A new condominium building in an old waterfront section of San Francisco sparks up the neighborhood with its serrated facade. 'When I was looking for an apartment, I saw the facade and immediately called my real-estate agent,' says Mark Chila, a resident of 616 20th Street in San Francisco. 'I was lucky: the condominiums were almost sold out.'

Cleveland's three largest employers'Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals'sit just shy of East Cleveland, the most bombed-out part of town, where foreclosures and population decline have taken the highest toll.