Obama set to relaunch ‘urban platform’ today
August 25, 2008 at 10:19 am by Thomas Wheatley in NewsIt’s refreshing to see a candidate not focus entirely on eating BBQ in Kansas and churning butter out in the sticks. Those voters and their concerns matter, but so do those who live in the nation’s economic engines: Urban areas, such as Atlanta.
And the Wall Street Journal reports Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is set to relaunch his urban platform today that he says would aid our beleaguered cities.
The article is so chockful of information that it deserves to be read more than reviewed, but here are some snippets:
The wide-ranging plan contains bedrock Democratic principles, pledging to increase funding for affordable housing, raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, triple the income-tax credit tied to that wage and fully fund the federal No Child Left Behind policy for schools.
Centerpieces include creation of a new White House Office of Urban Policy and the restoration of billions of dollars cut from community block grants, a key source of funding for cities.
In a nod to one of the mayors’ top priorities, Sen. Obama would open a national bank, seeded with $60 billion over 10 years, to finance road, bridge, airport and other public-works projects in metropolitan areas. The bank would be modeled on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., with an independent board of directors.
Sen. Obama says his administration would shift urban-policy making to so-called smart-growth strategies that synchronize transportation, commercial and housing needs for entire regions, rather than following the tradition of focusing first on fighting poverty and crime. He would fund $200 million in annual grants to develop “regional clusters,” such as the high-technology-focused area known as the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
(Thanks to Christa for the find)
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