Author’s Note:  This has been written with my deepest apologies to Martin Luther King for desecrating his 1963 March on Washington speech.  Also, this is a work of fiction, so any resemblance between the characters and any real individuals is coincidental.

Unfortunately, the art and creativity side of community planning tends to too often be lost under a sea of legalities, zoning administration, and other more mundane, day-to-day tasks.  This is especially evident in the area of planning literature, where the vast majority of articles deal primarily with the technical side of planning.

The author of the following piece, Rodney C. Nanney, AICP, is pleased to make better use of the right side of his brain by publishing another in our “planning fiction” series:

What you need to know: It’s 2027.  Automobiles have been gradually outlawed, except for emergency use, after an Islamist/neo-fascist terrorist group detonated a 100-megaton nuclear device in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia five years earlier.  The bomb caused a  series of chain reaction explosions and firestorms within the country’s oil producing infrastructure, culminating in an unanticipated but titanic detonation of the country’s underground reserves which obliterated most of the Arabian peninsula and destroyed or contaminated 90% of the world’s remaining oil reserves.

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Solar panels OK for home, legal battle over for Canton couple

The push for alternative and renewable energy production in Michigan received a small but important boost recently when a Canton, Michigan homeowners’ association (HOA) backed down from its initial decision to deny the installation of solar cells on the roof of a home.  Here is an excerpt from the Detroit Free Press article: (more…)