The American metropolis at century's end is vastly different than what many
expected just 50 years ago. At mid-century, seers envisioned a clean, rati
onally planned city of the future, free of long-standing problems such as t
raffic and poverty. The reality is more complex. We built a new metropolis
that addressed some major problems while simultaneously creating a host of
new ones. The next 50 years will undoubtedly contain similar surprises.
In conjunction with the 1999 Annual Housing Conference, which looked at the
legacy of the 1949 Housing Act, the Fannie Mae Foundation commissioned a s
urvey that asked urban scholars to rank the key influences shaping the past
and future American metropolis. The "top 10" lists that resulted are the f
ocus of this article.