Walking Tour: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York: Gramercy Park: Retaining Identity Amid Constant Change

10:06 AM EDT on September 15, 2007

In conjunction with a new exhibition, Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York, eight walking tours will take participants to places associated with Jane Jacobs’ life and work and to communities that illustrate her planning principles — or call them into question.

Gramercy Park: Retaining Identity Amid Constant Change
A classic Manhattan neighborhood, Gramercy Park embodies many of the values Jane Jacobs espoused. It also exemplifies the early 20th-century roots of “gentrification” in New York.

Leader: Francis Morrone, architectural historian.

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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