(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best urban & land use planning books

The following comment operates on the assumption that you are interested in American urban planning from an administrative or public policy focus. For real estate development, urban design/architecture, or international issues, look elsewhere.

A solid, all purpose undergraduate major: philosophy. You can teach yourself subjects and even methods, but to learn how to think critically and write about complex subjects in a clear way you need quality, focused instruction and that's the purpose of philosophy. Outside of your general major requirements, take exclusively analytic philosophy courses. Typically there is an analytic philosophy survey course but for other courses identify which professors in your department operate in this tradition (and take teaching seriously) and take whatever courses they offer, regardless of your personal interest in the subject going in. Common subjects include logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, epistemology, etc. These courses will discipline your thinking and writing in ways that other majors won't. These skills are absolutely fundamental and lay the groundwork for a successful, highly adaptable career.

Outside of that major, which will fulfill your humanities requirements, you should fill your general requirements with courses like U.S. government (typically fulfilling a social science requirement), microeconomics and macroeconomics (social science, business, and occasionally quantitative), and environmental science (natural science). Take as many economics courses as you can. You can also take a basic geography course focused on cities but in my experience these courses teach you what you can easily learn from disciplined study on your own time. Focus your electives on methods courses, specifically statistics and digital mapping (GIS). You can also easily learn these online but if you have to fill up requirements, stick with these.

"But wait, don't I need to know something about urban planning?" Definitely! But you don't need to use up valuable course time on this subjects unless you have top urban planning scholars teaching undergraduate courses at your school, which probably isn't the case. Feel free to share your program and I'm sure the great community here can point out any top scholars active there. Otherwise, focus on teaching yourself the subject over summer and winter breaks. Read books by esteemed experts/scholars/writers in the field. A few broad essentials, all of which should be available at your public library:

• "Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs (the essential urban planning text)
  
  
• "Triumph of the City" by Edward Glaeser (urban economics)
  
  
• "Zoned in the USA" by Sonia Hirt (land use planning)
  
  
• "Walkable City" by Jeff Speck (transportation/urban design)
  
  
• "Cities of Tomorrow" by Peter Hall (urban theory/history - don't hesitate to save a ton of money by buying an older edition!)
  
  Other users are welcome to contribute what they see as essentials. The key here is to read about urban planning relentlessly in your free time (important: this includes blogs!) and focus your coursework on skills development. This combination of philosophy/methods coursework and disciplined, independent reading will make you not only an issue expert, which are a dime a dozen, but a productive expert, someone who can approach a completely new problem and produce useful results.
  
  This is the path I have followed and I have been happy with the results. Hope this helps.
  
  Edit: grammar errors, typos, etc. fixes.

Well I studied in the UK, so not sure. However, I did go to Kuwait University one summer and I met with the head of the architecture department. I was spending time there and wanted to study traditional Islamic architecture, and I had a family contact to the department head. Anyway he was surprised and said sorry, we don't have any classes on that. So I asked.. 'well.. what do you teach here?' He responded: 'You know... Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright...'

So that's not a good sign.

Regarding architectural trends, my feeling is that the GCC states are going through a phase of tribal modern. My own theory is that in the 50s and 60s, Gulf nations were building in what can be called Islamic Classicism. Iraqi architect Mohamed Makkiya designed Kuwait's Grand Mosque. He used Abbasid and Moorish elements in the design, and he was extremely popular across the new oil-rich states. You see other examples, such as this Islamic centre in Doha. It's based on the 9th century Samarra Mosque in Iraq, and the Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo from the same century. In general, the architecture of the GCC states was a schizophrenic development - famous foreign architects building straightforward modernist cities and buildings, with local architects following more classical Islamic style.

After a few decades, these states began to exert more focus on their own sovereignty and heritage. So you start to see lots of buildings rejecting Islamic architecture, and basing their design on sand dunes, dhows, pearling, waves, and most of all, malqafs (wind towers), and crenellations. If you visit Kuwait or especially the UAE, you'll see wind towers on everything - shopping malls, garages, gas stations, bridges. Look at Souq Sharq in Kuwait. Of course these aren't real wind towers. Just decorative. In Oman, everything has crenellations. Because Oman is famous for its forts and fortified villages, very similar to Qasbahs and crenellated mosques in the Maghreb and Andalusia (because they were actual military structures). So now everything has to have crenellations. Qatar has gone the same route, just check out the new Ministry of Interior building. I'm not sure whether the famous Qatari forts are even Qatari, or whether they are Ottoman built.. but whatever. The point is that each state is exerting its own style evoking a patriotic national bedouin past. Kuwait's parliament building was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, and is one of the earliest examples of this in my opinion. It's based on the bedouin tent.

