Jane Jacobs Walk 2017

Join Art Assets on a Walking Tour of Bushwick

In honor of urban planner Jane Jacobs, Art Assets is leading a “Jane’s Walk” sponsored by the Municipal Arts Society on Sunday, May 7 at 2pm in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Join us for “Bushwick: The New Brooklyn”—an exploration of this neighborhood that ranges from purely residential, to industrial, to trendy and happening.

On this tour, we’ll explore the area surrounding three subway stops in Bushwick that represent the changing face of the neighborhood, and will finish at a new mixed-use venue currently under development, an example of the face of Bushwick’s future.

About Bushwick:

A working-class neighborhood in the northern part of Brooklyn, Bushwick used to be known for drug dealing activity and related crime. However, the area’s recent and dramatic drop in crime, combined with the rise of real estate prices in Manhattan and the shortage of cheap housing in nearby neighborhoods such as Williamsburg and Park Slope, has made the neighborhood more attractive to younger professionals. Many young professionals and artists have moved into converted warehouse lofts, brownstones, limestone-brick townhouses, and other renovated buildings. A flourishing artist community is now a main demographic of the neighborhood; dozens of art studios and galleries are scattered throughout, and trendy restaurants, cafes, and bars are drawing visitors from around the five boroughs.

Date: Sunday, May 7
Time: 2pm to 4pm
Location: Meet at Variety Coffee Roasters, 146 Wyckoff Ave, Brooklyn NY 11237
(near Dekalb L train stop)

You can find more information at
http://janeswalk.org/united-states/new-york-city-ny/n/

About Jane Jacobs:

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building. She had no formal training as a planner, and yet her 1961 treatise, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail that now seem like common sense to generations of architects, planners, politicians and activists.

Jacobs saw cities as ecosystems that had their own logic and dynamism which would change over time according to how they were used. With a keen eye for detail, she wrote eloquently about sidewalks, parks, retail design, and self-organization. She promoted higher density in cities, short blocks, local economies, and mixed uses. Jacobs helped derail the car-centered approach to urban planning in both New York and Toronto, invigorating neighborhood activism by helping stop the expansion of expressways and roads. She lived in Greenwich Village for decades, then moved to Toronto in 1968 where she continued her work and writing on urbanism, economies, and social issues until her death in April 2006.

A firm believer in the importance of local residents having input on how their neighborhoods develop, Jacobs encouraged people to familiarize themselves with the places where they live, work and play with words like these:

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

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