President Obama Unveils Ambitious Urban Recovery Plan (128 hits)
President Barack Obama convened a meeting with community advocates, political leaders and policy experts on Monday to help create an ambitious agenda to overhaul the nation’s urban centers where millions of African Americans call home... “This is a subject that's near and dear to my heart,” Obama told the group that gathered at the White House Monday.
“I've lived almost all my life in urban areas. Michelle and I chose to raise our daughters in the city where she grew up,” Obama said. “And even though I went to college in LA and New York, and law school across the river from Boston, I received my greatest education on Chicago's South Side, working at the local level to bring about change in those communities and opportunities to people's lives.”
The Obama administration created the White House Office of Urban Affairs in February to allocate funds to urban areas for a range of initiatives, including job training and the creation of new jobs. The president’s urban renewal plan – from neighborhoods to downtown corridors – also calls for creating more opportunities for minority businesses, establishing more affordable public transportation, raising the minimum wage, ending tax breaks for businesses that send jobs overseas, providing additional funding for community policing and ending racial profiling.
In February, Obama created an executive order that said about 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas, and “the economic health and social vitality of our urban communities are critically important” to the quality of life for all Americans. The order also said that a myriad of problems in urban America have been ignored in the past.
“What's also clear is we're going to need to do more than just help our cities weather the current economic storm,” Obama said Monday. “We've got to figure out ways to rebuild them on a newer, firmer, stronger foundation for our future. And that requires new strategies for our cities and metropolitan areas that focus on advancing opportunity through competitive, sustainable, and inclusive growth. And that's why all of you are here today.”
