Henry Grabar, journalist and Loeb Fellow, Harvard University Graduate School of Design will present the 2023 Stuart Meck Memorial Lecture in Land Use Law and Affordable Housing, “Parking Fight!,” on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. It will be held at the Governor James J. Florio Special Events Forum, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ and begin at 4:30 p.m.
RSVP is requested by visiting go.rutgers.edu/parkingfight
Mr. Grabar argues that the pursuit of a perfect parking space is the prime mover of local politics, contemporary architecture, and urban design. In this lecture, he will present his historical research on the “parking problem,” report on parking’s role in community decision-making, and explain the environmental disaster that is American parking policy. He will also review the movement for parking reform, from the pioneering work of Donald Shoup to contemporary policy changes and their results, as activists try to repair the harms of a century-long experiment in planning for parking.
A journalist who writes about cities, Mr. Grabar is a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a staff writer at Slate. His work has also appeared in 99 Percent Invisible, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Harper’s, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He has discussed these subjects on television and radio, and before audiences at New America, the National Press Foundation, and various conferences and classrooms. His most recent book is Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, which was published in May, 2023 by Penguin Press.
The Stuart Meck Memorial Lecture was endowed by the late Stuart Meck, an Associate Research Professor, and director of the Center for Planning Practice at the Bloustein School, and established by his family in 2018. A renowned specialist in land use controls and reform with 45 years of experience in planning, research, and municipal administration, he was considered a pioneer of smart growth with its emphasis on compact development, natural resource protection, and affordable housing. The series further strives to represent the diversity of opinions and positions currently under public and academic debate.
Previous speakers have included Rachel Haot, Executive Director of the Transit Innovation Partnership; Robin Leichenko, Professor and Chair, Department of Geography, Rutgers University; Lisa K. Bates, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, and Adriana Abizadeh, Executive Director, Kensington Corridor Trust.