An Urbanist President

One overlooked advantage of the Obama win is that we are going to have the first non-suburban or rural president in recent memory. His years as an inner city community organizer tell us a lot about how he'll lead but underlying all of that is a deep understanding of how cities work and what makes them succeed or fail. Obviously transit, walkability and cycling are an integral part of urban living whereas parking lots and freeways invariably cause its downfall. Still, it was a pleasant surprise to me that our president can actually speak extemporaneously about my heroine Jane Jacobs and has even read her book. Even Biden seemed interested!

Of course, this video was shot during the campaign season. Now that Obama's headed for the White House, He's not speaking about a big infusion of money towards transit. Let's hope its just astute political gamesmanship! Go to his website and push for the things that will result in the successful life of great American Cities.

h/t to Beyond DC