I think that pressure from urbanists would be necessary even if Obama was clearly committed to their (our) agenda, because any politician needs to be able to say that he/she is getting pressure from "over there", "over there" in this case being urbanists, for example.  So a friendly application of political pressure seems in order.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the overall image is of a decent local politician".  Adolfo Carrion is absolutely despised by people in the Bronx who care about the environment.  The guy helped to take away parkland away from some of the poorest people in the city and gave it to the Yankees (one of the richest sports teams in the world) so that they could build a taxpayer subsidized stadium (and parking) on free land! All the kids in the neighborhood now have to wait years for the replacement parkland to be constructed - and much of this new "parkland" will be atop of the new parking structures with artificial turf. It was such a despicable move that nobody here can understand why Obama would put him in charge of anything...unless politics is involved.

As for Adolfo Carrion being an urban planner - whatever.  He only worked for the NYC Department of City Planning for about 3 years.  Ever since then he's been working for his own political ambitions.  The way the Yankee Stadium deal was done violated many principles of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Code of Ethics, particularly with Mr. Carrion's role in locking out the public from hearings and stifling the community visioning process.  I would have liked to have gone after Mr. Carrion for violating this code, but since he never bothered to get accredited as AICP, I couldn't.  Unfortunately, in the planning world, any witch-doctor can hang out his shingle saying he's an "urban planner" and get away with it because the AICP credentials are merely voluntary. Adolfo Carrion has taken full advantage of this system to say he's a "planner" while routinely violating sustainable planning principles as well as our Code of Ethics.

the description of Carrion above reminds me of someone else who will shape urban policy within the administration: Valerie Jarrett, whom Mayor Daley appointed to chair the Chicago Transit Authority and sit on the the Chicago Plan Commission -- despite have no formal training in either of these crucial, complicated, and vitally important fields.