Sun, Apr 27
|John R. Park Homestead: Visitor Centre
Life and Works of Jane Jacobs
Jane's Talk: This talk examines the key insights of Jane Jacobs, an activist who helped shape how we think about cities, neighbourhoods and urban planning.
Time & Location
Apr 27, 2025, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
John R. Park Homestead: Visitor Centre, 915 County Rd 50 E, Essex, ON N0R 1G0, Canada
About the event
Jane's Talk: Life and Works of Jane Jacobs Host: Lydia Miljan (University of Windsor)
Contact host: lmiljan@uwindsor.ca
This talk recounts Jacob’s early life and development of her more than three decades writing about cities and urban planning. As an activist, Jacobs often clashed with city planners. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, city planners declared that certain areas were slums—including Jacobs’ own neighbourhood of Greenwich Village—and proposed to replace the inhabitants, businesses and communities with towering blocks of low-income housing or superhighways cutting through the city.
Jacobs documented how cities thrived based on natural interactions and exchanges among their inhabitants, and conversely, how cities declined because of central urban planning efforts, which destroyed the vibrancy and diversity that made them liveable and safe. Her efforts paid off, and her 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities helped change urban planning.
Event location: Visitor Centre at John R. Park Homestead (915 County Rd 50 E, Essex, ON N0R 1G0)
Type of Event:
Jane's Talk - Seated presentation
Accessibility notes:
Building is wheelchair accessible.
Is there a bathroom nearby?
Public bathroom available in the space
Where can attendees park?
Free parking lot at the starting/ending location
How much walking is involved?
No walking involved: Seated event.