ALERT: Hearings on Jane Jacobs Street Namings
At GVSHP’s suggestion, Community Board #2 will be holding public hearings on the possibility of renaming a park and/or a street in Greenwich Village in honor of Jane Jacobs. Street and park renamings are a frequently-used method of honoring an important figure in a neighborhood, and we feel that no figure could be more important to the history of the West Village than Jane Jacobs. GVSHP has suggested that the Board consider renaming Bleecker Park and Playground, on Hudson Street near where Jane lived, in her honor, and that the stretch of Hudson Street near West 11th and Perry Street where she lived also be given a secondary street renaming in her honor (i.e. ‘Hudson Street’ would continue to be the name of the street, but one or more blocks would have a secondary street sign that would also say “Jane Jacobs Way”). An honorary secondary street renaming for a section of Washington Street near the West Village Houses has also been suggested and will be discussed. Jane played a critical role in creating the West Village Houses after defeating a City plan to build a series of high-rise “towers-in-the-park” on the site.
GVSHP feels that both the park and street renamings would be very appropriate ways to honor Jane. City parks bear permanent plaques containing information about their namesakes and what that person’s significance is, and this would be a great way to ensure that Jane’s connection to and impact upon her neighborhood are always remembered. Jane’s ideas about how intimate and varied street life were key to maintaining the vitality of cities – a commonly accepted notion now but a heretical idea at the time – were illustrated in her ground-breaking book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” In it, she used the example of what she called the “delicate sidewalk ballet” of her block of Hudson Street to demonstrate this idea. For this reason, GVSHP has suggested that it would be appropriate to rename this street in her honor.
HOW TO HELP:
· GO TO THE UPCOMING COMMUNITY BOARD #2 PARKS COMMITTEE AND TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT POSSIBLE STREET AND PARK RENAMINGS TO HONOR JANE JACOBS. The Parks Committee will meet on Monday, June 5th at 7:30 pm at Greenwich House, 27 Barrow Street (nr. 7th Ave. So.), and the Transportation Committee will meet on Tuesday, June 13th at 6:30 pm at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center (7th Ave. So. and Clarkson St., 3rd fl.). Please note that the Jane Jacobs discussion is not the first item on the agenda for the Transportation Committee meeting, and thus will not begin until after 6:30 pm.