The Changing Shape of the City

As part of the plenary session at Rail-Volution, a conference dedicated to building livable communities, Robert Puentes discusses the latest demographic trends that are affecting the health and vitality of cities and first suburbs. He examines the positive and negative trends pulling metropolitan America in different directions. Some of these trends are encouraging for advocates of smart growth, transit-oriented development, and new urbanism while others are troubling and point to a new set of challenges.