This book should be subtitled, "Why living in New York City is awesome."

The problem I have with this book is that the author has so many citations and bases his discussion in fact, then argues his opinion on top of it. Why should I believe him over experts? He makes valid points, but offers no alternative solutions and seems to poo-poo lots of environmental efforts. If the common environmentalist doesn't consider the whole picture as he tends to argue, then how can I be so sure he's not missing something in his argument as well? If he can't be bothered to take his own advice, what's the point? The last "call to action" section of the book is so half-hearted, I can't fathom him actually believing it. Kind of a cop-out when he explains why he no longer lives in Manhattan.

Even the chapter on LEED, which for the most part was true, focuses on a few anecdotal cases and misses a lot of other LEED requirements which may actually do some good.

And maybe this is just Second City Syndrome on my part, but I think Chicago fits a lot of his examples but he fails to mention it, making it seem like living in NYC is the Holy Grail for all environmentalists.

One great thing I did take away from this book was why solar panels aren't as great as they seem because of the way the system is setup to meet electricity demands.