Prince of the City?” … Plans are Underway to Establish a White House Office of Urban Policy…”

Out of the Spotlight

Postings for November 11th

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Prince of the City?

According to WAPO۪s always reliable news hound Al Kamen, “plans are underway to establish a White House Office of Urban Policy to better coordinate federal efforts to help cities nationwide,۪ said Valerie Jarrett, co-chairman of the Obama transition team. He’s going to have a White House chief of urban policy,۪ Jarrett told the Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists.” Apparently, no leads yet on who President-elect Obama plans to tap for the post. “I’m sure there are plenty of candidates. It’s a great job,۪ Jarrett said.”Apparently, Obama remains committed to his early campaign pledges to establish such an office as a way to focus attention and resources on urban poverty and other challenges. “Because he began as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, he understands [that] the local level is really where you can impact change and that local government can play a vital role aswe try to jump-start our economy,۪ she said.”

(Posted by Mike, November 11)

It۪s Academic

The nation۪s elite universities are an entrepreneurial bunch, always eager to spot an important issue and establish some sort ofcenter or institute to focus on it.So, it says a lot that two of the very top-tier institutions Georgetown and Stanford have recently set up centers on poverty and opportunity and recruited top-notch directors to head em up.

On the east coast, Georgetown۪s prestigious law school has started the “Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy,” headed up by three long-time DC policy luminaries, Mark Greenberg, Peter Edelman, and Harry Holzer.Attracting Greenberg was a special coup for Georgetown few wonks are as well-regarded and influential as Mark (who۪s a Spotlight advisor).The Center will convene top researchers, advocates and policy, focusing on new ideas and solutions in the areas of poverty, opportunity and economic disparities.One major focus in 2009 will be expanding the EITC for childless workers.

Out in northern California, Stanford University, not exactly a slacker either, has set up”The Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality,” which seeks to become a “one-stop” interdisciplinary clearinghouse for students, scholars, policy-makers and people interested inrecent research and national trend data on poverty and inequality. The Center has launched a nifty new magazine called Pathways to highlight policy debates about wealth and poverty in America; two excellent issues have been published, and are available at www.stanford.edu/group/scspi.The Stanford Director is David Grusky, a highly-respected economist, who has written extensively on the topic.The Stanford project has already co-sponsored activities with Spotlight.

The new centers at Georgetown and Stanford join several other units, including John Edwards۪ “Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity,”at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and federally-supported centers at the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin (Madison), and others.

BTW: the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity has just named a new director: Professor Gene Nichol. Set up in2005, a key mission of the Center is “to provide a non-partisan interdisciplinary forum to examine innovative and practical ideas to move more Americans out of poverty.”

(Posted by Mike, November 11)

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Golden Girl

Congrats from OOTS to Olivia Golden of the Urban Institute.We۪re not shouting out about the successful completion of the Urban Institute۪s series on “The New Safety Net.” We۪re shouting about Olivia۪s recent (and, as she notes, first) marriage. The lucky guy is fellow policy wonk and demographer Bill Frey at Brookings where he specializes in demographic issues, including urban populations, migration, immigration, race, aging, political demographics, and the U.S. Census. Congratulations to them both– we know that this marriage was made in think tank heaven- and will be as successful as the other Brookings/Urban union- the Tax Policy Center!

(Posted by Jodie, November 11)

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Mobility Director on the Move

Our loss is the Buckeye State۪s gain but Margy Waller, the Executive Director of the Mobility Agenda is headed back to her home state of Ohio. Starting in January, she۪ll become the Vice President of Arts and Culture Partnership for Cincinnati۪s Fine Arts Fund. Most recently, Margy has been the driving force behind the Mobility Agenda, where they work to shape the debate of our economy and labor market. She previously held positions at Brookings and was a Senior Advisor on domestic policy in the Clinton/Gore White House. Obviously, Margy is someone with many talents and interests we۪re sure to continue to see her star shine.

(Posted by Shelley, November 11)

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Breadlines

The Eos Foundation, an original Spotlight funder, is working hard to help address the triple threat from foreclosures, fuel, and food thatface families in Massachusetts.Mari Berrara, Vice President, reports that the Massachusetts hotline run by Project Bread, historically gets about 90 calls per day at the start ofNovember;this year is different on November 3, 2009 they logged more than 350 calls.Be sure to visit Spotlight۪s IN THE NEWS and Spotlight۪s IDEAS in ACTION to learn of current developments and strategies to tackle the increasing challenges driven by the recession.

(Posted by Jodie, November 11)

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Speaking of Stars .

We hear that economist extraordinaire Heather Boushey is leaving the Hill, from her position as a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee to go to the Center for American Progress. Which is good, because we were beginning to wonder if anyone was still working over there.Prior to her stint on the Hill, she was at the Center for Economic and Policy Research where she studied the labor market, social policy and work and family issues. We hear that at CAP she۪ll be splitting her time between general stat slinging on the economy and digging into work/family issues.

(Posted by Shelley, November 11)

Here at“Out of the Spotlight”we love rumors and gossip (at least of the non-malicious type), so if you hear names that you think we should pay attention to, drop us a line at eithermlaracy@aecf.orgorwatersboots@hotmail.com. We۪ll post new names as we get em! Of course,OOTSdishes on much more than who might be on the dream team. Check out”Out of the Spotlight”for our take on behind-the-scenes policy sparring, the twists and turns of political plans, and more. Contributions welcome!