#161 Spring 2010 — Organizing Post ACORN

Adolfo Carrion: A Brief History

First it was the Office of Urban Policy. Then, at the time of its launch in 2009, it quietly turned into the Office of Urban Affairs: a small, but interesting […]

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development

A formatl headshot of Adolfo Carrion, with the American flag just behind his right shoulder. He's wearing a suit and red tie, and is smiling.

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development

First it was the Office of Urban Policy. Then, at the time of its launch in 2009, it quietly turned into the Office of Urban Affairs: a small, but interesting name change. Its director, Adolfo Carrion, the former Bronx borough president once rumored to be in the running for HUD secretary before President Obama tapped fellow New Yorker Shaun Donovan to head the agency, was at the helm of an upstart White House office. The office was supposed to represent something of a pipeline between the West Wing and respective urban city halls.

Just over a year later, Carrion has left his post, being named HUD’s regional director for New York and New Jersey. Carrion’s tenure as President Obama’s point man on urban issues at the Office of Urban Affairs was short and mostly uneventful, characterized by a muted tone that contrasted with the high level of anticipation it had generated, a reflection of the ethos that “urban policies are the rules and incentives that shape the prosperity, equity, and environmental sustainability of the metropolitan regions in which 8 in 10 people live,” as Xavier de Souza Briggs, associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, wrote in Shelterforce just before the 2008 elections.

A new director for the Office of Urban Affairs as not yet been named, and we’ll be watching how that office takes shape anew moving forward. Certainly we wish Carrion well, but we’d like to see that foundation really take hold — soon.

OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE

  • Volunteerism in Community Development: Going Beyond a Helping Hand

    September 2, 2010

    The 2008 presidential campaign showed us another side of volunteering. It drew literally millions of people, many for the first time, into the electoral process. But beyond political campaigns, can volunteerism provide increased capacity for communities and community organizations?

  • Who Knew? Oh Yeah, We Did

    September 2, 2010

    In the November 1999 issue of Shelterforce, Ralph Nader wrote: A study released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) last month found that consolidation in the banking industry just […]

  • In Land We Trust

    September 2, 2010

    The Community Land Trust Reader, edited by John Emmeus Davis. Lincoln Institute, 2010, 616 pp. $35 (paper).