Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Barack Obama

A Suggestion for Today’s ‘Beer Summit’

By Elana Schor | Jul 30, 2009 | No Comments

It’s become the pint heard ’round the world, thanks to the fascinated mainstream media — and in a few hours, President Obama will finally sit down for a beer with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley, the Cambridge police officer who arrested Gates in his own home two weeks ago. Gates […]

Obama’s Agenda for Cities: Enough Talk

By Ryan Avent | Jul 14, 2009 | No Comments

In closing his speech to a roundtable on urban and metropolitan issues, given yesterday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Barack Obama quoted Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, who famously urged men to "make no small plans." It’s a nice line for leaders with big goals, but it’s worth noting that Burnham wasn’t all talk. Does […]

Obama Talks Urban Policy as LaHood Seeks More Urban Transpo Money

By Elana Schor | Jul 13, 2009 | 1 Comment

The White House Office of Urban Affairs, which has drawn criticism for its inactivity at a rocky economic time for the nation’s cities, capped a day-long summit today with a speech by President Obama. Referencing his formative years as a Chicago community organizer, Obama urged the mayors, governors, and Cabinet secretaries who attended the urban […]

Flashback: Is Obama Flipping on Highway Corruption Laws?

By Elana Schor | Jun 15, 2009 | 3 Comments

As Washington waits for the next federal transportation bill to emerge, Streetsblog Capitol Hill is taking a featured look at debates from the last congressional go-round that could impact the upcoming re-write. For today’s installment, let’s take a trip to New Jersey, circa late 2004. Before he was president, he voted to apply state anti-corruption […]

Flashback: Obama Once Led Push for ‘Complete Streets’

By Elana Schor | May 28, 2009 | 6 Comments

With Congress out of town on its Memorial Day break, the nation’s capital is a quiet place to be — but all of that will change next week, as the appearance of the House transportation bill is expected to kick off an intense battle to reshape federal policy on transit, bikes, roads and bridges. Before […]

Want a Clean Bill of Health for the MTA? Call Obama.

By John Kaehny | May 8, 2009 | 10 Comments

Photo: AP/Post-Standard Former MTA CEO Lee Sander spent the last two-and-a-half years doing his best to make the MTA a transparent, accountable public agency, and in doing so restore its reputation. He let the sunshine in, but was unable to undo the damage to the agency’s image caused by years of attacks from transit advocates, […]

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