on Obama’s understanding that public housing is being “starved to death and we’re looking for federal assistance.”
The New York Housing Authority (NYCHA), which manages 200,000 units, faces a $200 million budget deficit, due in part to a vacuum of federal funding.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) lamented the federal government’s reimbursement of NYCHA, which pays the authority 83 cents for every dollar spent.
“One of the biggest parts of the city’s budget, which is running a huge deficit, is public housing,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).
A president that understands and has represented a heavily urban population like Obama is going to be open to New York City’s projects and problems, said Lisa Servon, dean of Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy.
But conservative thinkers like EJ McMahon of the Manhattan Institute have argued that a heavy federal influence on cities could hamper economic growth and independence. According to McMahon, federal urban initiatives divert resources away from New York and shower them on smaller cities across the country. Plus, major efforts from the federal government in the past—like urban renewal efforts in the 60’s—have had detrimental effects on New York and other urban areas that took decades for them to come out of.
Urbanites were the most populous block of votes until 1992, when the majority of presidential voters resided in the suburbs. Though the urban vote was crucial to Obama’s landslide victory, national politicians have focused on rural and suburban middle-class families.
“That’s a driving factor in why we haven’t had an explicitly national urban policy,” said Servon, who volunteered with the Obama campaign in northeast Philadelphia. “Folks in urban areas have not had a voice in 20 years in presidential politics.”
Servon believes that a White House office on urban policy, complete with a director that can be held accountable, is the first step in creating the first national urban agenda in three decades.
“You’re doing something that’s incredibly visible,” Servon said. “That creates a mechanism so that if nothing happens, it’ll be pretty obvious.”
He is also the first president in modern American history—aside from Richard Nixon, who briefly lived in New York before winning the presidency—to make his home in a major metropolis. Though Franklin Roosevelt was born in New York, he grew up and lived in Hyde Park, miles north of that Upper East Side brownstone.
Obama’s Hyde Park, meanwhile, is smack in the middle of the South Side of Chicago, a very urban area he represented for seven years in the Illinois State Senate before winning election to the United State Senate in 2004. Even during his four years in Washington so far, this is where he kept his primary residence, refusing to move his family to the capital.
That, of course, is about to change, with the Obamas starting to pack their bags for the White House. But whether because of his background as a city resident or because of his recognition that an overwhelming majority of Americans now live either in or around cities, Obama has distinguished himself from past presidents by forming a council on domestic policy that touches on urban priorities, including in his campaign platform a plan to create a White House Office on Urban Policy to be located in the West Wing. A director will be responsible for coordinating all federal urban programs and reporting directly to the president.
Obama’s presidency also marks the end to the administration of George W. Bush, a president that New York’s congressional representatives say have neglected the country’s urban population for partisan reasons.
“It’s not going to be milk and honey flowing through the streets just because we have a new president,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens), “but we definitely are going to have a situation where some of the battles we had with the Bush Administration are going to be over almost overnight.”
One of the constant battles with Bush was the allocation of federal dollars, crucial to New York’s infrastructure and transportation expansion projects like the new Second Avenue subway line.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn), a senior member of the House Transportation Committee, has grown accustomed to fighting Republicans on transportation funding for the city. In 2005, he recalled, $286.4 billion in federal transportation funds was reauthorized—$90 billion short of what was necessary to keep the current system in good repair. Every time transportation funds are reauthorized, Nadler said, there is a fight over the allocation formula.
He expressed optimism that this might change.
“A sympathetic Obama administration might weigh into that fight—might,” Nadler said.
With Obama as president, Nadler said, New York City will have an ally that looks at investment in mass transit and infrastructure as a wise use of federal money. That could help small cities and suburbs as well, particularly if Obama undertakes the sort of New Deal-style move to create jobs by focusing on construction of public works, but large metropolises will likely reap proportionally larger benefits.
“The safe thing to say,” Nadler said, “is a lot more money for transportation projects.”
Beyond sensitivity to those funding formulas, Obama’s experience in Chicago gives him hands-on knowledge of issues plaguing big cities like public housing in New York.
Standing at the state Democratic Party’s election night reception at the Sheraton New York just before the networks called the election for Obama, Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, reflected on a candid conversation the two men had during the 2007 Memorial Day weekend at Chicago’s Grand Hyatt hotel. A conversation, Floyd said, he is sure the president-elect remembers as well.
“No matter what happens you are going to be senator or president of the United States,” Floyd remembers telling Obama. “And you will be in a position to help public housing.”
Floyd, whose union represents about 9,000 public housing employees, said the employees and residents living in federally-funded housing are banking on Obama’s understanding that public housing is being “starved to death and we’re looking for federal assistance.”
The New York Housing Authority (NYCHA), which manages 200,000 units, faces a $200 million budget deficit, due in part to a vacuum of federal funding.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) lamented the federal government’s reimbursement of NYCHA, which pays the authority 83 cents for every dollar spent.
“One of the biggest parts of the city’s budget, which is running a huge deficit, is public housing,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).
A president that understands and has represented a heavily urban population like Obama is going to be open to New York City’s projects and problems, said Lisa Servon, dean of Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy.
But conservative thinkers like EJ McMahon of the Manhattan Institute have argued that a heavy federal influence on cities could hamper economic growth and independence. According to McMahon, federal urban initiatives divert resources away from New York and shower them on smaller cities across the country. Plus, major efforts from the federal government in the past—like urban renewal efforts in the 60’s—have had detrimental effects on New York and other urban areas that took decades for them to come out of.
Urbanites were the most populous block of votes until 1992, when the majority of presidential voters resided in the suburbs. Though the urban vote was crucial to Obama’s landslide victory, national politicians have focused on rural and suburban middle-class families.
“That’s a driving factor in why we haven’t had an explicitly national urban policy,” said Servon, who volunteered with the Obama campaign in northeast Philadelphia. “Folks in urban areas have not had a voice in 20 years in presidential politics.”
Servon believes that a White House office on urban policy, complete with a director that can be held accountable, is the first step in creating the first national urban agenda in three decades.
“You’re doing something that’s incredibly visible,” Servon said. “That creates a mechanism so that if nothing happens, it’ll be pretty obvious.”
