The Death and Life of Great American Cities is the Bible of urbanism. It is the most articulate case for what makes good cities good and bad cities bad that has ever been written in the English language.

President-elect Barack Obama has read it, and is a fan. See for yourself:

… Judging by his seemingly interested flipping-through, maybe Biden has read it by now too.

What this means for cities is that Obama 1) cares about how they function, and 2) understands. Even if he can’t make every decision from the urbanist perspective, that’s probably more than any prior president can claim.