As budget crunches slam cities and urban industry continues to decline, the divide in the US right now often looks as much like a split between cities and rural areas as it does between "red" states and "blue" states. So what would pioneering author and urban activist Jane Jacobs have said about it all? What about Robert Moses, credited with shaping the modern American city?

Roberta Brandes Gratz, author of The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, and John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, explain what can be done to rebuild American cities so that they are strong and work for everyone.

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