Table of Contents:
  • 1. Green initiatives, the environment, and natural resources : The greening of American cities ; The best bike-sharing program in the United States / Tom Vanderbilt ; Streetcorner serenade for the public plaza / Michael Kimmelman ; Ten urban experiments that your city should adopt / Sasha Abramsky ; New-age Central Parks / Rutherford H. Platt and Peter Harnik ; Aging pipes are poisoning America's tap water / Alana Semuels ; Climate change crusade goes local / Doug Struck
  • 2. Cost of living and changing demographics : The modern urbanite ; The end of the suburbs / Leigh Gallagher ; Get out of town / Nicholas Lemann ; Baby boomtowns: The U.S. cities attracting the most families / Joel Kotkin ; This is the most economically segregated city in America / Alan Pyke ; Mini-D.C.'s: a small-city boom revitalizes downtowns once left for dead / John Woodrow Cox ; How suburban are big American cities? / Jed Kolko ; Foreclosures fuel Detroit blight, cost city $500 million / Christine MacDonald and Joel Kurth
  • 3. Economy and industry : Jobs, opportunity, and innovation in urban environments ; The nation's future depends on its cities, not on Washington / Michael Hirsh ; Can tax breaks for big corporations turn around one of America's most dangerous cities? / Lidia DePillis ; How American sports franchises are selling their cities short / David Uberti ; Why millennials still move to cities / Kevin Maney ; Why are there so many shuttered storefronts in the West Village? / Tim Wu ; Why American cities are fighting to attract immigrants / Ted Hesson
  • 4. Crime and policing : Law and disorder ; Inner-city violence in the age of mass incarceration / Heather Ann Thompson ; Two architects of broken windows policing go on the defensive / Eric Jaffe ; The militarization of U.S. police : finally dragged into the light by the horrors of Ferguson / Glenn Greenwald ; City life / Jelani Cobb ; The myth of police reform / Ta-Nehisi Coates ; Is a new crime wave on the horizon? / Mariano Castillo
  • 5. Architecture and the arts : Urban beauty, functionality, and culture ; Why public art is important / Jared Green ; Local urban culture goes global / Jeroen Beekmans ; Pop-up salvation / renĂ©e e. hoogland ; Can Chicago become America's next great city for artists? / B. David Zarley ; Why cities can't afford to lose their artists / Richard Florida ; Cities create music, cultural festivals to make money / Chad Kaydo ; High line your museum / Jonathan Massey ; New York City rethinks art for the masses / Jennifer Smith ; Embracing graffiti could help contain it, save Tucson money / David J. Del Grande
  • 6. Politics and education : Managing the future ; In major U.S. cities education "reform" opponents take to the streets / Amy Dean ; Charter schools continue dramatic growth despite controversies / Joy Resmovits ; The rise of the progressive city / Michelle Goldberg ; The revolt of the cities / Harold Meyerson ; The gentrification effect / Thomas B. Edsall ; These American cities are fighting for control over electricity and the Internet / Max Holleran.