Wednesday / April 29, 2015 / 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Jane Jacobs, Then and Now
AIA Chicago, 35 East Wacker Drive, #250
Who was Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) and why are we talking about her today? Yes, the journalist, activist and author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), among other works, holds iconic status among writers about cities and planning, but have you actually read her work? And what is the story behind her writing? How did her childhood in Scranton, PA, inform her views of what urban neighborhoods could and should be? What were her politics (hint: possibly not what you expect)? Why does her work continue to be influential today, and should it be so?
Tim Mennel points out that Jane Jacobs has never been much associated with Chicago, but he believes there is a lot of value in thinking through her work, even with its limitations. Doing so can help us to consider (1) what we mean to each other in our urban communities; (2) how we share an economy; (3) how we negotiate with spectacle; (4) how we relate to normative values; and (5) how we relate to the state, both in Jane Jacobs’s neighborhoods and in global cities.
This talk is a prelude to the third annual Jane’s Walk CHICAGO on May 2-3, 2015, hosted by Friends of Downtown. Jane's Walks are neighborhood tours coordinated and lead by local people. Jane’s Walks value local knowledge and community building. Part of the innovation of Jane’s Walk is acknowledging that everyone has a perspective on their neighborhood – no matter how long they have lived there. Starting in 2007 with 27 tours in Toronto, Jane’s Walk now takes place in 75 cities in 15 countries – including Chicago.
Speaker: Timothy Mennel, senior editor at the University of Chicago Press since 2013, focuses on works of American history and Chicago and other regional publishing. He is the co-editor of Reconsidering Jane Jacobs, a collection of essays published in 2011 by the American Planning Association. He previously held editorial positions at the American Planning Association, Random House Adult Trade, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Artforum/Bookforum, and Princeton University Press. Timothy has a BA in English from Carleton College and a PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota.
