If you need reassurance that one person’s voice can make a difference in the world — really, who doesn’t need that right now? — then “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City” probably can’t get here fast enough.
Centered on journalist and activist Jane Jacobs, the documentary traces Jacobs’ resistance to New York city planner and “master builder” Robert Moses. Moses wanted to revitalize the city with new buildings and expressways, arguing that urban renewal was as necessary as removing cancerous cells. The fact that homes were lost and residents were displaced under this system didn’t seem to bother him — probably because the affected neighborhoods housed minorities and immigrants. As one commentator observes, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And Robert Moses was absolutely powerful.”
Not that that deterred Jacobs. “People have to insist on government trying things their way,” she matter-of-factly says in the trailer. And she practiced what she preached: Jacobs was a dominant voice of the opposition and helped mobilize efforts to push back against Moses’ agenda. She was also a driving force behind the cancellation of Moses’ plans for the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have displaced almost 2,000 families and cut through Washington Square Park.
“Citizen Jane’s” official synopsis reads: “In 1960 Jane Jacobs’ book ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ sent shockwaves through the architecture and planning worlds, with its exploration of the consequences of modern planners’ and architects’ reconfiguration of cities.” It continues, “This film retraces the battles for the city as personified by Jacobs and Moses, as urbanization moves to the very front of the global agenda. Many of the clues for formulating solutions to the dizzying array of urban issues can be found in Jacobs’ prescient text, and a close second look at her thinking and writing about cities is very much in order. This film sets out to examine the city of today though the lens of one of its greatest champions.”
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer (“Valentino: The Last Emperor”), “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City” hits theaters April 21.
