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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“What do Planners do?”

The Zoning Guru has been asked variations of this same question many times.

Urban Designer… Developer… Zoning Officer… Master Planner… Planning Commissioner… Elected Official… Grant Administrator… Advocate the public interest… Department Manager… Consultant… Teacher… Coordinator… Downtown Redevelopment Specialist… etc., etc.

Planners wear many hats, and specialize in many areas of community building. Here is The Zoning Guru’s first attempt at…

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Community planning tends to be an odd mix of science and technical know-how with art and creativity. Unfortunately, the art and creativity side can 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.

We at Building Place are pleased to make better use of the right side of our brains by publishing another in our “planning fiction” series of short stories or vignettes…

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Community planning tends to be an odd mix of science and technical know-how with art and creativity. Unfortunately, the art and creativity side can 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.

(including many posted here in the Building Place Notebook!)

We at Building Place are pleased to have the opportunity to make better use of the right side of our brains by occasionally publishing a different sort of “planning literature” than you will find in the Planning and Zoning News or Michigan Planner magazines…

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