Once inaccessible and crime-ridden, Charlottesville, Va.’s now-popular pedestrian mall offers a blueprint for other cities.

"Advanced industry" jobs are expected to drive economic growth. But cities must invest in training and education to build a qualified workforce.

License requirements are intended to improve the safety of services like nail salons. But in many other professions, the negative effects of licensing can outweigh the positive.

The rules that governments work under have little to do with reality.

Most cities are failing to tell their fiscal stories well or at all. New York and Chicago, though, offer models of true transparency.