How can the United States create the political will to address our major urban problemspoverty, unemployment, crime, traffic congestion, toxic pollution, education, energy consumption, and housing, among others? That's the basic question addressed by the new edition of this award-winning book. Thoroughly revised and updated for its third edition, Place Matters examines the major trends and problems shaping our cities and suburbs, explores a range of policy solutions to address them, and looks closely at the potential political coalitions needed to put the country's "urban crisis" back on the public agenda. The problem of rising inequality is at the center of Place Matters . During the past several decades, the standard of living for the American middle class has stagnated, the number of poor people has reached its highest level since the 1960s, and the super-rich have dramatically increased their share of the nation's wealth and income. At the same time, Americans have grown further apart in terms of where they live, work, and play. This trendeconomic segregationno longer simply reflects the racial segregation between white suburbs and minority cities. In cities and suburbs alike, poor, middle class, and wealthy Americans now live in separate geographic spaces. The authors have updated the case studies and examples used to illustrate the book's key themes, incorporated the latest Census data, and drawn on exit polls and other data to examine the voting patterns and outcomes o