The Urban(e) President
Keleher via flickr; Chicago skyline, Atelier Teee via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
It has been a long time since the country has had a President who has spent most of his
life as a city resident. When Barack Obama went off to college, his first stop was in Los Angeles, the nation's second largest city. After 2 years at Occidental College, he left LA for New York and Columbia University, and he lived in the Big Apple for 4 years. He then went to Chicago in 1985 where he worked as a community organizer before heading to Boston in 1988, when he entered Harvard Law School. He spent his summer breaks in Chicago, and returned to put down roots in the Windy City when he received his law degree in 1991. The Obamas chose to live in the inner city neighborhood that surrounds the University of Chicago, where he taught, and decided to raise their family in that community, rather than move to the suburbs.
I bring this up because I think it can mean an understanding, in the White House, of the
the important role cities play in our national experience. Obama brings an intimate and personal relationship with city life that we haven't seen in the presidency for years. Sure, plenty of Americans live in communities that ring urban centers, but when you come from the city - your life is informed by the city.
With all the talk about the government having to pump gazillions of dollars into public
works projects, I hope that we see another period of great civic architecture, dynamic city planning along with a healthy dose of historic preservation, that can become the lasting legacy of this administration. After all, the President lives in one of the most beautiful cities in the country - how can that not affect him?
Posted by designslinger at 1/21/2009 9:55 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Urbanism, History, Preservation
Categories: Architecture, Urbanism, History, Preservation
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