In terms of domestic architecture, traditional Arabic-Islamic design is non-existent. The building regulations and codes don't allow for the density needed for vernacular architecture of the region, and the masterplans that created the codes were all done by European, mainly British, architects.

In terms of sources, it depends on what your main interest is. I mainly used academic papers, because the topic of urban transformation of the GCC isn't well researched at all. There are a few interesting academics writing about the tragedy of urbanism in the GCC. Like Saleh al-Hathloul, Ashraf Salama, Yasser Mahgoub, and Fadl al-Buainain. I relied heavily on the Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, and the now defunct Mimar magazine and Muqarnas journal.

This is an excellent book by a Tunisian author, but it's very dry and academic, and the pictures all black and white, so not sure that's what you're looking for.

Arts and Crafts of the Islamic Lands is an excellent book. It covers geometry and calligraphy and has lots of instructional stuff. Not really about architecture.

Contemporary Architecture In the Arab States is a classic. It looks at the best MENA architecture from the 70s to the 90s. Doesn't talk about urbanism though.

The book I linked to previously, Kuwait Transformed, by Farah al-Nakib, is a great book, but focuses entirely on Kuwait.

This is an absolutely fantastic book, but I could only find it at the uni library. It's a collection of research papers from a conference in the 1980s. I even contacted the organization in SAudi to try to find out if they have any copies i could get, but predictably, didn't get a response.

If you're interested in regular traditional architecture of the MENA region, with some nice pictures (hand sketches), that covers each country, then this is absolutely fantastic.

I could go on forever with these sources, but I think mine may be too specific for your interest. Something like this or this cover general Islamic architecture well, but they focus always on mosques and monuments. That's why I really enjoy Raguette's book, because it focuses on domestic and vernacular architecture.

Sorry for the long rambly reply.

There are lots of small towns and small cities in New England that are in the ballpark of what you are looking for. They vary in size and cost:

• Bar Harbor, Maine
  
• Castine, Maine
  
• Brunswick, Maine
  
• Damariscotta, Wiscasset, Boothbay Harbor, Maine
  
• Old Orchard Beach, Maine
  
• Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, Maine
  
• Provincetown, Mass
  
• Wellfleet, Mass
  
• Most of Cape Cod and the Islands, Mass
  
• Rockport, Mass
  
• Stockbridge, Mass (expensive)
  
• Montpeleir, VT (never been there, but I think)
  
• Newport, RI (sort of)
  
• Providence, RI (kind of)
  
• Tiverton, RI (maybe)
  
• Conway, NH
  
  Also, outside New England:
  
  
• Cape May, NJ
  
• Milford, PA (Haven't been there in ages)
  
• Madison, Wis
  
• Ithaca, NY
  
• Chapel Hill, NC
  
  You could take a drive up Route 1 in Maine and just pick the town you like best. Also, most good college towns would fit the bill. Google "best places to live" and "best college town" to find suggestions.
  
  A possibly radical thought: I hear Detroit has all the elements that attract artists; low rent; lots of space; a government which is desperate to attract young, creative people. It is a laboratory for urban planning; think New York in the 1970's. Or so I have heard.
  
  EDIT: You might want to read Richard Florida's book Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life . It appears to be a how-to guide for exactly your question.

The books mentioned so far are great ones to start with. The Geography of Nowhere is also a good primer for the amateur; Kunstler's style is provocative and interesting to read.

I've always found good planning histories to be pretty accessible as well (for those interested in the subjects). Here are some recommendations that aren't the "main offenders" people normally reference:

Bourgeois Utopias is an interesting history of "suburbia", and the various forms "suburban development" has taken throughout history.

Sprawl by Robert Bruegeman is a good "contrast" to a lot of books about planning. His essential premises are that sprawl isn't bad, that underlies our economic growth, and that people want it.

