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

7:39 PM EDT on September 13, 2007

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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
Aaron Donovan
Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

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