MILTON — How do communities become more walkable? Main Street Milton will attempt to answer that question with a special presentation.
Jeff Speck is a city planner and urban designer who, through writing, lectures, and built work, advocates internationally for more walkable cities. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, he oversaw the Mayors' Institute on City Design and created the Governors' Institute on Community Design, a federal program that helps state governors fight suburban sprawl. Prior to joining the Endowment, Mr. Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co., a leading practitioner of the New Urbanism, where he led or managed more than forty of the firm's projects.
He is the co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream as well as The Smart Growth Manual. His recent book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time – which the Christian Science Monitor called "timely and important, a delightful, insightful, irreverent work" – was the best-selling planning/design title of 2013 – 2015.
CivicCon is an ongoing lecture series hosted by the Studer Community Institute and the Pensacola News Journal. Main Street Milton was designated as the first official CivicCon Simulcast location in August. The simulcast watch party takes place at the Main Street Event Center, 5256 Alabama St., Milton. Using the Pensacola News Journal’s Facebook Live feed, citizens in Milton can watch the simulcast together at the Main Street Event Center. Please visit www.pnj.com/topic/CivicCon/ for details about the series, including speaker bios, upcoming events, and focused reporting on the issued explored by CivicCon expert speakers.
All presentations are free and open to the public. Below is the current schedule, subject to change. While all live presentations are at the Rex Theatre in downtown Pensacola, they will be televised at the Event Center in Milton, 5256 Alabama St.
Jeff Speck: Walkable cities, will speak at 6 p.m. Sept. 17
James Mackenzie Fallows will speak at 6 p.m. Sept. 25
Donald Shoup: Getting parking right, will speak at 6 p.m. Oct. 9
Ryan Gravel: Infrastructure of people, will speak at 6 p.m. Nov. 5-6
Jay Walljasper: Great neighborhoods, will tentatively speak at 6 p.m. Dec. 3
For more information, please contact the Ed Spears, Main Street Milton Executive Director.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Main Street presentation: The Walkable City Simulcast