Obama’s Urban Legacy: The Limits of Braiding and Local Policy Coordination/

We examine the distribution of selected place-based urban assistance grants provided by the Obama administration to the 50 largest U.S. cities. Our analysis contributes to understanding Obama’s urban legacy by separating planning from implementation grants, distinguishing between policy domains, and acknowledging the limitations of local policy coordination. Facing staunch Congressional opposition to its urban agenda, administration officials encouraged local participants to finance their revitalization projects by braiding (seeking resources from many sources and coordinating and integrating existing federal funding streams locally to create comprehensive, synergistic initiatives). However, braiding was not always successful. Cities struggled to win federal grants in multiple policy domains and to coordinate the use of grants they did win, as braiding made an already difficult process even more demanding and complex.