The study of urbanization processes and urban spaces is contentious and problematic. Different disciplines focus on different processes and ways of knowing, and urban life—its contexts and problems—is tugged and twisted in so many directions that it is difficult to know the appropriate questions to ask, let alone to articulate future research directions. Mayors and other city leaders are concerned about civic boosterism and the quality of life in their cities, planners try to manage competing claims on space and movement, and environmentalists grapple with degradation and equity, while economists conjure up more appropriate models of development and growth. The urban arena is a context for competing intellectual claims and traditions that at times converge on consensus but more often than not garner dissent. We forefront our appraisal of the subfield with a contention that guides most of what is to follow. The contention is important because it necessarily limits the kinds of research we talk about. We argue that with the emergence of a more sophisticated articulation of spatial theory in the last decade, geographers are now well positioned to say something important about the urban issues that are shaping the new millennium. This sea change occurred in the 1990s and now places many aspects of geographic research at the forefront of urban analysis. The articulation of spatial theory comes in large part from two sources: first, critical geography with its focus on the spatial construction of social life and, second, from emerging ideas about technology and space. It is not our intention to dismiss the importance of empirical and interpretative studies, which are discussed tangentially in relation to the central theoretical themes of the chapter. In this review, however, we emphasize the articulation of spatial theory as a significant development in urban geography as we enter the twenty-first century. We begin in the first main section by picking up where “The Urban Problematic” left off in Geography in America (1989). We describe the ways in which American geography is rising to the challenge of understanding the tremendous changes that are underway in cities and argue that the work of urban geographers focusing on the roles of space and scale is critical to understanding these changes.