Reviews of Lost Buildings. By Ira Glass, Tim Samuelson, and cartoonist Chris Ware.

Chicago: WBEZ and Public Radio International, 2004. 22 minutes(DVD) with 96 pp. hard cover (book). To go on sale Fall 2005(price not yet disclosed; currently available with $150 donationto Chicago Public Radio). http://www.thislife.org/dvd/     

Urban evolution in the USA

On a sustained basis, cities are of non-uniform relative sizes.This paper addresses three basic issues which arise from thissimple observation by examining the size distribution of UScities over the period 1900–1990. First, we explore thereasons why there is a wide distribution of city sizes. Second,we characterize the evolution of the size distribution of cities,documenting growth in sizes and numbers of cities. We ask whetherthe relative size distribution of cities has remained stableover time, or if it has displayed, instead, a tendency to collapse,flatten, or otherwise change its shape. We also examine evidenceon whether the size distribution obeys Zipf's Law. Third, weexamine the degree and determinants of mobility of individualcities within this distribution, asking to what extent citiesare moving up and down in the distribution and how this movementis influenced by cities' geographic characteristics. We usea newly constructed data with consistent metropolitan area definitionsover this century, discussing the issues and linking our resultsto the relevant literature.