Obama Knows Jane Jacobs

Last summer in Toledo, former mayoral candidate Keith Wilkowski handed Barack Obama a book, saying it is the most important book about rebuilding cities. Obama responded, 'Is it Jane Jacobs?'

1 minute read

January 7, 2009, 9:00 AM PST

By Tim Halbur


'This is a great book,' Obama continued, using it as a jumping off point to discuss the importance of regional thinking.

BeyondDC, the blog that picked up the story, says," Judging by his seemingly interested flipping-through, maybe Biden has read it by now too.

What this means for cities is that Obama 1) cares about how they function, and 2) understands. Even if he can't make every decision from the urbanist perspective, that's probably more than any prior president can claim."

Monday, January 5, 2009 in BeyondDC

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