Posted on 02/21/2009 5:11:43 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Change comes to America, as promised by President Barack Obama, with the establishment of the brand new White House Office of Urban Affairs.
This new presidential urban power house is a critical need according to the former community organizer and agitator, because "urban areas are where 80% of the American people live and work."
Heading up this high level operation is the controversial Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion along with second in command, New York Governor Patterson's Washington lobbyist Derek Douglas.
Michael Mcauliff of the New York Daily News reports Obama's announcement.
"The Urban Affairs office will focus on wise investments and development in our urban areas that will create employment and housing opportunities and make our country more competitive, prosperous, and strong," he said by way of explaining the new office.
Carrion's appointment is seen by some as a nod to Latino voters who helped put Obama in the White House. Obama has already named two Hispanics to his cabinet, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Labor Secretary-designate Hilda Solis.
Douglas started working for Gov. Paterson in 2007, lobbying for the state's interests after working for the Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank headed by John Podesta, who ran Obama's White House transition.
Others dispute the accomplishments of the Bronx President, noting that the major urban development projects for which Carrion takes credit were made possible by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A website established by Bronx residents to "tell the rest of the story", countering Carrion's public relations office, writes:
As for urban development, the major projects that have moved forward in The Bronx during the past seven years were all generated out of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office.
Carrion has shown no real initiative to rebuild The Bronx's economic standing, and at best has stayed out of the way while other offices worked. The Bronx's unemployment rate is still the highest in the State, and its poverty rate is still one of the highest in the nation. That was true when Carrion came into power, and that remains true today. Has Carrion been effective in changing that? Clearly, the answer is no.
One thing that may boost Mr. Carrion's and Mr. Douglas's popularity among Obama's inner circle of power is their record of success at pleasing Big Labor by keeping American's favorite store, WalMart, out of every borough of New York City. Much to the detriment of consumers, New York City unions and their friends in high places have kept prices high and choice restricted for low income consumers.
Great. Let’s see if he eliminates the now-redundant HUD Department.
What a great name for the first guy to hold the position: Carrion, makes me think of Obama as a vulture feeding on carrion
“wise investments and development in our urban areas”
There are still some vacant lots from the 60s riots around.
Wonder if wise=rate of return in money or votes.
Pick the blue states with the most electoral votes. Now add the red states that have large urban areas. Now add a combination of ACORN and large payoffs to the Democratic machines of these large cities and you control the electoral college forever.
For example, if Obama can get control of Philadelphia and those precincts have a 90% “turnout”, then Jumpin Joe Biden doesn’t even have to go to Scranton in 2012 and pretend to be a blue collar guy. And Obama doesn’t have to bother himself by going to the rural areas where all those people cling to their God and their guns.
Elections have consequences.
Carrion? Bring on the vultures!
Keep it up, loon.
X-42 had some urban affairs too.
What is a New Urban Affairs Czar and why do we need one? In fact, I didn’t know we had an old one.
Dissing us country bumpikins Obama?
Get ready to see the cities of Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago look like the Gilded Age; meanwhile, us folks who (as our feckless cokehead president espoused), “cling to our guns and religion” will just be responsible for paying for the inner-city renaissance.
Obammy’s Czars are the real cabinet and they don’t have to go through the inconvenience of obtaining Congressional approval.
Maybe it should focus on keeping urban mayors out of jail.
Another Czar. Just what we need.
If I recall (and I may be wrong) our first Czar was Richard Nixon’s “Energy Czar”. He was supposed to have complete authority over energy policy for the duration of the “energy crisis” and was expected to “fix” the problems that led to it. Neither Congress nor Nixon were going to give him that authority and even if he did he wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it short of aborting Nixon’s price controls and invading Saudi Arabia.
Alas, Ronald Reagan gave us our first “Drug Czar” (along with the illegal alien amnesty this worse mistake in my opinion) and Clinton gave us our first “Aids Czar”. I seem to remember reading about any number of federal, state and local “Czars”. None of them have had absolute authority much less anything like the competence to do the jobs that were purportedly expected of them.
So now we have an “Urban Policy Czar” who will get a nice office, a sizable staff and a comfy salary but who won’t really do much. The whole “Czar” thing has become a public relations gimmick that is no longer effective (Mr. President please see “Rules For Radicals #7.) If history is any judge, now is not a good time to be living in an “urban” part of the country.
It’s time to end the reign of the Czars. As a good Marxist you’d think that President Obama would see that Lenin had one good idea in his whole life and that America should go with it.
Suggested title for this new office -- Slum Czar Millionaire.
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick, former mayor of Detroit, was charged with a felony.
Richard Michael Daley, current mayor of Chicago, has been involved in a number of scandals - including the destruction of a downtown airport in the middle of the night.
Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr., infamous mayor of New Orleans, has presided over massive spending and precious little recovery in his city.
Michael Anthony "Mike" Nutter, mayor of Philadelphia, is governing over one of the more violent cities on Earth. Since last year, 8 police officers have been murdered while on the job. Mayor Nutter seems unmoved to action over these killings.
Would this office fix these problems?
I can see the headline now: “OBAMA APPOINTS CARRION”
Waiting for the proposed “Homeland Security Force”. A vote on the uniforms (we’re thinking a nice shade of brown) is forthcoming.
“Your safety is our main concern, Citizen. Now please, step into that line and have our papers ready.”
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