Urban Engines Of Economic Growth

Americans mythologize the frontier, the cowboy, the yeoman farmer — taming the soil and the wilderness.

But the reality today is that the United States is a mostly urban culture. More than 80 percent of Americans live in cities or metropolitan regions.

So arguably the "Real America" is downtown America.

Our guest today says, as Washington squabbles over yet another debt limit showdown, wallowing in partisan gridlock, cities are moving on with business.

It is cities, not the federal government, that are the engines of economic prosperity and social transformation.

Jennifer Bradley, co-author of The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros are Fixing our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy.