Senator Obama of Illinois rolled out a plan to cure the ills of urban America, just as one of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, John Edwards, wrapped up a three-day trip focusing on America’s poor.

In a speech yesterday in the capital’s poorest neighborhood, Anacostia, Mr. Obama scolded official Washington for turning a blind eye to obvious problems lurking not far from the city’s monuments and tourist meccas.

“The streets here are close to our capital, but far from the people it represents. These Americans cannot hire lobbyists to roam the halls of Congress on their behalf and they cannot write thousand-dollar campaign checks to make their voices heard,” Mr. Obama said, according to prepared remarks released by his campaign. “They suffer from a politics that has been tipped in favor of those with the most money, and influence, and power.”

Mr. Obama proposed national funding for a series of programs that he said have been proved to assist the urban poor. He said he hoped to “replicate” in 20 cities a widely acclaimed New York-based nonprofit that provides health care, after-school care, tutoring, and other services, the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Anti-gang legislation and police crackdowns are failing so badly that they are strengthening the criminal organizations and making U.S. cities more dangerous, according to a report being released Wednesday.

The report says Los Angeles and Chicago are losing the war on gangs because they focus on law enforcement and are short on intervention.

A Northwest Side man was found shot to death in his apartment Tuesday evening, and police are searching for his missing car.

A relative found Tomasz Rogalski, 23, of the 4600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue shot multiple times, Officer Amina Greer said.

A blue four-door 2002 Saturn with front-end damage and Illinois license plate of G793837 was missing from the apartment building, police said.

ON THE INBOUND RAMP: Many motorists pass the southwest corner of Ohio and Franklin each morning on their inbound trip downtown. Construction has started there on Silver Tower, a 229-unit condo project of Terrence Sommerfeld, owner of Oak Brook-based Metropolitan Real Estate Co. The building is 65 percent sold, and should open by May 2009.

REINVENTING ROBBINS: The dominant feature of the landscape in south suburban Robbins is vacant properties, many that are tax-delinquent. Chicago attorney Judd Harris has assembled a partnership that paid $1.3 million to get control of some 1,300 parcels constituting about a third of the village. He plans around 800 homes, with a count of 100 in the first phase.

Residents on the Southwest Side are up in arms over a series of incidents at a local park including a possible hate crime.

On Saturday night, 16-year old Richard Valdez was beaten into a coma in the park — possibly for racial reasons.

Residents said that same night, it took police 20 minutes to respond to Durkin Park Saturday night after a teenager plowed a car into a group, injuring eight people.

Chicago and the surrounding area have seen a wide array of different weather this summer. The city has seen extreme heat waves, heavy rain and storms that have knocked out power for days, and even some gorgeous 75-degree days. But this wacky weather is not over yet.

Public health officials said Tuesday that 636 people have reported becoming ill after eating at a food vendor’s booth at the Taste of Chicago.

Officials said more than 100 reports have come in since Monday.

Those who became ill said they ate at the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth at the yearly food festival.

The national headquarters of the Obama presidential campaign are in a Michigan Ave. highrise in Chicago. The campaign planned early on to open a more accessible place for volunteers to work and they have, on the tenth floor at 300 West Adams in Chicago.