"Obama Urges Mayors to Focus on Urban Growth, but Not to Expect Increased Federal Aid" NYTimes.com

Link: Obama Urges Mayors to Focus on Urban Growth, but Not to Expect Increased Federal Aid
John M. Broder
NYTimes.com
June 22, 2008

Senator Barack Obama told the nation’s mayors on Saturday that current urban policy was obsolete and needed to be replaced by a model that focused on rational metropolitan growth rather than chiefly on inner-city crime and poverty.

Drawing on his years as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said that while he intended to be a supportive partner if he won the White House, the mayors should not count on significant additional help from Washington. Change, he said, comes from the bottom up, not the top down.

Mr. Obama also said the federal government’s ability to help cities would be limited in part by a long-term budget deficit left by the Bush administration, which he called “the most fiscally irresponsible administration in modern times.”...