President Obama seems to have put most of the legislative agenda on hold for the summer in order to focus on health care reform. While there hasn’t necessarily been a whole lot of movement from HUD or the President’s Office of Urban Affairs, news about staffing and the direction he will presumably take continues to be positive.

Today’s example comes from the Seattle Times, which recently ran a story about Ron Sims, former King County executive and currently the new second-in-command at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The two key points to take from the article are that:

1. Sims record as a proponent of Smart Growth came up during his interview process with Obama and was a major reason for his selection for a job in HUD leadership.
2. When deciding where to live, Sims choose a home in one of Arlington’s famous TODs in part because of its history as a Smart Growth model.