When a bunch of sad, terrified, self-medicating Stranger editors sat down after the defeat of John Kerry four years and three months ago to write "The Urban Archipelago," none of us foresaw that, four years later, we'd have the most urban president in modern memory.* (For all hope and optimism in that essay, it's striking to go back and find this pessimistic prediction: "An urbanist agenda may not be a recipe for winning the next presidential election—but it may win the Democrats the presidential election in 2012 and create a new Democratic majority.") Well, not only did the winner of the 2008 presidential election live and get his start in a big city and rise to power on an agenda that reflects urban values, he believes so much in the importance of cities from a policy standpoint that he said early on he thinks the White House needs an Office of Urban Affairs. He signed the executive order last night. It's short. You can read it here. Here's the first paragraph:

About 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas, and the economic health and social vitality of our urban communities are critically important to the prosperity and quality of life for Americans. Vibrant cities spawn innovation, economic growth, and cultural enrichment through the businesses, universities, and civic, cultural, religious, and nonprofit institutions they attract. Forward-looking policies that encourage wise investment and development in our urban areas will create employment and housing opportunities and make our country more competitive, prosperous, and strong. In the past, insufficient attention has been paid to the problems faced by urban areas and to coordinating the many Federal programs that affect our cities. A more comprehensive approach is needed, both to develop an effective strategy for urban America and to coordinate the actions of the many executive departments and agencies whose actions impact urban life.

In his introductory remarks—transcript is here—Joe Biden said, "We know how important cities are," and went on to talk about jobs:

Sixty-five percent of our nation's population, as you all know, live in our cities. Our cities are the home of 7 out of 10 American jobs. And when you're talking about the knowledge economy jobs, the number rises to 8 in 10, 8 out of 10.

Then Obama said a few words:

And one of the great pleasures of running for president was having a chance to see great work on renewable energy in Des Moines, or, you know, seeing what kinds of wonderful companies are being created in Seattle...

And threw in a shout out to Greg Nickels for good measure:

You know, instead of debating the existence of climate change, mayors like Greg Nickels in Seattle are leading efforts to make cities greener and more efficient. Instead of just talking about health care, mayors like Gavin Newsom in San Francisco have been ensuring that those in need receive it. Instead of wringing your hands over poverty, you've got Antonio in Los Angeles making relentless efforts to alleviate it.

You can quibble (as Erica has, here, here, and here) with upholding Greg Nickels as the best example of environmentalism out there. Or become annoyed that, even though Joe Biden says in his remarks today that you can visit www.recovery.com to see how the government is spending taxpayer dollars (because this is the most transparent administration blah blah), when you go to www.recovery.com right now you end up on a strange web page called Onvia that seems to want to sell you something. Or, more to the point, you can argue that more bureaucracy (creating a new office in the White House) is not necessarily a good thing, even if it's in support of something—the American city—you think matters. But today has to go down as a good day for anyone who bridled at Sarah Palin's branding of small-town America as "real" America. Remember all that garbage? Doesn't it seem like that happened years ago?

UPDATE: Even though the transcript in the Washington Post has Biden's words as "We've already set up a Web site, Recovery.com..." a commenter points out that the site is Recovery.gov. Weirdly, Recovery.com in the last 10 minutes started routing automatically to Recovery.gov. So, forget that aside there.

* Internal affairs disclosure: Not only did none of us predict that we'd have an urban president in four years, none of us (except Savage) predicted that the essay would survive the test of time—at the time, most of us saw it as an entertaining piece of performance. During the writing, most of the editorial staff kept arguing that what the piece outlined was not a platform, was not plausible policy, was under-researched and put together under duress. There was a moment after it was underway when everyone except Savage was against doing it. It was Savage's idea. Rip me apart in commenters for praising Savage if you like, but it'll go down as one of his finer moments: when it's you against Feit/Barnett/Nelson/Wagner/etc., well, that's a tough fight. Savage's attitude was something like, "Fuck you, we're doing it." It's highly annoying and very lucky that Savage is often right. And, while we're on the subject, the polymathic fact filter that is Annie Wagner's mind helped enormously that week, too. You are missed, Annie.