This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, March 26, 2019. I'm Caleb Brown.

How should once great cities recreate themselves? How does a city that aspires to be cool actually earn that reputation.

How should local and state officials remove themselves to allow urban centers to thrive?

Greg Brooks is president of the newly founded Better Cities project to be discussed why city leaders

ought to be more proud of good infrastructure and work to avoid the expensive shiny new objects

downtown.

For the most part, state-based think tanks, they focus on issues in the capital.

That's right.

And they focus on what is this issue, how will this help the average person in every part of the state?

That's right.

But in every state there are of one or two or a few cities that are the economic engines of the state. They are quite often the

cultural engines of the state and to the extent you want to go visit the city and take in all of the

amenities that go along with being in a city that's the place you go to and it should be a welcoming inviting place

for everyone in a state or an area to come to. Right. So why are so many large cities in America hollowing out?

Well, I think it's a case of good intentions gone awry.

For example, you have to draw a distinction between economic

prosperity, which is what I would say America has been seen in the suburbs

for 50 years or more and increasingly in the excerpts as well.

Versus economic development, which is what cities increasingly rely on when they look at that success and they say how can we engineer that?

The process of cities hollowing out has been organic and largely driven by individuals and

organizations pursuing their own enlightened self-interest.

The process of trying to fix it has at its worst been an exercise in central planning that would made the

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