Summary: The Municipal Art Society of New York, a private, nonprofit membership organization whose mission since 1893 has been to promote a more livable city, has launched a multifaceted project to highlighting the life and work of activist and author Jane Jacobs and the urban design principles presented in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, the project, “Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York,” applies Jacobs’ principles to contemporary New York while seeking to initiate a dialogue concerning the future of the city through an exhibit, public lectures, and a walking tour series.

"Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody."—Jane Jacobs

The project also encompasses efforts of the society to work with the residents, business owners, and civic leaders of Flatbush, Brooklyn, “to assist them in creating a neighborhood sustainability and livability agenda and develop tools to measure progress toward consensus-based goals.”

The goal of this part of the project is to empower people with planning tools that will allow them to respond as an organized neighborhood to New York’s “PlaNYC 2030,” Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to help New York create a more sustainable future.

Inspiring dialogue
A series of panel discussions October 3-December 4 is intended to inspire dialogue on current topics as they relate to perspectives and views associated with Jane Jacobs. Topics include:

• Is New York Losing Its Soul?
• New Media, New Politics?: Jane Jacobs and an Activist Press
• A Civic Activist Boot Camp: Working Within and Without the System
• Can One Woman (Still) Make a Difference? Jane Jacobs and New York
• When the Big Get Bigger: New York Universities and Their Neighborhoods
• The Oversuccessful City, Part 1: Developers’ Realities
• The Oversuccessful City, Part 2: Neighborhood Character in the Face of Change.

Neighborhood tours highlight concepts
In addition, the society will host a series of architectural historian-led walking tours through certain neighborhoods—including Greenwich Village, Midtown, Forest Hills, Greenpoint, and Brooklyn Heights—through the eyes of Jane Jacobs.

A youth-oriented tour, “Village Detectives,” on November 10 will allow children ages 8-12 to explore Greenwich Village through Jacobs’ eyes—the neighborhood she called her home and fought to save. The Municipal Society says that junior detectives, equipped with detectives’ notebooks, will “investigate the city fabric, secretly observe people moving through town, discover the history of older buildings, learn to read building facades and ghost walls, search for an underground brook, and maybe even make sense of Village street patterns!” The intent is to have children gain understanding of the impact of urban planning on our lives, as well as the importance of being involved.

"Intricate minglings of different uses in cities are not a form of chaos. On the contrary, they represent a complex and highly developed form of order."

Many other program facets
To round out the project, the Municipal Arts Society sponsored a summer internship program for high school students and will publish Block by Block: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York, a collection of essays that elaborate on Jacobs' relevance today. The book is being co-published with Princeton Architectural Press for release on Sept. 25 ( ISBN 978-1-56898-771-2). Also as part of the project, the Rockefeller Foundation created the Rockefeller Foundation Jane Jacobs Medal to be awarded annually to two individuals whose actions and accomplishments exemplify “Jacobsean” principles in New York. Barry Benepe, co-founder of Greenmarket, and Omar Freilla, founder of Green Worker Cooperatives, received the medal and $100,000 each at a ceremony on September 24.