There are some unique features in the way US cities are run and have evolved that shape many of the particular problems they experience and also their progress. The fiscal autonomy of cities and suburbs with the accompanying power to levy their own taxes allows cities to exercise strong leadership from within, but often leaves struggling cities starved of support. This contrasts strongly with European regions such as the Basque province with its strong devolved power but accompanying responsibility to support cities such as Bilbao. The US model creates serious distributional problems as the greater the urban problems, the higher the need for taxes, but the weaker the tax base, the lower the potential revenues as a result of poorer populations. Poorer declining US cities have far less resources than their European counterparts.

Suburban growth is decoupled from the city in the sense that each new suburban municipality has to raise its own resources for schools, transport and so on. This polarises the city and its suburbs, undermining common interest and focusing suburban wealth on the suburbs rather than the whole city on which they depend. This trend is somewhat countered by the outward movement of poorer households and the suburbanisation of poverty. In European regional and city structures, central governments and the EU play a far greater equalising role. There is far less urban investment and policy direction at federal and state level than in Europe. This makes the private sector far more important, but it also makes urban recovery slower and more difficult, due to the vast infrastructure costs of collective systems, such as public transport, education and welfare.

Over the last decade even the limited federal programmes that supported city recovery have shrunk. The much lower spending on welfare, public heath and social support shows up in high levels of inequality, absolute poverty, child development problems, poor health, poor schooling, high crime, and so on. Many government and Brookings Institution studies show these gaps. Levels of segregation in US cities are extremely high with concentrations of minorities in inner areas, particularly African-Americans, often reaching 80–90 per cent in many poor and segregated neighbourhoods.