Just graduated with a master's in planning (in Canada). The first thing you should know is that you cannot go into this field for the money or for great job prospects. Getting a job right out of school is extremely difficult in both the US and Canada right now unless you have the right prior experience and skills (which school will not give you). Many people take unpaid internships (which is disgusting on the part of employers in my opinion) or have a long wait ahead of them for an entry-level job.
So if you do pursue planning for grad school make sure you are in no financial difficulties and that you have a backup plan or money to spare in case.

There is also a difference between what skills jobs want and what you'll learn in planning school. Planning school will focus heavily on "issues" in urban planning (social science, econ, history, etc). So you'll be writing term papers just like you are now in poli sci. You'll also learn a bit about planning law and the planning system but not nearly enough of what jobs want. And lastly, planners need to know some software, but this greatly depends on what type of job you have. Some typical programs include ArcGIS, AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator/Indesign.

Learning about the urban issues part of planning is not too difficult in comparison and there are a lot of great books.
The best one's I've read so far are also the books that are best to introduce anyone to the major issues in planning:

• The Geography of Nowhere
  
• Walkable City
  
• Straphanger
  
  
  If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer!

What you are talking about sounds like environmental psychology, specifically city environments. I have to admit, I haven't read any books on such a topic, but it definitely sounds worth learning and reading about! A bit of Googling recommends a few titles:

Living in Cities: Psychology and the Urban Environment - this title is dated from the 70s, so perhaps not directly relevant


People in Cities: the Urban Environment and its Effects (1985)

An article published in the Boston Globe a few years back: How the city hurts your brain


The books appear to be college textbooks, and the article is only a brief glance. I'm sorry I'm not able to better help you, though the topic is interesting! Perhaps r/askscience would be a good place to ask as well. Best of luck!

>What congestion charges do is ensure empty streets for the wealthy to use.

And in doing so, reducing the amount of traffic in the central city allowing not only more space for pedestrians and bicycles, but also making that space more aesthetically pleasing. While, at the same time, providing a new set of funds for public transit improvements and other civic matters.

I'm actually simplifying a great deal, and I'm not necessarily sold on congestion/use pricing either, but it is far from clear that it is a bad idea. The idea is to a.) reduce the societal subsidy to the automobile (particularly in terms of making users pay a fair price for the amount of space a vehicle takes up in dense environments beyond parking charges alone) and b.) to change the trip costs for transit and cars, not only to counteract the automotive subsidy, but to move the individual economic equilibrium from a highly ineffecient one (both in economic/time terms and in environmental terms) closer to a more societally friendly equilibrium in which the cost and travel time for all trips is actually reduced and environmental impact is minimized.

If you're interested, I recommend Vuchic's Transportation for Liveable Cities; it isn't exactly new material for those who study traffic and transit, but it outlines the problems and various potential solutions very well.

Yeah, in that case, it might be worth looking for an introductory course in Forestry or Natural Resource Management through an online school.

If you're interested in books, Introduction to Forests and Renewable Resources is the classic introductory textbook on the subject. The book is generally very accessible even without previous knowledge on the subject of forestry. The chapter on Silviculture is probably the most relevant to your interests.

There are several books on silviculture specifically (with the ones by Nyland and Smith being the most frequently used in college courses), but without a decent understanding in both Ecology and Mensuration they may be more overwhelming than useful.

Positive Impact Forestry is a good resource for landowners, and is written with the intent of being informative without being too technical. For someone without a forestry background that is looking to be better informed in making decisions about their land, this is probably the single best resource.

[CLIMATE CHANGE] America Adapts - The Climate Change Podcast | Ivy League Adaptation: A Conversation with Harvard University’s Dr. Jesse Keenan

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[America Adapts] (http://www.americaadapts.org)
Subscribe to America Adapts on Itunes

Dr. Jesse Keenan, of Harvard University, joins Doug Parsons on the first episode of America Adapts of 2017! Dr. Keenan is a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Design where he teaches courses and conducts research in the fields of real estate development, design-development management and technology and climate adaptation science. Jesse wears several hats: academic, public and professional. In their conversation, Doug and Jesse dig into the origins of adaptation planning and how the federal government is currently approaching the issue. Jesse has several roles advising the federal government on adaptation and we talked about those many different approaches. We spend considerable time discussing the emergence of ‘resilience’ as the primary word and approach by the government, and increasingly, the private sector. Much of this origin ties into aligning adaptation with disaster management and Jesse explains those links. Jesse also explains how partisan politics played a role in the rise of ‘resilience’ as the preferred term in adaptation planning.

