Progress Illinois

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is dedicated to restoring communities by "promoting walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl." Last month, CNU assessed where Barack Obama and John McCain "stand regarding questions and concerns of new urbanists." They described their methodology as follows: "We visited each campaign’s website and other news sites to find what information and position papers we could about energy and the environment, land use and sustainability, transportation, and urban policy."

Here's what they found on Obama's site:

The Urban Policy page includes a section titled “Strengthen Livability of Cities” and makes the following points:

• Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities: “As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the federal transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account.” [...]

A link from this section includes statements that an Obama administration would require Metropolitan Planning Organizations to create incentives for bicyclists and pedestrians, and that “…he will also re-commit federal resources to public mass transportation projects across the country.”

Further, Obama supports changing the tax code to “…make benefits for driving and public transit or ridesharing equal.” [...]

Building efficiency shows up under Energy & Environment, too. Obama supports a national goal of making all new buildings carbon neutral, or zero emission, by 2030. This includes improving new building efficiency by 50 percent, and existing building efficiency by 25 percent “over the next decade” to meet that 2030 goal. [...[

Under Transportation, Obama’s policies include support for Amtrak and development of high-speed passenger and freight rail, even while citing support continued subsidies for air travel to smaller cities: “Obama will work to improve the effectiveness of these programs and increase the availability of rail transportation options for residents of rural communities.”

So what did they find on McCain's site?

McCain's Issues page makes no mention of urban policy, transportation, transit, or energy.

Take a look for yourself. The McCain campaign has since added an "Energy" section. But other than that, there's still not any discussion of transit improvements or urban issues more generally.