ABSTRACT
Race is the reason for uncertainty about prospects for cities and suburbs. African-Americans have made some income gains, especially when two-parent households are college educated. It was not necessary that cities would pay too little attention to the civic and neighborhood-stabilizing virtues of home ownership. Critics counter that regional governance is an even more utopian concept than revival of poverty areas through neighborhood self-help activities. Regionalism emerged before 2000 as a reinvigorated concept about how to improve conditions in metropolitan areas. Whereas regional governance attempts in the mid-20th century tended to emphasize how metropolitan governance could produce efficient and effective government and perhaps more equity, recent arguments have emphasized how regionalism can enhance equity in finance and service quality and contain suburban sprawl. Prospects for less sprawl, less concentrated poverty, and more reinvestment will be facilitated by altered beliefs and more attractive settings as well as by sounder public policies.
