If Barack Obama’s soft spot for Detroit has you doubting his urban policy bona fides, Bruce Katz offers a few words of reassurance. The Stamford Advocate reports from Katz’s recent appearance before a Connecticut smart-growth group:

Katz is vice president and founding director of the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, an organization whose ideas are part of Obama’s urban agenda.

"This is the real deal," Katz said of Obama, hailing his plans for cities and metropolitan areas at Thursday night’s meeting of the 1,000 Friends of Connecticut in Norwalk.

Katz praised Obama’s June speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, while coyly turning aside speculation that he will head the new Urban Policy Office in the White House.

Speaking of which, we’re getting some intel on how that part of the executive will function. David Goldberg of Transportation for America informs us that "the office is conceived as something of a supercabinet position that potentially could coordinate policy among the Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, environment, public health and other arenas."

The folks behind WalkScore have launched a new web site to collect ideas for the Urban Policy Office. Voting up your favorite ideas is pretty addictive.