We also talk about how adaptation has become a serious area of study for universities. Jesse is one of the more prolific publishers of adaptation literature and we talk about some of his work. We also discuss the state of adaptation in academic programs at universities in the United States. Professors like Jesse are providing the much needed academic grounding for the emerging field of adaptation.

Jesse also discusses Harvard’s role in engaging the city of Miami with adaptation planning and we talk frankly about the future of that city and the tough choices that community will have to make in the coming years regarding sea level rise.

We also learn that Jesse is a fellow University of Georgia graduate and he talked about being on campus when legendary ecologist Eugene Odom was there.

Doug and Jesse also have a lively discussion about the movie The Big Short, and speculate what lessons could be learned from the real estate bubble as society begins to incorporate uncertainty into long adaptation planning.

Other topics:

• We discuss how one person’s resilience is another person’s maladaptation.
• How 911 terror attacks led the modern national security state to adopt resilience as the preferred approach to climate change planning.
• Learn how federal agencies have evolved to incorporate disaster risk management, adaptation and resilience. FEMA, etc.
• Learn how the US is lagging at adaptation in university academic programs.
• How do ethics come into play when deciding to invest in high risk communities like Miami, New Orleans, etc.
• Learn what climate gentrification means for Miami.
• How a huge company like Goldman Sachs approaches climate change.
• The Challenge of drawing distinctions between sustainability, resilience and adaptation.

Also in this episode, we talk with Beth Gibbons, Managing Director of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. Beth talks about the January 25th deadline to nominate someone (or your own org) for their Adaptation Prize for Progress, which will be announced in May at the National Adaptation Forum.

Additional Notes:

People can pre-order Jesse’s new book Blue Dunes: Climate Change by Design here: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Dunes-Climate-Change-Design/dp/1941332153

Dr. Jesse Keenan on Twitter: @Jesse_M_Keenan

Jesse’s Harvard Profile:
http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/person/jesse-keenan/

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/2016/09/jesse-keenan-leads-research/

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-31/climate-change-is-already-forcing-americans-to-move
Finally, yes, most of your favorite podcasts are supported by listeners just like you! Please consider supporting this podcast by subscribing via PayPal! For more information on this podcast, visit the website at http://www.americaadapts.org and don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on Itunes.
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I think that Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by Holmgren is the best. It focuses on permaculture theoretically (but not in a boring way). A lot of permaculture books are basically gardening/farming books with a permaculture slant. This book is actually about permaculture itself - what it is, how to use it, and why to use it. All 12 Principles are explained in detail so you can apply them creatively on your own.

The Permaculture City by Hemenway just came out this year and it is fantastic. If you currently live in an apartment, city, or suburbs, I HIGHLY suggest reading this book. Most permaculture books will bum you out a bit if you don't have a yard. The Permaculture City really made me appreciate where I am and made me feel like permaculture is possible for everyone in every situation.

Looby Macnamera's People & Permaculture is really amazing. I consider it a must-read, especially if the social aspects of permaculture pique your interest. I also think it's important if you live in a city, as people are the most abundant resource in a city.

I won't, but I will give you several sites and subreddits you should check out.

/r/urbanplanning

/r/urbandesign

/r/urbantransport

/r/highspeedrail

/r/transit

Congress for the New Urbanism

Congress for the New Urbanism's YouTube Channel

Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (planning firm)

Smart Growth Online

NewUrbanism.org

Strong Towns YouTube Channel

Notre Dame School of Architecture YouTube Channel

_____

Here are also some good book recommendations (links to Amazon pages), many you could probably find at a local library:

A Better Place to Live: Reshaping the American Suburb by Philip Langdon

The Architecture of Community by Leon Krier

Architecture: Choice or Fate by Leon Krier

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch

The Smart Growth Manual by Andres Duany and Jeff Speck with Mike Lydon

Sprawl Repair Manual by Galina Tachieva

Retrofitting Suburbia by Ellen Dunham-Jones

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany

History of Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolutions by A.E.J. Morris

The Language of Towns & Cities: A Visual Dictionary by Dhiru A. Thadani

I got here last year (work at UW, live in Ballard). Couple of suggestions from another newcomer (from CT):

• My wife says you have to read The Boys in the Boat; "I think everyone in this city has read it". Except me.
  
