Change, over time, is a force that can dramatically alter our world. And change is what the future is bringing us.

Changes that took place during the 20th century offer an illustration of how deeply a society can be altered. We entered the last century living on farms and small towns, but by the end of the century we had moved to the cities and the suburbs. We were a nation of big families and multigenerational households at the beginning of the century, but by the end of it we had become a nation of small families and people living alone. We began the century on horseback and ended it riding in gasoline powered horseless carriages.

During this same period Tulsa moved from being a little town with a muddy Main Street to a large metropolitan area with interstate highways connecting us to destinations throughout North America and airline flights connecting us to countries around the globe. Route 66 was created, flourished as one of the major travel arteries of America, and then fell into disuse and abandonment.

The last century was a period of extraordinary changes. The current century will see changes that, although different, may be even greater in their impact on our lives.

Two decades into the current century we are seeing the effects of an accelerating pace of change, but the impacts of many of the changes already in motion have not yet themselves fully felt in our society. We can identify many of the forces of change that will mould our future. We can speculate on where they will push us. In this part of the study we will offer what we can call "informed speculation" about possibilities and probabilities for what our future will be, or can be.

The future will be shaped in large part, of course, on changes happening on the national and global levels, on forces beyond our local control. In our own city, however, we retain the power to direct these changes in ways that will fit our own priorities and values. This is why imagining the future of Tulsa is important. Imagining it is the first step in making it reality.