We wondered aloud what an Obama administration would mean for cities, and it looks like his administration will be taking urban issues very seriously:
Valerie Jarrett, transition co-chair for President-elect Barack Obama, announced that the Obama administration would create a White House chief of urban policy. Since there are “so many different agencies that really can impact urban America,” Jarrett said, “to have one person whose job it is to really pull all of that together, is really a critical position.” Few recent presidents have had an urban background, as the Washington Post noted: “To find a nominee with as strong a city pedigree as Obama’s, you have to go back to New York Gov. Al Smith, the Democratic candidate in 1928, or even further, to Grover Cleveland, who had been mayor of Buffalo.”
[h/t Jamelle]
