Behind the Scenes of Obama's Urban Policy

While the White House Office of Urban Affairs has been a bit of a bust, it was only the most obvious part of the Obama administration's larger plan, says Murphy:

"Some of Obama's urban agenda went unheralded because it was tucked into the federal stimulus bill, particularly in the form of infrastructure improvements under the TIGER program. Aiding cities within the context of a broad $814 billion spending plan may have been unsatisfying to urban advocates who wanted a Marshall Plan for cities, but it was an easier political lift than approaching urban areas separately. "I think they saw an opportunity to fold some of these things in," [Harry Moroz of the Drum Major Institute says of the administration. "That was looking down the road and seeing that some of these things might be tough to get done on their own."