Investing in Urban Centers Key to Growing New U.S. Economy: Brookings

(International Business Times) — The key to kick-starting the U.S. economy and create hundreds of thousands of desperately-needed jobs lies in developing America’s one-hundred largest cities, according to a report from Bruce Katz, Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C.  “If we unleash the energies in our [metropolitan areas], we can compete with anyone,” Katz wrote.  “Our 100 largest metropolitan areas constitute a new economic geography, seamlessly integrating cities and suburbs, exurbs and rural towns. Together, they house almost two-thirds of our population, generate 74 percent of our gross domestic product and disproportionately concentrate the assets that drive economic success: patents, advanced research and venture capital, college graduates and Ph.D.s, and air, rail and sea hubs.”

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