The Future of America's Cities

By Carl Schramm

For roughly 50 years America has observed the profound decay of a large number of her once most productive and wealthiest cities. These unhappy places have been concentrated in the Northeast and along the Great Lakes.

The past of every American city was messy and the future will be more so. Places that will thrive will do so because they are the home to smart and creative people who could largely care less if they are part of a cluster, the creative class, or a cog in a city’s master plan, much less a soldier in an ideological war. Individuals make the future and cities should strive to provide the basics to make it easier for them to get there. If sufficient numbers find success they will bring everyone else along. Simply, the future belongs to those who make it. They won’t try to make it if they can’t own it. [more...]