Urban dynamics-The first fifty years

Twenty-five years have passed since the publication of Jay W. Forrester’s Urban Dynamics. Any assessment of the condition of America’s cities today raises the question of what might have been had the model and the methodology been accepted as a central urban planning and policy tool. Instead of looking backward at what might have been, however, it seems more ulseful to look ahead at what still may be. Urban dynamics still has a role to play in our urban future; this article provides a backdrop for how that role might best be shaped.