In the first part, New York City, Denver, Houston, North East Ohio(Cleveland), and Detroit are mentioned by the author as examples of city case studies to make people to understand major cities situation in US after 2008 The Great Recession. These cases were obviously selected to illustrate diversity of metro types, and clearly demonstrates different cities has different issues.
In the second part of the book, on the other hand, the authors highlight the future of US metropolitan revolution in the line of innovation district by explaining making sense of innovation district. Then in the line of federalism;