New White House Office to Redefine Urban Policy

Presidents turned away from cities as cities lost population -- and potential voters. The word "urban" became code for "black" and "problem-ridden." Federal urban policy, always a series of stopgap measures to fill deficits and ward off violence, began to fade.

Meanwhile, urban and suburban areas came to dominate the national economy. Metropolitan areas now generate two-thirds of the country's jobs and fuel the economies of 44 of the 50 states, according to Brookings.

Obama seemed to appreciate the idea of redefining "urban" investment. A man who spent his childhood in Honolulu and Jakarta, Indonesia, studied as a young man in Los Angeles, New York and Cambridge, Mass., and rooted his career in Chicago, Obama has been shaped by cities to a larger degree than any president for nearly a century.

Starting with a speech to mayors during his campaign last June, Obama said "anti-poverty policy" should not be confused with a "metropolitan strategy." He created the first White House urban affairs office by executive order less than a month after his inauguration.

Carrión has yet to articulate a clear agenda, though he wants to spark a national dialogue on urban topics with an eye on the 2011 budget. The Obama administration has engaged in unprecedented outreach to mayors, and Carrión has launched regional conference calls with elected officials. And theorists have been visiting the White House to weigh in on what metropolitan policy could accomplish.

Advocates of equal opportunity hope a new policy could diversify poor neighborhoods and provide poor people with access to better jobs, schools and housing throughout metropolitan regions that are no longer hindered by a "hole in the doughnut" -- a decayed and neglected city core.

Economists say integrated regional policy could be key to recovery for places such as Wall Street, Detroit and New Orleans.

Environmentalists say coordinating new housing with public transportation and nearby jobs could arrest sprawl and discourage driving.

And pragmatists note that the metropolitan area of a city like New York -- which spans three states, dozens of counties and hundreds of municipalities -- could run more efficiently with integrated plans in areas such as water, transportation, education and jobs.

Meanwhile, mayors hope metropolitan policy will amplify their cities' strengths.

Take Seattle. It is legendary for its technology and aerospace businesses -- but the Boeing and Microsoft headquarters are actually outside city limits, said Mayor Greg Nickels (D).

"Metropolitan areas are not just where some of the economy occurs, but where almost all of the economy occurs," said Nickels, who is the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "We have had no structures and no relationship between these metropolitan areas and the federal government to take advantage of that."

"There has been a pent-up demand for this kind of focus," Carrión said. "The recovery will play out and will be buttressed by our cities."