Barack Obama must show a bit more audacityBarack Obama must show a bit more audacity
Thursday, November 13th 2008, 4:00 AM
Expectations for Barack Obama, already high, jumped even higher when his aide and longtime confidante, Valerie Jarrett, announced that the President-elect plans to create a White House office dedicated to urban affairs.
That would make good on a promise Obama made in a June speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "We need to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution," he said. "Strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America."
Obama's point was that urban policy would be part of a broad plan to boost the economy of metropolitan areas, including suburbs.
That sounds great, but it lacks a certain audacity.
Properly done, an urban-affairs office could be the perfect place to mount a coordinated, all-out attack on the four horsemen of the inner-city apocalypse: street violence, poverty, poor housing and broken schools.
Violence in particular demands attention from Washington. Chicago, with less than one-third the population of New York City, has roughly the same number of murders.
The savagery of the killings is stunning. The nation recoiled in horror from the triple-homicide of members of actress Jennifer Hudson's family - but fewer took note of the chilling death of 13-year-old Sameere Conn.
A star athlete who kept out of trouble, Sameere was targeted by gangs for refusing to join. The gangbangers told Sameere that just saying no had earned him a spot at the top of their death list.
On Sept. 30, a gang gunman fired at Sameere as he fled from school to home, narrowly escaping. A bullet lodged in the door of his home. The very next day, while returning from playing a football game, Sameere was executed inside a local convenience store where he'd stopped to buy a snack. A 15-year-old is charged in the murder.
A society unwilling to protect a child from being hunted down and slaughtered does not deserve the term "civilized."
Obama's urban affairs office will have its work cut out for it. There are hundreds of stories like Sameere's out there.
New Orleans is the nation's murder capital, with the number of killings as a percentage of population far outstripping cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Memphis, all of which are battling severe problems.
Tucson has seen a record number of homicides this year, much of it gang-related. Here in New York, sections of Central Brooklyn and Southeast Queens have seen double-digit percentage increases in murder.
The good news is that the leaders and tools needed to put things right are neither secret nor unavailable.
In Boston, a crisis of youth violence was halted when inner-city ministers began walking the streets with cops and probation officers. They presented a united front to would-be gangsters, simultaneously offering a choice between the carrot of entry in jobs programs or the stick of law enforcement.
We've had a decade of research and innovation on re-entry programs that help ex-inmates find work, housing and other basics upon returning from prison. That's a critical way of breaking the cycle of crime and violence plaguing the inner city.
Schools - public schools, charters, vouchers and community colleges - all need support. The same Congress that hastily signed over trillions with minimal oversight to stem the financial crisis can surely find a few extra billions to spend on jobs, teachers, literacy programs and the like.
It all depends on how serious Obama is about tackling the toughest urban problems.
We shall see.
elouis@nydailynews.com
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/11/13/2008-11-13_barack_obama_must_show_a_bit_more_audaci.html Back | Print version | SEND ARTICLE VIA E-MAIL
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