New Federal Office of Urban Policy?

One of Obama's three transition team co-chairs, Valerie Jarrett, told reporters that Obama would create a new Office of Urban Policy. It is unclear what role the office would have, but its creation could herald a much greater federal involvement in urban planning and policy. While the police power - the basis of authority for state and local land use regulation - is impliedly reserved to the states through the Tenth Amendment, the feds could exert significantly more control over urban policy than they have historically. For example, they could put greater and/or more specific conditions on the allocation of federal money for transportation and community development projects. An Office of Urban Policy could also institute and oversee a much greater linkage between federal transportation, community development and other urban programs and grants and the agencies that manage them. Most people focus on the EPA and Interior, Agriculture and Energy Departments when discussing federal environmental policy, but federal policies on transportation and urban development have numerous direct and indirect environmental impacts and will play an increasingly important role in combating global warming.

Oh, and you can go here to vote on projects you think the new office should take on. The website was set up by the same people who created walkscore.com. Obviously there's no guarantee that the projects receiving the most votes will be pursued by the Obama Administration, but at least voting is kinda fun.