Spacing receives 2010 Jane Jacobs Prize

Spacing is happy to announce today that the magazine’s editors have been named a recipient of the 2010 Jane Jacobs Prize.

The Jane Jacobs Prize has been presented by Ideas That Matter since 1998 and was created at the end of a five-day international celebration in 1997 called Jane Jacobs: Ideas that Matter. Hundreds of the world’s most prominent thinkers and community leaders attended the Toronto event to exchange ideas and celebrate Jacobs’ work. The prize was created to build on the spirit of that gathering (See a list of previous recipients).

In naming Spacing as one of this year’s winners, Ideas That Matter says: “Spacing’s editors look very carefully at how the city works, what the street-level dynamics are in this city, and how we work together in the city economically. This, of course, is very much in tune with Jane Jacobs’ ideas that rather than starting with an ideological or theoretical approach about how things work, you should start with observing closely and drawing your lessons from there…. Residents and visitors alike find the magazine an ideal guide to the city. They may come across an article about the beauty of sewer maintenance hole covers, a feature story about the rules that govern Torontonians in their daily lives, or a map that shows where we live dictates how Torontonians get around.”

Also receiving the Jane Jacobs Prize is Catherine Nasmith. She has spent her whole career at the forefront of Canadian urbanism. She has fought tirelessly to protect buildings, neighbourhoods and streetscapes. Whether it was fighting to protect the Don Jail from being demolished, keeping an extension of Front Street from being built right on top of Fort York, or getting consensus for tearing down a section of the Gardiner, she’s earned her mark as a great city builder.

For the last decade, Catherine has focused her energy on protecting our built heritage. Among other projects, she introduced Doors Open to Toronto in 2000, created pressure to amend the Ontario Heritage Act, and started the free e-newsletter “Built Heritage News” which provides bi-weekly information and updates for those interested in our built heritage, past and future.

As John Sewell pointed out during his introduction, “Cathy’s story proves the point: never underestimate the power of one smart, energetic, and determined person who thinks the best of people, searches out their good qualities, and then has the ability to bring them together for a common cause. Jane Jacobs justly admired people like Cathy as we do too.”