Ralph Nader suggests that the fatal flaw in all urban policy efforts may be the reliance on the Department of Housing and Urban Development as the focal point of all the approaches to revitalizing cities and metropolitan areas.
HUD has to be an important cog in any new efforts to establish a workable urban-metropolitan policy, but it is folly to look on the department as the centerpiece. Urban needs extend beyond affordable housing. Jimmy Carter was wise in broadening the scope to include other Cabinet offices in the urban policy mix, but he left HUD as the key decision maker. In the end the other Cabinet offices began to worry that their funds, staff and power would be eroded. And in such situations, the officeholders always decide to scuttle the ship. This bureaucratic hurdle has to be removed if we truly are interested in developing and managing an urban policy which stretches across the interconnected problems of housing, health, transportation, education, jobs and livable wages.
Thanks to Michael Dudley
FULL STORY: Bureaucratic Impediments to a Much Needed Integrated Urban Policy
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