How does a city get rated as the best place in America? Ask Bert Sperling. He's the man who developed the methodology for the first Best Places to Live software - the software commonly used to rank and rate cities on all kinds of quality of life indicators. He is the CEO of Fast Forward, Inc., headquartered in Portland, Oregon, which produces the Sperling'sÊBestPlacesÊweb site.

His calculations will determine how your city ranks as a good place to live, start a business, own a pet, find a date  even have an allergy. He is our guest on "Smart City."

Also with us is Mark Muro fromÊ. Mark has just completed a study on the real cost of Smart Growth, and we'll ask him what he found.

Mark is senior policy analyst in economic studies for The Brookings Institution, an independent, nonpartisan education and research organization based in Washington, D.C. He works withÊ. He was formerly Senior Research Analyst at Morrison Institute for Public Policy in Tempe, Arizona.

His just-released discussion paper for Brookings, co-authored by Robert Puentes, is titled, "Investing in a Better Future: A Review of the Fiscal and Competitive Advantages of Smarter Growth Development Patterns."