• Too High & Too Steep is an interesting book about the local geology and history. Will give you a new perspective on the shape of downtown.
  
• Larsen's Bakery is my new go-to pastry shop. A large variety of Danish pastries, good quality, and good prices (and 50% off day-olds if you're really cheap).
  
• Coming here from the east coast, and having grown up in Wisconsin, Seattle feels much more like the midwest, and thus more familiar to me. Things move slower here, and people are generally less aggressive than the northeast.
  
• KEXP is a great local radio station for all sorts of music. Never quite know what I'm going to hear when I turn it on.
  
• You don't even have to get out of town to see interesting wildlife: Carkeek for spawning salmon, Golden Gardens and Discovery parks for duck variety, the locks for seals, sea lions, salmon, and various water birds.

Is your Masters clinical or macro concentration? Is your passion family-based work or community change work? I've hired several MSWs at our state association for community economic development.

See https://www.netimpact.org field scans for ways to think about jobs which could fit your degree. This book review and book Careers in Community Development also helpful to think about career paths, http://www.nalp.org/assets/258_communitydevelopment.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/A-Guide-Careers-Community-Development/dp/1559637501

Couple of clincially focused resources...
National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Iowa Chapter Jobs
http://www.nasw-heartland.org/?page=193
http://joblink.socialworkers.org/jobs

Iowa Shares
http://www.iowashares.org
The member nonprofits may be leads for opportunities.

> quoted textWhat is the influence exerted by the wall on the city -geographic developments?

Well when the wall came down like the rest of East Germany, East Berlin needed to be updated in terms of infrastructure: whole neighbourhoods needed phone lines installed for example (they had phones but not many). I mean you also had the mirroring of services and institutions, which created complications later: for example there was an Western art university (the UDK) and the Eastern art university (Weissensee Kunsthochschule). The wall froze East Berlin in communist-bloc state of development, and that decay has resulted in lots of under-utilized buildings and the sort of "abandoned" and "wasteland" sites that Berlin is known for today (although those also existed in other parts of the city too). I mean the architecture styles differ too- remember that Berlin needed near total rebuilding after the Second World War.

> quoted textWhat where some limitations that the wall created for the Western part of Berlin?

There where "Ghost Stations" where the trains kept going without stopping because the tracks crossed what were newly-made borders. West Berliners could mostly visit the East by applying for permits, although there were periods of time where this ability was taken away during political negotiations.

> quoted textHow was capitalism visable in West Berlin?

The KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) was sort of the iconic shopping mall of West Berlin, where you could buy expensive imported goods and produce from all over the world. It still exists a luxury shopping mall and importer of foreign food.

> quoted textAre there still things visable of the influence of wall?

Streetcars only exist in Eastern parts of the city, while the West was more into subways: it's blurred a bit of course, but its still a division after all these years. You can of course still see pretty stark differences in the architecture, for example the DDR apartment buildings called "Plattenbau." The movement of people is also naturally influenced by where they live, like if you live in an area you hangout there more... so social divisions still exist in that way as a hangover from the wall. You can see also political divisions still exist if you track down a map showing neighbourhoods vs political support.

An interesting book would be "The Berlin Reader" for a mix of urban studies/history (tending towards the former).

Here's a newspaper article from the Globe and Mail for more casual reading.

Here's some books from my library:

The Affordable Housing Reader - Basics on how affordable housing in the US works (or how it doesn't work...)

Cities for People/Walkable City/Death and Life of Great American Cities - Classics that really pertain to most things

The Public Wealth of Cities - How to leverage public/city assets to benefit the most amount of people

The Color of Law - How racism has shaped our cities

Happy City - Planning for social health

> especially leftist urbanism (anti suburbs and single family housing, pro mass-transit etc)

I'd be weary of calling this 'leftist urbanism,' since all of these are perfectly compatible with right-wing viewpoints, just handled very differently. You're looking more for sustainable urbanism and the social impacts of it. The books I have recommended above do all have a centrist or left lean to it though.

