The Quarterly

Volume 1, Number 3

Editor's Notes

by Mary W. Rowe (editor)

Spring in Ontario has arrived quite early and as we look expectantly to another season of gardening what better time to consider “The Real and Particular in Cities” (Ken Greenberg) and “The Forgotten Art of the City” (Eb Zeidler). Both excerpted from presentations to Jane Jacobs: Ideas that Matter held in Toronto in late 1997, the authors have provided updated material and new visuals to accompany what were two highlights from that event.

What does Greenberg’s summary of the ways in which Toronto has embraced the ideas Jane Jacobs set out in her earlier works suggest is appropriate for the future of this city? Can Toronto continue to flourish? In this issue we’ve reprinted the introduction from a new book Toronto: Considering Self-government (Ginger Press 2000) which outlines a process that began last year to knock heads together to consider ways that Toronto–and other metropolitan areas so fundamental to the economic and cultural vitality of a nation–could achieve more auto-nomy for their own and the rest of the country’s benefit.

Eb Zeidler describes the rational and the emotional in cities, citing examples from around the world. Reflect on these and then get a copy of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities (see review by John Arthur Harrison, page 17) and consider, as Zeidler urges, “the dreams of the Romantics, the delightful, the beautiful, the small and the large” in cities.

Also in this issue, the second round of Jane Jacobs’ Prize recipients, recognized earlier this year as a testament to people who make a difference to the life of their community by doing what needs doing. Meet Iria Vieira, a long time community worker with urban newcomers of varied backgrounds, and Rollo Myers, the former architectural model maker turned preservationist–one a community minder and the other the keeper of community memory, suggested Jane after her first meeting with them.

Next issue: news on Biomimicry from Janine Benyus; tales from another country–in this case, Vietnam; Sally Goerner on Integral Science; a new piece on self-organizing approaches to education; and an excerpt from The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs (Random House, 2000). In the interim, visit our website: www.ideasthatmatter.com.

Mary W. Rowe
email: editor@ideasthatmatter.com