UNIT: Why Cities? The Importance of Cities Why Cities Matter, Edward Glaeser, The New Republic, 2010 Why are cities important? Cities represent agglomerations of people and economic activity, pockets of density that facilitate interaction and spur commercial and industrial development. In his book review of Chicago: A Biography, Glaeser argues that cities provide the spaces in which technological innovation and entrepreneurship occur. Chicago''s history as a port of immigration has also added to the city''s diversity, a key to its entrepreneurial and cultural vitality. The Metropolitan Moment, Bruce Katz, The Atlantic: Cities, 2011 Katz views metropolitan areas--cities and their suburbs--as the engines of national economic prosperity, the hubs in which technological advancement, public-private collaborations, and job growth occur. Katz argues for federal and state programs that will enable cities to continue to "grow jobs." UNIT: The Contemporary Urban Situation: The Growth, Decline, and Renaissance of Cities Then & Now: 1940-2010: How Has America Changed? United States Census Bureau, 2012 The 2010 U.S. Census underscores important changes in urban geography that have taken place over the last three-quarters of a century.

Urban centers in the Northeast and the Midwest have declined as population has shifted to the Sunbelt, that is, to the South and the West. Immigration from Mexico, other countries in Latin America, and Asia, has added to the racial and ethnic diversity of cities and suburbs. The United States has become a post-industrial society, with growth occurring in knowledge-based industries. Can older manufacturing cities find new roles to play in a post-industrial economy? Eds, Meds and Urban Revival, Rob Gurwitt, Governing, 2008 The loss of manufacturing jobs forced cities to undertake efforts to diversify their employment base. Large medical complexes and urban universities are major employers in the post-industrial city. Birmingham, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh have placed their new hopes on "Eds and Meds" to provide the research, talent, and competitive edge that will attract businesses and breathe new life into core urban areas. Can They Save Youngstown? Brentin Mock, Next American City Magazine, 2008 A large number of once-important industrial cities are facing a harsh new urban reality: They have lost both jobs and population that cannot be recovered. The crisis in the housing finance sector of the early 2000s further burdened these cities with the costs of taking care of vacant properties.

Youngstown--like Detroit, Cleveland, Dayton, and New Orleans--has responded with a creative policy of planned urban shrinkage, tearing down abandoned structures and attempting to repurpose vacant properties. Youngstown and numerous other cities have turned to greening the city, promoting community gardens, urban agriculture, and the enhancement of parks and bikeways that will help make the city more attractive to residents and prospective employers. Predatory Lending: Redlining in Reverse, Gregory D. Squires, Shelterforce, 2005 What caused the crisis in the subprime housing market, the flood of foreclosures on housing loans that devastated communities across the United States in the early twenty-first century? Conservative commentators blame the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) with its requirements that lending institutions make loans in inner-city areas. But is it fair to place such blame on the CRA, which was in existence for a quarter of a century before the home foreclosure crisis occurred? Squires points out that many of the foreclosures involved condominiums and expensive homes, properties where lending was not subject to CRA regulation. Squires argues that Republican-era deregulation, the loosening of government rules, enabled more unscrupulous lenders to employ deceptive and predatory lending practices that saddled borrowers with added costs and balloon payments and other repayment conditions that home owners could not meet. Out of Cash: The End of the Nation''s Largest Redevelopment Program, Josh Stephens, Next American City, 2012 Cities in the United States in the early 2000s were caught in a fiscal vice: In the midst of a prolonged economic recession, they faced new service demands from citizens at a time when property tax revenues and intergovernmental assistance (state and federal aid) were receding. In California, various state constitutional amendments impeded budget making by making it virtually impossible for state and local governments to raise taxes, even in response to growing need.

