Spectral lines: The cities´ dark side

Would it were that Spectrum´s Bicentennial look at the next century U.S. cities might suggest a fulfillment of the idyllic line sung perennially, if unthinkingly, by thousands of school children ¿from sea to shining sea.¿ Unfortunately, A. P. Adamson´s thought is far more realistic. And yet it is precisely this dualism ¿ the ideal vs. the real ¿ that best characterizes both this issue of Spectrum and the endeavors of engineers, architects, and urban planners who devote themselves to getting from ¿here to there¿: from disorder to order, from the present to the future, from the real to the ideal.