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Adolfo Carrion Jr., director of the White House’s new Office of Urban
Affairs, today vowed to begin reconnecting Washington with the needs of
the nation’s cities — even as he offered few tangible plans for
breaking through the morass of the federal bureaucracy and effecting
change in the near term.

White House Urban Affairs director Adolfo Carrion Jr. (Photo: NYDN)

Carrion, addressing a small crowd at the Open Cities conference (which you can follow live right here)
linked the Obama administration’s effort with the urban policy review
initiated by former President Carter, which began with grand hopes but
ultimately narrowed its focus to smaller renewal projects.

"We’re
taking what he did in ’79 and revisiting it," Carrion said, crediting
Carter with "thinking forward" and predicting he "will be treated,
after he’s gone from the stage, in a much more generous way."

The
urban affairs office, created in March, is promoting a nationwide tour 
highlighting cities that have hit upon groundbreaking uses of economic
stimulus money, such as Kansas City’s Green Impact Zone. In coming months, the tour will take a look at high-tech development in Atlanta.

And
Carrion’s promise, as he put it today, of "shifting from a top-down
culture to the federal government serving as a supporting actor to
local protagonists" has caught on with advocacy groups and analysts who had become accustomed to urban priorities remaining out of the political spotlight.

But
when it comes to the most pressing challenges facing cities,
particularly those connected to economic recovery, Carrion’s office has
yet to advocate for urban priorities. Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood recently all but ruled out
two reform proposals long sought by the nation’s cities — channeling
federal aid directly to municipalities and putting the federal
contribution to highway and transit projects on equal footing.

Indeed, despite telling Politico in July
that he soon would "explain [his office's] strategy publicly," the
urban affairs chief appeared content with starting an open-ended
discussion about investing in cities rather than setting a timetable
for accomplishing specific goals.

Read more…

When Barack Obama was elected, urbanists were, in some cases literally, dancing in the streets. For once, America had elected a president who understood the importance of cities -- and who promised to create an "Office for Urban Policy" that would help those cities to take their rightful place in the federal policy debate.

But, as Dayo Olopade of The Root reports today in a piece called "What Happened to Obama's Office of Urban Policy," that office has been slow to take shape, or show any indication of wielding serious influence:

[C]elebrations about the potential triumph of urban policy may be premature. In recent weeks, the Obama administration has begun referring to the office as "urban affairs," rather than "urban policy," a small but notable downgrade. And while other offices and Cabinet agencies have been staffing up -- the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has representation in 12 government agencies -- 100 days in, urban affairs has announced only two senior staffers: Derek Douglas, who was special adviser to New York Gov. David Paterson, and former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr., who faces allegations of mismanaging campaign donations and development projects in New York City.…

[T]he urgency of dealing with the recession in these first 100 days has made the slow rollout of the office worrisome for some local officials. Caroline Coleman, federal relations director of the National League of Cities, says cities have been pummeled by the economic downturn. For the first time in the 24-year history of the organization’s City Fiscal Conditions report, the three primary sources of revenue for urban centers -- property, sales and income taxes -- all experienced a quarterly decrease. "What we’re seeing reflected in the national news is hitting hometown urban America every day," says Coleman.

Olopade points out that the selection of Carrión, a local pol with no experience at the national policy level, was perplexing to some who have been watching the process. She quotes Diana Lind, editor of Next American City: "[He] doesn’t have a lot of experience in dealing with federal policy. How could you give somebody like Adolfo Carrión control over, say the transportation laws in Milwaukee? It’s a hard leap to make."