Obama: Days of sprawl 'are over'

President Obama set the New Urbanist world ablaze with one sentence out of an hour-long town hall meeting in Fort Myers, Fla.:

The days where we're just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody recognizes that that's not a smart way to design communities.

This was part of a much larger response to a question from a Bonita Springs, Fla., city councilwoman, who asked him about transportation infrastructure spending.

See the Q&A here. The councilwoman's question comes around the 55:15 mark; Obama's reply begins at approximately 56:24.

The Washington Post has a transcript available here.

President Obama is saying the right things, but we must ensure his administration's policies follow his words. The economic stimulus bill cleared the Senate on a 61-37 vote, even as the president was speaking in Florida. It now goes to a House-Senate conference committee. Please press your representative and senators to heed CNU's proposal.