America's Top-Rated Cities is a four-volume set, each book covering a specific region of the United States - Southern, Western, Central, and Eastern. Each volume includes statistical information and other data in one easy-to-use source on cities which have been cited in various magazine surveys as being the best places for business and living. Book jacket.

This book provides a comprehensive and detailed investigation of a major U.S. city, examining topics that include the economy, demographics, transportation, housing, and race. The book examines the changes that have occurred over the past three decades, exploring the factors associated with those changes and discussing future prospects.

America's Top-Rated Cities is a four-volume set, each book covering a specific region of the United States - Southern, Wstern, Central, and Eastern. Each volume includes narrative city backgrounds, statistical information, rankings, and comparative data in one easy-to-use source, on cities that have scored high marks on economy, education, health care, crime, transportation, leisure activities, and arts & culture. the final list of top-rated cities is derived from our unique rating system, which is based on a number of well-known "best of" lists and firth-hand experience

TheStreet.com Ratings Guide to Health Insurers is the first and only source to cover the financial stability of the nation's health care system, rating the financial safety of more than 6,000 health insurance providers, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and all of the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans - updated quarterly to ensure the most accurate information. The Guide also provides a complete listing of all the major health insurers, including all Long-Term Care and Medigap insurers. Our Guide to Health Insurers includes comprehensive, timely coverage on the financial stability of HMOs and health insurers; the most accurate insurance company ratings available-the same quality ratings heralded by the U.S. General Accounting Office; separate listings for those companies offering Medigap and long-term care policies; the number of serious consumer complaints filed against most HMOs so you can see who is actually providing the best (or worst) service and more. The easy-to-use layout gives you a one-line summary analysis for each company that we track, followed by an in-depth, detailed analysis of all HMOs and the largest health insurers. The guide also includes a list of TheStreet.com Ratings Recommended Companies with information on how to contact them, and the reasoning behind any rating upgrades or downgrades.

Great American City demonstrates the powerfully enduring impact of place. Based on one of the most ambitious studies in the history of social science, Robert J. Sampson’s Great American City presents the fruits of over a decade’s research to support an argument that we all feel and experience every day: life is decisively shaped by your neighborhood. Engaging with the streets and neighborhoods of Chicago, Sampson, in this new edition, reflects on local and national changes that have transpired since his book’s initial publication, including a surge in gun violence and novel forms of segregation despite an increase in diversity. New research, much of it a continuation of the influential discoveries in Great American City, has followed, and here, Sampson reflects on its meaning and future directions. Sampson invites readers to see the status of the research initiative that serves as the foundation of the first edition—the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN)—and outlines the various ways other scholars have continued his work. Both accessible and incisively thorough, Great American City is a must-read for anyone interested in cutting-edge urban sociology and the study of crime.

A glance at a list of America's fastest growing "cities" reveals quite a surprise: most are really overgrown suburbs. Places such as Anaheim, California, Coral Springs, Florida, Naperville, Illinois, North Las Vegas, Nevada, and Plano, Texas, have swelled to big-city size with few people really noticing—including many of their ten million residents. These "boomburbs" are large, rapidly growing, incorporated communities of more than 100,000 residents that are not the biggest city in their region. Here, Robert E. Lang and Jennifer B. LeFurgy explain who lives in them, what they look like, how they are governed, and why their rise calls into question the definition of urban. Located in over twenty-five major metro areas throughout the United States, numerous boomburbs have doubled, tripled, even quadrupled in size between census reports. Some are now more populated than traditional big cities. The population of the biggest boomburb—Mesa, Arizona—recently surpassed that of Minneapolis and Miami. Typically large and sprawling, boomburbs are "accidental cities," but not because they lack planning. Many are made up of master-planned communities that have grown into one another. Few anticipated becoming big cities and unintentionally arrived at their status. Although boomburbs possess elements found in cities such as housing, retailing, offices, and entertainment, they lack large downtowns. But they can contain high-profile industries and entertainment venues: the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Arizona Cardinals are among over a dozen major-league sports teams who play in the boomburbs. Urban in fact but not in feel, these drive-by cities of highways, office parks, and shopping malls are much more horizontally built and less pedestrian friendly than most older suburbs. And, contrary to common perceptions of suburbia, they are not rich and elitist. Poverty is often seen in boomburb communities of small single-family homes, neighborhoods that once

"Many cities have a rich past. No one knows if many have a future" Richard C. Longworth Caught in the Middle, 2007, p. 28 "In the last six decades, no stagnant or decaying city has been globally or signifi cantly saved - never" David H. McDonald "More and more, federal and state governments are growing their already out-of-control fi nancial problems. Cities are on their own to sink or swim, now more than ever" David H. McDonald "Only two states in the nation have, over time, lost population. If the states are gaining population but the cities are losing, then it is the cities' fault" David H. McDonald "Occasionally a city will, usually by accident, 'back into' attempting growth in the right manner. It always works" David H. McDonald "Virtually no city has a workable vision of how to even achieve stability - let alone a return to vibrancy. Th is book presents such a vision and a clear path to beginning the process of stabilization and growth" David H. McDonald "Whatever is going to save your cities, it won't be government. Both political parties are largely trapped in the past, driven by a desire to protect old sacred cows"

Each volume in the widely-successful Working Americans series focuses on a particular type of American and illustrates what life was like for that group from the 1800s to the present time. The volumes are arranged into decade-long chapters, each introducing to the reader three individuals or families. Individual profiles examine life at home, life at work, life in the community, family finances and budget, cost of living and amusements. To further the reader's understanding of the time period, profiles are supplemented with national current events, economic profiles, an historical snapshot, news profiles, local news articles and illustrations derived from popular printed materials. Profiles cover a wide range of ethnic groups and span the entire country, providing a thorough examination of all types of Americans in that particular group. From a wealth of government surveys, social worker histories, economic data, family diaries and letters, newspaper and magazine features, these unique volumes assemble a remarkably personal and realistic look at the lives of Americans. For easy reference, Volumes II through VIII contain an in-depth Subject Index to make sure that the reader can locate specific information quickly and easily. The Working Americans series has become an important reference for public libraries, academic libraries and high school libraries. These volumes will enrich the reader's understanding of American history, through the eyes of its people, and will be a welcome addition to all types of reference collections.