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This article addresses the economic changes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which have not been matched by appropriate changes in legal, political and financial institutions. The fundamental change in the state is mobility. And this means automobile. It is ease of movement that made metropolitan areas possible and it is ease of movement that will control their future. The number of automobile registrations in the state has grown from 44,255 in 1921 to 173,713 in 1940 to 325,409 in 1960. This leap forward in mobility made possible a far greater breadth of choice as to where one would locate. It brought to an end the need to cluster. One's place of employment plays a declining role in the family decision about place of residence. Similarly, the surge in automobile use had lessened the need for industry to locate on rail or water routes. Related to the increased economic unity and interdependence is an increased economic specialization among the municipalities of the state. This, too, grows out of the growth of mobility. The economic specialization refers to the kinds of land use on which the different cities and villages concentrate. The delicate grading of property specialization is possible only when there is a very large population to draw from. It is mobility which supplied that large population.