Why I’m Voting for Barack Obama

I’ve been hesitating to post anything about national politics on my blog, as this is not a political blog. It’s a personal blog, and I’m personally much more interested in local policies and issues than I am in national ones. It’s not that I don’t care about things on a national level… I just feel like local issues are where I can personally make a bigger impact. I also feel that local issues often get overshadowed by national politics. When was the last time you attended a City Council meeting?

That being said, a series of events over the past week have gotten me to change my mind. Allow me to rewind to last Friday (the 19th of September) to explain.

That afternoon I got a phone call from a friend who works at the Statehouse. He wanted to know if I’d be interested in speaking on a panel on Monday to discuss Obama’s Plan to Stimulate Urban Prosperity. It’s a plan I’m familiar with, but hadn’t yet spent a lot of time really reading through and thinking about at any great length (what can I say, I’ve been busy). I agreed without hesitation and was emailed some information about the event over that following weekend to get me prepared.

For those who are unfamiliar, Obama’s Plan to Stimulate Urban Prosperity is a series of initiatives to restrengthen the core areas in the United States where our population centers, job centers, and cultural centers exist. For the past fifty years, most major metropolitan areas in the United States have experienced a downslide in terms of quality of life. We’ve been hit especially hard in the Midwest. Some will say that the problem lies with “suburban sprawl”. Some will say that the problem lies with “white flight”. No matter what sort of label you put on it, the problem ultimately lies with an imbalance in government funding supplying sloppy unplanned growth with federal infrastructure subsidies.

A perfect local example of this is how no one blinks at new of a new $134 million dollar highway interchange, but people come screaming out of the woodwork at the idea of a $100 million dollar modern Streetcar line to connect urban neighborhoods.

Businesses and residents alike have been relocating further and further outward for decades because of the promise of newer infrastructure, safer and cleaner environments, and greener pastures for everyone while those left behind in the urban core have been left with decaying systems and the problems that grow out of them. Only in the past few years are we all starting to realize that this type of unplanned and sprawling growth is not sustainable and ultimately we all suffer because of it. A city can only be a strong as it’s core, and our emphasis needs to be rebalanced.

Allow me to state quickly that I am not anti-suburb. I don’t think our problems are going to be fixed by gas prices jumping to $10 a gallon and everyone magically moving back into downtown areas across the country.  For a number of reasons to long to list in this already long post, it’s just not going to happen that way.

What we do need though, is a restructuring of our development priorities. Not everything has gone to waste in our urban areas, and there is a lot there to salvage. Essentially, Obama’s plan is to shift support back into those areas and encourage new development where that potential currently exists. Provide opportunities for more affordable housing, workforce training, education, and re-establish sustainable communities across the country. A major investment in the working class of our country and the infrastructure around them. Something we’ve been missing for far too long.

The details of the plan are worth reading in their entirety before continuing to read my post here. So go ahead and go read it. Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you. Done? Ok…. let’s move on.

As I started to read through the info that Saturday and Sunday, and investigate some of the other panelists, I began to realize that this was a much bigger deal than what I first assumed. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman was hosting the event, as well as sitting on the panel. Historic icon Earl Graves would be joining us from New York City.  Cassandra Butts, Obama’s Senior Domestic Policy Adviser was also to be present. Anthony Houston with the Ohio Board of Regents was coming down from Cleveland, and Pirette Talley, Secretary-Treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO was headed in from Toledo. Somehow I start to feel like the “outsider” getting ready for an event in my own neighborhood with an audience mostly composed of my own neighbors. A strange feeling, but I’m excited nonetheless.

Monday evening rolls around, and the event kicks off with a tour of the King Lincoln District, the neighborhood just east of downtown that I call home. The neighborhood is being touted as a prime national example of a core urban area with potential to bounce back from hard times and once again become a thriving community. We toured several of the success stories of the neighborhood, including the historic Lincoln Theater, which is currently being renovated for a Spring 2009 grand re-opening, Zanzibar Brews, a new coffee shop in the Gateway Building, and Urban Spirit, another coffee shop on Long Street that features community events. I can’t tell you how much my spirits were lifted to hear Earl Graves (who is originally from Bedford-Stuyvesant) stating that the neighborhood reminded him of his neighborhood on the brink of a rebirth. Later on at the forum, he publically stated that if he were a younger man today, he’d be investing in the King Lincoln District after seeing the potential on the tour.

So after the tour wrapped, we headed a block over to the King Arts Complex to start things up. There were some great introductory remarks from Mayor Coleman and Earl Graves before our Moderator, Rick Wade started things off. I thought I’d be able to listen to one or two of the panelists to get a handle on how questions would be answered before I was called on to speak, but nope… I got the very first question: What did the tour reveal to me? Sort of an odd question for the guy who lives in the neighborhood and hits the local coffee shops several times per week, but I felt like I did a decent job hitting the ground running and concealing my nervousness as well. To paraphrase myself, I responded with acknowledging the fact that the success stories in the KLD have been able to happen with a great combination of public and private investment from the city and neighborhood levels, but no national government assistance has been available, thus impeding the process of turning around our neighborhood more quickly and more easily. If we want to see our inner cities return to their former glory, something at the national level needs to happen, and Obama’s Plan for Urban Prosperity looks to fill that gap perfectly.

After that, time seemed to fly by, questions continued to come, and the panelists said some inspiring things. I linked last week to a great write-up of the event on PolitickerOH.com here if you’d like to read about the whole event. There were a few good questions from the audience, and some that were just a bit weird. But I guess you’re always going to get stuff like that in a “town hall” type event. Some people just want to be heard… they don’t really have a question. And that’s fine.

The key moment for me came from a man in the audience who expressed concern with how the people who provide services (teachers, police, etc) to our inner city don’t reside in the inner city, but in the suburbs, thus negatively impacting how taxes and neighborhood cohesiveness can truly mesh.  He wanted to know if Obama’s plan addressed this issue, and Cassandra replied to him stating that while the plan didn’t specifically address that issue, it was something that she would take back to Barack to help shape these policies going forward. You could feel a palpable shift in the collective mindset in the room at that point that this was not a propaganda-push… it was Obama collecting input on shaping his policies directly from folks in the King Lincoln District in Columbus, Ohio. If there were any McCain supporters in the room (doubtful) I think even they would have been impressed by that moment.

Anyway, the panel wrapped up and we were off to dinner shortly after some informal chatting with members of the audience. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to meet so many people that evening and be inspired by what they had to share.

The Obama camp has reached out to me in a way that I never thought they would and asked me to be a part of the conversation. I was planning on voting for him anyway, but after Monday night I knew there was more I needed to do, online and off. I’ll be sharing some additional information over the next month regarding Obama’s Plan for Urban Prosperity and how I think that could directly benefit urban life in Columbus, Ohio.

And just to make things fair and balanced… I’ll be waiting with open ears for that phone call from the McCain camp.