Urban Opportunities in the New Millennium : An Introduction

This issue of Cityscape examines how social, economic, and technological changes pose immediate and long-term challenges and opportunities for cities and, as a consequence, for national urban policy. The authors? perspectives raise vital questions about the shape, substance, and function of urban and regional places in an increasingly interdependent and competitive global economy. They provide both retrospective and prospective insights into the ways in which poverty, immigration and migration, economic globalization, and technological innovation affect public-sector choices for urban communities approaching the turn of a new century. The central theme emerging from this collection of articles is that the responses of the past will not necessarily provide a path to the future. Cities must innovate and adapt when seeking solutions to problems caused by rapid changes in their environment. Flexibility and creativity are key to designing public policies to deconcentrate poverty, increase opportunity, and furnish a better quality of life. For example, the continuing loss of jobs and population in many large cities can be reversed only with public policies that profit from the emerging global economy. Cities must strategically adapt to the information age by mobilizing public and private resources to be successful in our new, highly competitive economic environment