Panel: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York: Can One Woman (Still) Make a Difference?

By Aaron Donovan
Sep 13, 2007

This panel will explore the social and historical context in which Jane Jacobs emerged, while examining the ways in which she has influenced urban design and planning today. What factors contributed to the paradigm shift she abetted? Are her principles still applicable and efficacious? To what extent has the world changed to match her vision, and to what extent are today’s challenges of a different caliber?

Joe Giovannini, architect and critic — moderator
Roberta Brandes Gratz, urbanist
Chris Klemek, co-curator, Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York
Julia Vitullo-Martin, Manhattan Institute
Samuel Zipp, Brown University

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Panel: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York: Jane Jacobs and an Activist Press

By Aaron Donovan | Sep 13, 2007

Jane Jacobs and other activists were canny media strategists, and they worked both mainstream and alternative outlets to spread their messages, affect public perception and try to create both community and change. Today, blogging and other virtual forms of journalism are being used to greater and lesser effect by activists, developers and others trying to […]

Panel Discussion: Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary

By Aaron Donovan | Nov 12, 2006

Author of the recent biography, Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary (Rutgers University Press, 2006), Alice Sparberg Alexiou engages a panel of experts in a discussion of urban economies in New York City based on Jacobsâ€™ second book, The Economy of Cities.

Panel Discussion: Interpreting and Misinterpreting Jane Jacobs: New York and Beyond

By Aaron Donovan | Feb 2, 2007

Jane Jacobs was a vocal opponent of Robert Moses’s plans and a leader of the movement to preserve Greenwich Village and other Manhattan neighborhoods. She went on to become a leading urban theorist. This panel discussion will examine the principles that Jacobs espoused and how they have been applied. Introduced by the author and founder […]

Panel: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York: A Civic Activist Boot Camp: Working Within and Without the System

By Aaron Donovan | Sep 13, 2007

Jane Jacobs was not beholden to any strategy for making change happen. And today, the complexity of the city and its needs are such that activists also employ a diversity of approaches. While some embrace the protest and resistance models that Jacobs used to oppose the Lower Manhattan Expressway, others focus on effecting social, cultural […]

Panel: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York: When the Big Get Bigger: New York Universities and Their Neighbors

By Aaron Donovan | Sep 13, 2007

More than 40 years ago, Jane Jacobs opposed the construction of New York University’s monolithic Bobst Library on Washington Square South. The world has changed since then, but institutional expansion remains a major force in cities. Plans by Columbia University, New York University, Cooper Union and the United Nations have all met with considerable controversy. […]

Panel: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York: The Oversuccessful City, Part 1: Developers’ Realities

By Aaron Donovan | Sep 13, 2007

There are economic realities that underlie development and change in the city, all the more so in flush times. In facing the challenges of the growing city, New Yorkers need to consider these truths and their implications. This, the first of two panels on what Jane Jacobs called "oversuccess," will consider these issues primarily from […]