From the article: "Much of the anti-poverty proposal, which is one of several initiatives that Mr. Obama is calling “ladders of opportunity” to help more Americans reach the middle class, would actually not require new legislation or spending."

You want a ladder of opportunity? Don´t get pregnant if you are not married and have no way of supporting yourself and your child. And graduate high school.

That´s the ladder of opportunity, Obama. DAMMIT!

Sort of what the Republicians wanted to do some 20 years ago with tax incentives but were stopped by the progressives? No, I´m sure Obama wants to make the areas worse not better. More of what caused the problme is not a solution but more of the same stupid policies is all Obama ever wants to do.

All business done outside the "Promise Zone" will be taxed and regulated at a higher rate to make the Zone appear better.

Like "Green Energy" or Health Care ....the trick is to kill the alternatives.

Just read the history of Progress Plaza in Philadelphia. Then go to YouTube and see the implosions of some of the public housing towers which were top of the line when they were built.

Kind of like Enterprise Zones which exist in a number of states. This looks like a way for the Feds to take them over and hand out goodies to their pals.

Why doesn´t he just call it "the Promised Land" and be done with it? This is just another ´get whitey´ scheme to pay off his ignorant, lazy base.

Urban reparations?

Gee, you think he might have tried this with his Health Care initiative. You know, test drive before you buy.

...But wait! Van Jones(?) & U.S. Rep. Cleaver(D-Mo.) already tried that idea a few years ago in the old neighborhood in K.C. Mo., and the decay & crime situation in that, ´Green Zone,´ has become even more dire than ever. Better check the results of that fiasco before extending that already failed statist policy throughout the entire country! -YIKES!!!

#7 beat me to it - this is nothing but more reparations. The only way any of these communities will ever be "revitalized" is for blacks to take responsibility for their heinous culture and fix it.

So, how did "long-distressed areas" become "long-distressed areas"?

Maybe it´s that sneaky Higgs boson the physics boffins have been chasing?

Definition of a "Promise Zone": Urban areas controlled (ruined) by local democrat politicians and voting 80% democrat or greater on election day.

Oh, and this expansion is because the Great Society programs are working so well?

The age-old HUD housing program to mix "moderate and low income" homeowners in one neighborhood really worked. Not. It just turned "moderate income" neighborhoods into slums. (This I witnessed first-hand when as a young couple we were renting a wonderful duplex on a street of brick duplexes with beautifully landscaped yards and children playing safely outside. Changed practically overnight. It took no time at all for us to become literally the only Anglos on the streeet, and shortly our house was robbed and we, too, exited.)

Obama´s plan is wrong on so many levels.

Maybe Obama will get American and foreign companies like Apple to move say to a Detroit inner-city "Promise Zone" to train and hire inner-city residents to put their electronic gadgets like i-pads together. But if that were to happen, and all those inner-city people were earning a wage and off welfare, what would be the next mission in life for the socialist urban liberal Democrats?

And just who in the Obama administration will funnel money to Chicago´s real estate developers like Obama´s buddy, Allison Davis? This has Valerie Jarrett´s fingerprints all over it.

Can´t wait to read the whingings of dupes who stood there for Obama photo ops and then got stiffed bigtime after the cameras departed.

Just another way to direct public money to Democrat cronies and unions.

The outcome of similar projects in the past is the best indication of howwell these Promise Zones will work. There are plenty of examples from the US and EU and from the old Soviet Bloc.

Howver even studying the outcomes from roughly seven decades is unlikely to be of much value becaue the consultants and academics hired to prepare the studies will be the same gang that has predicted every single project of the past would be a glorious success.

And glorious success is what they will predict again. And again.