Photo by Bob With.

This is the second of two stories examining President Obama’s record on urban issues. Read the first here, and read about the Republican presidential candidates' positions here.

The conversation about cities today often centers on “creative class” innovation, urban design, and transportation alternatives. But it’s going to take a whole lot more than flashy New Urbanist condo developments and bamboo bikes (awesome though they are) to turn American cities around. Deep seeded social and economic issues still cripple much of urban America, ranging from abysmal public schools to a criminal justice system that creates huge race and class disparities.

President Obama gets this, at least on paper. Here he is in a speech, made on the campaign trail in 2008, talking about poor urban neighborhoods:

Photo: Racoles It’s safe to say that Barack Obama came to the White House with more street cred than any president in recent memory. As an African American, Obama was certainly privy to the forces of institutional racism that still shackle much of urban America. Before he got into politics, he worked as a civil rights lawyer, and before that, he worked as a community organizer in the mean streets of Chicago. (You will recall that Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin took turns mocking him for that last one at the 2008 Republican national convention.) When Obama became president, hopes were …

Joost Notenboom and Michiel Roodenburg.On July 4, 2010, Joost Notenboom and Michiel Roodenburg set off from Deadhorse, Alaska, on a more-than-18,000-mile journey to the southern tip of Argentina. Their chosen mode of transport: bamboo bicycles. Their mission: to raise awareness of the global water crisis that leaves more than 1 billion people without access to safe drinking water. Eighteen months, 14,000 miles, and 62 flat tires later, we caught up with them just long enough to ask a few questions about their trip so far -- and their plans for when they finish, which, if all goes as planned, will happen …

Photo: United NationsGarbage. It's wonderful stuff. You can do so much with it! Harvest gas from it to fuel your airplanes, build a boat out of it and sail around the world, or make a giant junk mosaic. Heck, if you're plucky enough, you can feed a family on the stuff. If it gets too stinky, blast it with giant deodorant guns! "Waste management" kept groceries in Tony Soprano's fridge, no? But you know what they say about too much of a good thing. When the garbage piles up, it can be bad news. Remember the Chicago couple who were …

If Newt Gingrich were backpedaling any faster on climate change, he might actually come full circle and turn into Al Gore. But what can the man do? He’s totally damaged his right-wing reputation by believing in science and giving a crap about the future survival of anything. What Republican can run with the hideous heart of environmentalism beating under his floorboards? That scene on the love seat with Nancy Pelosi was bad enough. Now it turns out Gingrich -- or at least his co-editor -- was planning to include a whole chapter on climate change in a new book about …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSYAOr0xUUo&feature=player_embedded If you had $7 million to use on behalf of the residents of your poorest slums, how would you distribute it? For Medellin, Colombia, that's a no-brainer: Blow the whole wad on a MONSTER ESCALATOR. Wait, wait! It’s actually a good idea. The giant escalator helps slum residents get to their hillside homes from the city center -- a nonsensically steep climb of more than 1,200 vertical feet. To fully appreciate how radically this thing changes the landscape of the slums, you need to watch the video above -- the BBC reports that the moving stairway turned a more-than-30-minute …

Great news for folks who have watched the value of their exurban McMansions circling the drain over the past few years: These fringe habitations can be returned to nature to find new life as wildlife habitats. It’s basically the real estate version of composting. Okay, so there's not really an official effort to make subdivisions into sanctuaries, but apparently nobody told bears that. In Hopatcong, N.J., a cable TV repairman recently descended into 85-year-old Frank Annacone's basement and found a 500-pound black bear slumbering there. The folks at Gothamist dubbed it the "Reverse Goldilocks Bear," and in a true case …

Barbie’s finally got an awesome set of wheels to go with that solar-powered dream house. The good folks at the One Speed Go blog in Phoenix recently tipped us off to the Barbie Glam Bike, a sparkly pink beach cruiser with matching fenders and chain guard. What’s more remarkable, though, is the accompanying doll, who sports flat human-style feet (guess those pointy toes caused problems with the pedals) and authentic leg movement. This may be the first time something about Barbie’s physical features has been called "authentic." Given that bike-functional Barbie is coming out just a few months after the new …

These gents are putting the lie to myth No. 4 in a big way.Photo: Donna RutherfordHere at Grist, we are all about accuracy. So when it comes to bicycling, the pastime that can solve all of America's most pressing problems (well, most of them -- see, accuracy!), we're like heat-seeking missiles in search of myths and misinformation. Our goal is simple: to get you to trade in your four-wheeled gas guzzler for a lean, clean, calorie-burning machine. Here are the top 10 myths that we debunked this year, all linked up and annotated for your enjoyment. Read on, ride on …

Photo: John Monoogian IIII spent the day yesterday digging through 18 -- count 'em, 18 -- pages of search results in a quest to find Grist's Overarching Narrative of the Bike in 2011. I laughed. I cried. I almost blew tea on my laptop. Then I biked home on streets that were blissfully bereft of automobiles. Without further ado, I give you the good, the bad, and the pee-your-pants funny from the past year in bicycling. Watch for more bike-related highlights later this week.