The Metropolitan Revolution

Across the US, cities and metropolitan areas are facing huge economic and competitive challenges that Washington won't, or can't, solve. The good news is that networks of metropolitan leaders – mayors, business and labor leaders, educators, and philanthropists – are stepping up and powering the nation forward. These state and local leaders are doing the hard work to grow more jobs and make their communities more prosperous, and they're investing in infrastructure, making manufacturing a priority, and equipping workers with the skills they need.

In The Metropolitan Revolution, Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley highlight success stories and the people behind them.

• New York City : Efforts are under way to diversify the city's vast economy
• Portland : Is selling the "sustainability" solutions it has perfected to other cities around the world
• Northeast Ohio : Groups are using industrial-age skills to invent new twenty-first-century materials, tools, and processes
• Houston : Modern settlement house helps immigrants climb the employment ladder
• Miami : Innovators are forging strong ties with Brazil and other nations
• Denver and Los Angeles : Leaders are breaking political barriers and building world-class metropolises
• Boston and Detroit : Innovation districts are hatching ideas to power these economies for the next century

The lessons in this book can help other cities meet their challenges. Change is happening, and every community in the country can benefit. Change happens where we live, and if leaders won't do it, citizens should demand it.

Bruce J. Katz is a vice president at the Brookings Institution and founding director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.

Jennifer Bradley is a fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. She has written for The New Republic, the Atlantic Monthly, Democracy, and The American Prospect.