50 Years of the Sidewalk Ballet- The Past, Present, and Future Impacts of Jane Jacobs’ Death & Life of Great American Cities

A Panel Discussion

2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Jane Jacobs’ globally influential book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It is safe to say that twentieth century urban planning would not be what it is today without Jane Jacobs’ influence. Notorious City Planning Commissioner Robert Moses wanted to extend Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park and turn Broome Street into a highway. Stopping those changes are two of Ms. Jacob’s most noteworthy accomplishments, allowing our beloved Greenwich Village to be what it is today. She also famously took note of the characteristics of places like the Village that make a neighborhood function successfully. Learn how the philosophies of this book shaped our thinking for the past fifty years and how they continue to do so today.

Panelists will include: Glenna Lang—illustrator, designer, and author of Genius of Common Sense: The Story of Jane Jacobs and The Death and Life of Great American Cities; Max Page—historian, professor of Architecture and History at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and author of Reconsidering Jane Jacobs; and Alice Sparberg Alexiou—historian and author of Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary. The panel will be moderated by Roberta Brandes Gratz—journalist, urban critic, lecturer, and author of The Battle For Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs.