Ebook: Regenerating America's Legacy Cities

From the 1960s through the 1980s, the nation's older industrial cities fell into near universal decline resulting from waves of deindustrialization and population loss. While some have continued on a downward spiral in subsequent decades, others have shown strong signs of revival since the 1990s, when a renewed interest in urban living and growth started drawing significant numbers back to live, work, and trade in metropolitan centers. This report identifies 18 U.S. cities in various stages of recovery and suggests that new physical and economic forms and innovative governance models are necessary to overcome the powerful obstacles in the way of urban progress.