Announcing the White House Urban Affairs Website

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Announcing the White House Urban Affairs Website
Posted by Adolfo Carrión, Jr on March 01, 2010 at 04:57 PM EST
I’m happy to announce that today we launch the White House Urban Affairs website. This effort is an important addition to our ongoing conversation on the Future of America’s Cities and Metropolitan Areas. We have already met with many urban stakeholders, elected officials, and academics; and we’ve been around the country visiting places that are on the cutting edge of urban innovation. But today we are establishing a more direct relationship with you - the American people. You are the ones that are innovating every single day – you are the innovators. You tackle government bureaucracy with creativity and leadership; you overcome a slow economy with public-private partnerships; and you turn distressed neighborhoods around with determination, hope and, above all, hard work.

The President knows that government doesn’t have all the answers. He knows that the best solutions come from you in places like Auburn Gresham in Chicago, South Lake Union in Seattle, and the small city of Flagstaff, Arizona - just to name a few. We know there are many more out there and we want you to share them with us.

This website is guided by the principles articulated in the President’s Executive Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government:

•Transparency promotes accountability;
•Participation strengthens decisions; and,
•Collaboration enables other to help.
Here’s how the website works: on our Initiatives page, you get a glimpse of the work we are doing to align Federal urban policy, like our Urban Tour and our Inter-Agency working group on urban policy. At our Innovation and Ideas page, you’ll have a chance to submit your ideas and best practices. And of course, you can find my staff and I blogging on the work that we’re doing, and you can learn more about our office in the About Us section.

In the coming weeks and months we will continue to update and improve our site so that we are able to have a productive and efficient conversation on the Future of America’s Cities and Metros.

Adolfo Carrión, Jr is the Director of the Office of Urban Affairs and Deupty Assistant to the President