What science fiction can teach us about urban planning Carl Abbott, who has taught urban studies and urban planning in five decades, brings together urban studies and literary studies to examine how fictional cities in work by authors as different as E. M. Forster, Isaac Asimov, Kim Stanley Robinson, and China Miéville might help us to envision an urban future that is viable and resilient. Imagining Urban Futures is a remarkable treatise on what is best and strongest in urban theory and practice today, as refracted and intensely imagined in science fiction. As the human population grows, we can envision an increasingly urban society. Shifting weather patterns, rising sea levels, reduced access to resources, and a host of other issues will radically impact urban environments, while technology holds out the dream of cities beyond Earth. Abbott delivers a compelling critical discussion of science fiction cities found in literary works, television programs, and films of many eras from Metropolis to Blade Runner and Soylent Green to The Hunger Games, among many others. "By day Carl Abbott is one of the most respected urban historians of his generation; by night he is among the most omnivorous and omniscient sci-fi fanboys of all time. This book brings together both sides of his brain for a unique guided tour of science fiction cities in their many manifestations, familiar and obscure. As he shows, science fiction has found its own radical way to represent, to critique, and ultimately to re-design the city."―Robert Fishman, University of Michigan "By day Carl Abbott is one of the most respected urban historians of his generation; by night he is among the most omnivorous and omniscient sci-fi fanboys of all time. This book brings together both sides of his brain for a unique guided tour of science fiction cities in their many manifestations, familiar and obscure. As he shows, science fiction has found its own radical way to represent, to critique, and ultimately to re-design the city."―Robert Fishman, University of Michigan "Carl Abbott has long been valued as a thoughtful and creative urban historian. Here he has organized the 'thought experiments' we call science fiction into sensible categories that explain the imaginative responses to technological and social change in cities. The book is encyclopedic in its reach and will be consulted for years to come."―Sam Bass Warner, Jr., author of American Urban Form CARL ABBOTT is professor emeritus of urban studies and planning at Portland State University. He is the author of the prize-winning books The Metropolitan Frontier: Cities in the Modern American West and Political Terrain: Washington DC from Tidewater Town to Global Metropolis, as well as Frontiers Past and Future: Science Fiction and the American West. Imagining Urban Futures Cities in Science Fiction and What We Might Learn From Them By Carl Abbott Wesleyan University Press Copyright © 2016 Carl Abbott All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8195-7671-2 Contents vii Acknowledgments, 1 INTRODUCTION, 19 ONE Techno City; or, Dude, Where's My Aircar?, 45 TWO Machines for Breathing, 71 THREE Migratory Cities, 93 FOUR Utopia with Walls: The Carceral City, 119 FIVE Crabgrass Chaos, 143 SIX Soylent Green Is People! Varieties of Urban Crisis, 171 SEVEN Keep Out, You Idiots! The Deserted City, 191 EIGHT Market and Mosaic, 221 AFTERWORD Cities That Will Work, 233 Notes, 247 Notes on Sources, 255 Index, CHAPTER 1 TECHNO CITY; OR, DUDE, WHERE'S MY AIRCAR? Joh Fredersen's eyes wandered over Metropolis, a restless roaring sea with a surf of light. In the flashes and waves, the Niagara falls of light, in the colour-play of revolving towers of light and brilliance, Metropolis seemed to have become transparent. The houses, dissected into cones and cubes by the moving scythes of the search-lights gleamed, towering up, hoveringly, light flowing down their flanks like rain. — Thea von Harbou, Metropolis (1927) They glided down an electric staircase, and debouched on the walkway which bordered the north-bound five-mile-an-hour strip. After skirting a stairway trunk marked "Overpass to Southbound Road," they paused at the edge of the first strip. "Have you ever ridden a conveyor strip before?" Gaines inquired. "It's quite simple. Just remember to face against the motion of the strip as you get on." They threaded their way through homeward-bound throngs, passing from strip to strip. — Robert Heinlein, "The Roads Must Roll" (1940) Commuting is going to be lots more fun in the future. Where now we trudge wearily on crowded sidewalks, we'll ride cheerfully along on slideways. Now we squeeze into crowded, squeaky trains with old chewing gum under the seats, but soon we'll enjoy shiny silent subways that shoot passengers to their destinations with a pneumatic whoosh. We'll no longer need to time dangerous dashes across intersections crowded with heedless automobiles when soaring sky bridg