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New Orleans mayor Marc Morial captured the spirit of the urban renewal when he announced last year that the city was reviving the streetcar route along the Desire corridor. "People," he exulted, will once again "be able to ride a streetcar named Desire." "We're returning to the future." The 2000 Census suggests that cities all across America have been "returning to the future" as incubators of new businesses and catalysts of upward mobility for immigrants. Fueled by immigration, New York, Los Angeles, and Miami reached record population levels. Prosperity hit not only these and other fast-growing cities like Denver, Charlotte, and Columbus, but also so-called "dinosaurs" like Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City, all once given up for dead. Eight of the ten largest cities posted growth, and even those that continued to shrink, including Detroit, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, did so at much slower rates or in some cases nearly held even.

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