Keeping Erie Weird: Jane Jacobs' Vision Presented in Erie
Maria MacDonald, the Center For the Living City, and the Greater Erie Awards
"Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody."
Jane Jacobs, often referred to as "the foremost urbanist of all time," wrote those words in her groundbreaking book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jane Jacobs was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and eventually lived in and loved New York City and fought her whole life against those buzzwords that many people in power like to attribute to growth — "urban renewal" and "slum clearance." To Jacobs those words did not hold the true value that bureaucrats, urban planners, and redevelopers like to think they do. Jacobs argued that those words, and the actions that came as a result of them, do not respect the actual needs of city dwellers.
Jacobs was a true activist in her time — in the 1960s, she set herself up against powerful people like Robert Moses, and often won. Her work was key in preventing the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have bulldozed right through New York's SoHo neighborhood. She was often dismissed by powerful men as an "uneducated housewife," but she was tenacious, her writing and work prolific, and today she is widely regarded as a key figure in truly sustainable city planning by scholars like Richard Florida (famed urbanist who spoke at the Jefferson Educational Society's Global Summit in 2023) and Robert Lucas (a Nobel Prize winning economist).
You've seen the slogan, "Keep (insert city name here) Weird!" That sentiment was basically Jane Jacobs' entire belief system. Throughout her life and work, she constantly urged folks to "respect — in the deepest sense — strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order." Jacobs was a proponent of neighborhoods, building culture and trust organically, resisting the allure of efficiency at the expense of character, and ultimately, standing up for the actual people who make a city what it is.
In 2005, a group of activists, practitioners, and academics, in collaboration with Jane Jacobs, founded the Center for the Living City out of Scranton — which has grown to become a leading global urbanist organization that aims to advance social, environmental, and economic justice forums through "inviting all perspectives, particularly those of the marginalized, to participate in the creation of solutions that are empathic, responsive, and community-based." In short, they keep the "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" types away from the conversation while welcoming in and activating citizens to participate in civic engagement and leadership, coming up with creative urban solutions about how to evolve cities that are welcoming, environmentally sound, vibrant, active, and equitable.
And the director of the Center for the Living City is coming to speak in Erie.
Maria MacDonald, in addition to her role at the Center for the Living City, is also a practicing interior architect and the founding faculty member and program director of the interior architecture program at Marywood University in Scranton. Her work on the project "Reclaiming Forgotten Spaces" earned her an Excellence in Design award from her alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design. And she is visiting our city to give the keynote address at local historic preservation nonprofit Preservation Erie's upcoming Greater Erie Awards.
"The Center for the Living City understands the value of community and place — the importance of sidewalks, parks, corner stores, community centers, etc. to maintaining neighborhoods with economic resiliency, social strength, and environmental sustainability," Melinda Meyer, president of Preservation Erie relays. "Like Jane Jacobs before her, MacDonald speaks to the benefit of applying empathy, compassion, understanding, and curiosity to community challenges, such as ensuring the availability of quality, affordable housing for all and the reclamation and activation of key underused or vacant spaces."
The Greater Erie Awards are presented annually by the board of Preservation Erie, a local nonprofit whose mission is "to promote, preserve, and enhance the distinctive character of greater Erie through community-based planning, design, and historic preservation." The Greater Erie Awards are an opportunity for the group to recognize some of the positive historic preservation projects happening organically throughout Erie — many of which are citizen-led and would certainly please Jane Jacobs and her disciples.
This year the local awardees receiving recognition are:
For Adaptive Reuse (which involves the rehabbing of a forgotten historic space for a purpose outside of which it was originally built): FEED Media Art Center, The Historical Institute of Culture & the African American Experience, and the Sarah Reed Children's Center
In the category of Preservation Excellence (Preservation with a capital P — those large-scale projects directly contributing to preserving Erie's built history): The Presque Isle Light Station
For Education and Advocacy (those folks/organizations bringing knowledge of local history and historic buildings into the public eye): Jonathan Burdick of Rust and Dirt (and long-time, well-loved Erie Reader contributor), Wally Knox, and WQLN Chronicles
In the category of Design Excellence (examples of new construction that take into account the surrounding historical structures in their design): The expERIEnce Children's Museum
According to Meyer, "The Greater Erie Awards program was created over 10 years ago as an opportunity to shine a spotlight on impactful preservation and community design projects happening across the county. Rather than let these positive examples of perseverance and stewardship go unnoticed, the award program aims to raise awareness of them, as many are efforts spearheaded by individuals who love the greater Erie community, its history, and its special places and are called to action."
Erie is a city very much akin to Scranton, and one that Jane Jacobs would argue deserves preservation (through its buildings, character, and people). Historically, we've built our identity around our ability to manufacture things — rusty belts and all that. When that identity dwindled and needed to change, we struggled — and continue to struggle — to redefine ourselves. And while there are and have been many plans — some of which the likes of Jacobs might argue are short-sighted (i.e. the Bayfront Connector Project, the McBride Viaduct, the myriad of downtown development plans throughout generations, etc.) — Jacobs would look to the people and what they're doing, outside of government directives, to make life better, more affordable, and weirder (in a good way) for all of those in Erie.
The 2024 Greater Erie Awards will take place on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. at the Erie Center for Arts and Technology's Ada Lawrence Room. For tickets and info: tickets.eriereader.com
Erin Phillips serves as the secretary of the board of directors for Preservation Erie. She can be reached at erin@eriereader.com