The main reason Milwaukee annexed westward like this (leaving the city boundary to appear like fingers) was to reach out to the overall goal of annexing into Waukesha County. Read "Greater Milwaukee's Growing Pains", it's a great book.

https://www.amazon.com/Greater-Milwaukees-Growing-Pains-1950/dp/0938076167

Yep. Btw these are two great books that talk about how the physical structure of cities, a.k.a. urban planning, has brought about the changes that we see in OP's picture, and that we can pretty much blame one person for making cities super car-centric: Robert Moses.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394720245/

The Death and Life of Great American Cities https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HWKSBDI/

You'll be fine. The Metreon has a movie theater that is open late most nights, there is plenty of foot traffic in the area between the Metreon and BART.

While on the topic of the intersection of foot traffic and public safety, allow me to recommend Jane Jacobs' classic book.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HWKSBDI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Like it or not, planning is based on values, and planning is always political. As Sonia Hirt has written:

> “Zoning defines the rules governing what and where people and institutions can and cannot build and operate in our cities, suburbs, and towns. By regulating what gets built and where, it sets the basic spatial parameters of where and thus how we live, work, play socialize, and exercise our rights to citizenship...zoning not only expresses our societal consensus on the ‘correct’ relationships and categories, it also shapes it. Not only does it tell us what we can and cannot do in certain places, it also cements, both metaphorically and literally, our ideas of the proper categories and relationships that occur in space...In governing our building practices, zoning solidifies in our minds what is normal and expected, decent, and desirable. It thus imposes a moral geography on our cities.”

Sonia Hirt, Zoned in the USA

Personally I think APA has gotten a bit swept up in issues of identity rather than issues of class (look at their policy guides on homeownership and continuing federal subsidies to the middle class), and their most recent policy guides reflect that. However, APA doesn't really do much or have much lobbying power, so the impact won't be very large in any case.

Building and sustaining vibrant cities full of life and economic activity goes well beyond building traffic lanes.

Check out this guys book:

http://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp/0374285810

Urban planning, especially roads, is one of my weird obsessions. It's one of the most fascinating things I've ever encountered.

I'm currently reading The Big Roads, a book about the history of the road system in the country. https://www.amazon.com/Big-Roads-Visionaries-Trailblazers-Superhighways/dp/0547907249

​

And after that, I move onto this: https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Average-Neighborhood-Systems-World/dp/1609611381

​

On The Grid actually uses Raleigh as the subject matter. I'm excited for it.

So a good start is the textbook I had a million years ago.

I'm sure you know by now that there isn't one "grid" rather it's a patchwork of regional systems strung together and it crosses a multitude of state, local, and federal boundaries. Having an entity be able to cut through all that to update and manage that system would be a gargantuan task and ludicrously expensive.

If you had something created at the federal level, something like a national monopoly, you'd first have to wrest control away from regional private and public entities that own parts of the grid. Eminent domain might be able to get you that but you're not just stepping on some toes you're wailing on them with a hammer.

Also every mayor, state legislator, and governor is going to go into a feeding frenzy when you get to their town/county/state/district because they can throw a temper tantrum and maybe stop you from working until they get some type of consideration. Legally you could battle it out but how much time and money do you want to spend fighting every branch of everywhere you try to go?

Assuming you can get through all that you have to consider that the idea of a smart grid, at least in the incarnations I've read about, is more than a bit unsettling.

Wifi/cellular enabled meters sound great but they aren't exactly lockboxes and there have been a ton of examples of people breaking the encryption and messing with them, even bumping whole neighborhoods off the grid.

Another part of it that I've read about is your utility company being able to adjust how much power they send you or how they bill you based on specific appliance usage in your home correlated with time of day and other related aspects. A lot of people aren't going to want that kind of granular access by the power company to their daily lives.

There's a book that goes into detail about parts of this, while some of it will probably be review for you the smart grid aspects are probably of interest, "On The Grid" by Scott Huler.

Also be sure to check this out. I read it years ago and just bought my own copy recently.

http://www.amazon.com/Greater-Milwaukees-Growing-Pains-1950-2000/dp/0938076167

Here's one you can check out, Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805092293