The American Downtown. Once we loved them. Then we left them. And now we're returning to them in increasing numbers as the urban core of cities all across the country are coming back to life. What has caused this change in American lifestyle? Why did we abandon them to begin with? And can this new revival be sustained. THE NEXT AMERICAN DREAM is an examination of the ways in which American cities - specifically our downtowns - will change and grow in the decades ahead. The post World War II American Dream led to the birth of the interstate highway system, suburbia, and an automobile driven society. Today, a host of unintended consequences of that dream - from environmental to social - are paving the way for the next one.