Governor Jerry Brown announced that the state had no real alternative but to make major cuts in urban aid programs. California eliminated state funding for local economic development programs that had previously served to promote the revitalization of troubled communities. Bridge Blockade after Katrina Remains Divisive Issue, Chris Kirkham and Paul Purpura, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 2007 Patterns of residential segregation in U.S. cities have clearly decreased over the years. But has the United States moved beyond issues of "race"? Or does race continue to influence the shape of American urban development to a greater extent than is commonly perceived? What exactly happened when, in the midst of Hurricane Katrina, a group of African-American evacuees attempted to flee flood-ravaged New Orleans by walking across the bridge to safety in suburban Gretna? UNIT: Gentrification, Globalization, and the City Movers & Shakers: How Immigrants Are Reviving Neighborhoods Given up for Dead, Joel Kotkin, Reason Magazine, 2000 Immigrants in Los Angeles and other cities are breathing new life into core neighborhoods that were suffering decline. Immigrant entrepreneurs are important assets in contemporary urban economies, providing just one illustration of how globalization affects cities. Swoons Over Miami, Saskia Sassen, interview by Christina Larson, Foreign Policy, 2010 Saskia Sassen is one of the foremost writers on the subject of globalization and its impact on urban economies.

Sassen identifies a number of the distinguishing features of a global city. She observes how Miami, once a rather provincial southern city, has been energized by many facets of globalization. Sassen further explains why, despite their giant size, she does not consider Lagos (Nigeria) and a number of megacities to be true global cities. Outsourcing: Beyond Bangalore, Rachael King, Bloomberg Businessweek Special Report, 2006 Bangalore is the computer and information technology center of India. In his book The World is Flat (2005), Thomas Friedman describes how digital technology facilitates outsourcing, how corporations have been able to shift back-office jobs and other clerical work to low-cost sites overseas. Bangalore became a city of call centers, where English-speaking service representatives answered questions from consumers in the United States and other English-speaking nations. U.S.

cities increasingly face economic competition not just from cities in India but also from even lower-wage sites in other countries. China Makes, the World Takes, James Fallows, The Atlantic Magazine, 2007 China has become the world''s factory, with low-wage city factories turning out goods that were once manufactured in more developed countries. Shenzhen has been transformed by policies in China that have emphasized rapid industrialization and urbanization. Once a rural area outside of Hong Kong, Shenzhen is now a city of 10 million people, a major center of manufacturing, port activity, and international finance. Fallows describes the forces of a competitive global marketplace and the policy steps that China has taken that have made it easy for manufacturers to shift production to China. The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida, Perseus Books, 2002 Economist Richard Florida argues that the most successful cities often owe their dynamism to their ability to attract young, talented, and creative professionals, a group he labels the creative class. He argues that knowledge workers seek living environments that offer not only access to good jobs but also a surfeit of lifestyle amenities and recreational activities. Successful cities are places of tolerance, with an openness that attracts creative individuals.

Success in attracting creative professionals, in turn, helps to make a city more attractive to new knowledge-based firms. Studies: Gentrification a Boost for Everyone, Rick Hampson, USA Today, 2005 Gentrification--the "discovery" and resettlement of inner-city neighborhoods by urban professionals--is often criticized for displacement, for generating pressures that force out racial minorities and the poor who can no longer afford the rents in newly fashionable areas. Urban planning professor Lance Freeman, however, argues that the ills attributed to gentrification are often exaggerated. Freeman further argues that neighborhood upgrading brings new opportunities, including improved public safety and upgraded municipal services that benefit the poor who continue to reside in the area. Freeman''s perspective is hotly contested. Freemans'' critics charge that his analysis understates the extent of displacement while overstating the benefits that gentrification brings to the poor. UNIT: Competitive Pressures and Economic Development Stop the Subsidy-Sucking Sports Stadiums, Neil deMause, The Nation, 2011 Business leaders often argue that a new sports stadium can be the key to a city''s rebirth. Yet, other studies reveal that public investment in a new sports stadium is likely to have only a minimal economic impact on a city''s economy.

Sports-related investment may even divert public funding and customer activity away from other.