Reinventing America's Legacy Cities: Strategies for Cities Losing Population

By The 110th American Assembly

While most U.S. cities are rebounding from their nadir a decade or two ago with healthier downtowns, neighborhoods, and local economies, other cities with rich historical heritages and valuable resources for the nation’s future are experiencing severe population loss. These cities face daunting challenges as they struggle to manage new demographic, economic, and spatial realities and the political, psychological, and legal hurdles that accompany them.

Traditional thinking about urban policy and planning, with its relentless focus on growth, doesn’t offer much in the way of either vocabulary or framework for discussing these places. 

In April 2011, the Center for Community Progress and the Center for Sustainable Urban Development co-sponsored the 110^th American Assembly in Detroit focused on building strong policies to assist these “legacy cities.”

At Community Progress, we use the term “legacy cities,” to identify those American cities that have rich histories and assets, and yet have struggled to stay relevant in an ever-changing global economy.

The project was co-chaired by Henry G. Cisneros, former mayor of San Antonio and Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Gregory S. Lashutka, Senior Consultant, Findley Davies and former Mayor of Columbus, Ohio.

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