A new book from the Manhattan Institute, available for free download, argues that cities will have to full embrace experimentation and evaluation to be true laboratories of innovation.
Edward Glaeser pens the Foreword to a new book, The Next Urban Renaissance, available for free from the Manhattan Institute:
"What public-policy innovations can make cities better places to live? A large number of American cities—from New York to San Francisco—have experienced remarkable rebirths over the past 30 years. But their success has made housing less affordable and traffic congestion worse. Even America’s most successful cities contain large numbers of poorer citizens left behind by the urban renaissance. Can creative public policy reduce the downsides of density and improve economic opportunity in urban America?"
According to Glaeser, the book offers a collection of essays on these subjects, but with an eye toward the private sector: "The common theme of the papers is to innovate, evaluate, and leverage the remarkable private talent that is so abundant in America’s great cities. Public capacity is sharply limited; the ingenuity of urban entrepreneurs seems practically boundless. Local governments should be more entrepreneurial and do more to use the talents of the entrepreneurs around them."
FULL STORY: THE NEXT URBAN RENAISSANCE

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