Infrastructure 2007 – A Global Perspective, Urban Land Institute (69 pages, PDF): “Today, more than ever before, the ability to build, maintain, and finance infrastructure has become a crisis for communities around the world. Infrastructure is the skeleton around which the city is built. Ranging from radial hub and spoke systems, new town centers, villages, corridors and endless sprawl, infrastructure dictates how we move people and goods. As public funds dwindle, and support through taxation becomes an unviable solution, the private sector, awash in investment capital and looking for secure assets is coming to the rescue. Urban infrastructure has begun to develop as a major investment class promising both an income and capital return.”