A couple reports

1.  Who’s Moving to the Cities, Who Isn’t: Comparing American Cities | A Center for Community Progress Research Brief

It looks at "some of the hype" about center city "comeback" looking at three demographics: Millennials; 34-44; and older Americans and three types of cities: magnets; Sunbelt; and legacy to determine which cities are successfully attracting desirable demographics.  It also finds that there isn't a pronounced trend of older demographic segments returning to the city.

2.  Illinois Waterways: A Crisis Continued, by the Infrastructure Committee of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

Wikipedia image of towboat and barge on teh Chicago River.

The US doesn't really have a national freight transportation policy and plan.  One element is barge-based shipping, which is used primarily for food exports.  However the Chicago Sun-Times piece "6-cent hike in diesel boat fuel tax urged to fund waterway fix," mentions that in Chicago, concrete producers rely on barges for their raw materials, eliminating more than 100,000 truck trips.

This relates to a point I made during the MoveDC transportation planning process, that the city could work to shift the delivery of raw materials to the city's concrete and asphalt plants to train, and the same for movement of the detritus of demolished commercial buildings.

Anyway, will the reality of the need to invest in the country's infrastructure lead Congress to approve gasoline and diesel excise tax increases?

So far it doesn't look good.