Arrogance and Complacency Threaten America’s Superstar Cities

America's leading cities have become citadels of affluence, enjoying clustering effects as the most talented people from around the world flock to New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, where they exchange ideas, start companies and create enormous wealth. These same cites, though, have become complacent and arrogant under the leadership of politicians who assume that future prosperity is inevitable even amid their mismanagement and unwillingness to make needed changes that might incur the wrath of entrenched interests.

This can be seen in the decades of inadequate construction of housing and transit, which has led to exorbitant rents, snarled traffic and unreliable, and slow transit systems. The cities where predominantly young, well-educated and wealthy people have moved are victims of their own success.