US cities: different era, but what era is it?

I'm going to ask you to think wholistically about American cities. Throughout this forum, folks post pictures of in-fill, renovation, new construction, all the elements of gentrifiction. So many of these pictures seem to be shared with a desire to say "we've turned the corner in fill-in-the-blank city." Meanwhile our largest and most successful cities are experiencing major construction and appear to be evolving into something new, something more global. In some sense, we still are rooted enough in the past to be shocked and awed by the good things happening in our home towns.

But rather than look at our American cities case by case, if we look at them as a whole, as a concept, we need to ask ourselves:

what is this new era our cities are in?

Our cities took a beating after WWII with the loss of industrial jobs, the divisive issue of race, the rise of the automobile and its partner in sprawl, suburbia.

But whatever has happened in the past half century has changed. Our cities (for the most part) are no longer bleeding or hemraging. They've long since bottomed out and are showing innmurable signs of new and vibrant life.

Here's where we stand (as I see it)
1. cities are, once again, on the rise in importance
2. suburban areas realize that they cannot be healthy without a strong central city
3. our cities, more than any time in their history, are based on "life style" more than jobs. for better or more likely worse, money is the driving force of those life styles. The most important parts of many of our cities are unaffordable by all but the rich
4. as a result of #3, our cities are becoming places with fewer and fewer children and families
5. a stronger need for quality public transportation have served our cities well, far more than the previous car-worshipping era
6. despite the rise of our cities, suburban growth still outpaces the urban areas in our metropolitan areas.
7. our metropolitan areas are more and more being divided into "city people" and "suburban people", two groups seeking a whole different life style.
8. more so than in the past, our cities are falling into two groups....the few that are real global metropolises and those that serve only American (regional) purposes. These two groups of cities are, in fact, two entirely differnet entitities.

How would you describe and categorize the American city today?>