• Skip to main content

David Burn

Poet, Critic, and Storyteller

  • Poems
    • Running On Batteries
    • Published
    • Information Age Blues
    • Home Poems
    • Grid Lines
    • Denver Poems
    • Creative License
  • Essays
    • X Barely Marks the Spot
    • Scar Tissue
    • Reading the Internal Compass
  • Stories
    • The Castaways
    • Fort Wieden
  • About
  • Well Said
    • Recently Read
  • Newslettter
You are here: Home / The Environment / New Ideas Require Old Buildings

David Burn / March 11, 2004

New Ideas Require Old Buildings

Urban Planning guru, Jane Jacobs, author of the seminal text, The Death and Life of Great American Cities , moved with her husband and two sons to Toronto in 1968 in opposition of the Vietnam War. She stayed and became a Canadian citizen. She had earlier rebellions, as well. In Greenwich Village she stood to fight the powerful Robert Moses, and his lame-brained road building schemes that threatened to wipe out good portions of lower Manhattan.

I first heard her name but one year ago, while attending a presentation at SXSW in Austin by Carnegie Mellon professor, Richard Florida . He said Jacobs said, “New ideas require old buildings.” This is a sentiment that strikes a deep chord in me. I have yet to read Jacob’s best works, but from what I have read , I know she gives voice to things I have long held to be true.

image

Related

Filed Under: The Environment

David Burn

Poet, critic, and storyteller.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Copyright © 2021 · Digital Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in