Urbanite in Chief

Richard Florida — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:55:18 +0000

The New York Times profiles the new head of the newly created Office of Urban Policy:

To his critics, Mr. Carrión’s vision was unremarkable and his record of accomplishments a matter of debate. They argue that he often sacrificed community concerns to please business interests and failed to follow through on many of his ideas.

Mr. Carrion’s promise in 2003 to build ice skating rinks at three Bronx parks fizzled, though a temporary rink is planned as part of the Yankee Stadium redevelopment. His Office of Faith Based Initiatives has been largely inactive after the death of its director. And his plans in 2006 to start a Bronx Sports Commission and a health insurance co-operative for small businesses remain works in progress.

Mr. Carrión’s handling of two big projects especially angered many in the Bronx … The shopping center being built on the site of the old Bronx Terminal Market displaced about two dozen wholesale produce and ethnic foods merchants, and a community benefits agreement negotiated by Mr. Carrión with the developer was criticized for shortchanging residents.

The new Yankee Stadium was built on land occupied by two neighborhood parks, and a number of community leaders and parks advocates objected to the loss of the parks and plans to replace them with smaller parks scattered around the neighborhood. Months after a Bronx community board voted against the stadium plan, Mr. Carrión replaced or demoted several board members in 2006.

“It’s ironic that President Obama hired Adolfo Carrión, whose record in the Bronx at every turn thwarted the interest of the community, and yet the president started his career as a community organizer,” said Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist for the market’s former merchants.

Mr. Carrión received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from several individuals who worked for developers, companies or institutions building retail, housing or other developments in the borough, often as plans for those projects were still winding through the approval process.

What, to you, does this appointment signal about the Obama administration’s perspective on cities and urban policy?

Obama’s Urban Policy Team

Richard Florida — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:38:11 +0000

Ryan Avent, one of my favorite and one of the very best urban bloggers around, digs into Obama’s urban policy team. As a preface to his longer article which appears in Grist, Avent writes on his blog: “My thinking on the selections has evolved somewhat. Initially, I was fairly disappointed, but I’m more sanguine now.” Money quote: “The urban picks are probably just a bit more explicitly pragmatic and shouldn’t be read as a betrayal by the president.”

The best member of team city, as judged by urbanists and other progressives, is likely to be Shaun Donovan, tapped by Obama as secretary of Housing and Urban Development …A Clinton-era veteran of the agency, he’s familiar with the federal bureaucracy and managed to be effective despite institutional hurdles. More recently, he has demonstrated his knowledge of best practices in affordable housing as a capable head of New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development … Yet it’s unclear whether Donovan appreciates the scope of the housing challenge facing the nation.

From a visionary perspective, Obama’s Transportation pick is widely seen as the most baffling … Obama used the pick to name his promised Republican cabinet member (Defense secretary holdover Robert Gates excepted). Ray LaHood, a retiring downstate Illinois representative, will be handed the reins of the department at perhaps the most crucial juncture for transportation investment since the Eisenhower years …

Less remarked upon by urbanists but perhaps more disappointing, on the face of things, is Obama’s choice for head of the new Office of Urban Policy… And so the choice of Bronx Borough president Adolfo Carrion was also somewhat underwhelming. Carrion is at least nominally qualified. He’s a trained urban planner and a veteran of the New York political scene. He helped engineer redevelopment of underused portions of the Bronx … Carrion did take a courageous stand in favor of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan … There is little in Carrion’s resume to indicate that the Bronx lifer can explain the necessity of a difficult transition to increased density to residents and leaders of the nation’s great suburban expanses.

The whole piece, here, is required reading for anyone interested in American urbanism and the future of urban and regional policy.

Creative Class » Adolfo Carrion

Urbanite in Chief

Obama’s Urban Policy Team