Barack Obama is creating our country’s first Office of Urban Policy to revitalize our cities.  Front Seat (makers of Walk Score) just launched ObamaUrbanPolicy.org, a site that lets you submit and vote on the top priorities for this new office.

Take a look at the top priorities and cast your vote!

More on Front Seat: We build civic software—software that makes it easier to participate in your government or community.  This week we also launched ObamaCTO and you can check out our full list of projects here.

We’re excited that the Cascadia Region Green Building Council’s Living Building Challenge guidelines now include using Walk Score to aide in site selection. The GBC recommends not building within the 100 year flood plain “unless part of an existing historic community core developed prior to 1945, or a location classified by Walk Score (www.walkscore.com) with a minimum rating of 70.”

We’ve also had a number of people mention to us that Walk Score might be an easy way to calculate the Community Connectivity credit in the LEED Green Building Rating System.

Today we’re announcing our walkability rankings of 2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 U.S. cities. Leave us a question or comment on this blog post—we’d love to hear what you think! You may want to read our detailed methodology before posting comments.

More importantly, we need your help to create more walkable neighborhoods. Please sign this petition to Congress to support walking, biking, and transit in the 2009 Transportation Bill.  The Transportation Bill only comes along once a decade—so now is the moment to change our transportation priorities!

There’s a compelling new book out that makes a strong case for walkable, urban neighborhoods actually being more affordable than their suburban counterparts. Growing Cooler argues that once commute time and transportation costs are taken into account, living in less dense areas can become more expensive than living in dense communities where a car isn’t as necessary to get around.

There’s a great article supporting Growing Cooler’s point, citing evidence that housing values in denser neighborhoods are holding steady or rising. This is in contrast to the steep drop-offs seen in suburban areas outside cities.

This Growing Cooler movement really challenges the old real estate saying, “Drive ’til you qualify”.