CITIES ARE A CONSTANT NEGOTIATION OF DIFFERENCE AND DISTANCE

Jay Pitter, MES, is an award-winning placemaker whose practice mitigates growing divides in cities across North America. She spearheads institutional city-building projects specializing in public space design and policy, forgotten densities, mobility equity, gender-responsive design, inclusive public engagement and healing fraught sites. What distinguishes Jay is her multidisciplinary approach, located at the nexus of urban design and social equity, which translates community insights and aspirations into the built environment. Ms. Pitter also makes significant contributions to urbanism theory and discourse. She has developed an equitable planning certificate course with the University of Detroit Mercy’s School of Architecture and taught a graduatelevel urban planning course at Ryerson University, among others. Jay also delivers keynote addresses for entities such as the United Nations Women and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the co-editor of Subdivided: City-Building in an Age of Hyper-Diversity, and her forthcoming book, Where We Live, will be published in 2021. Ms. Pitter is currently the John Bousfield Distinguished Visitor in Planning at the University of Toronto.

PLACEMAKING PROJECTS

Subdivided: City-building In An Age Of Hyper-diversity

How do we build cities where we aren’t just living within the same urban space, but living together? Subdivided aims to provoke the tough but pressing conversations required to build a truly connected city and is sparking important city-building conversations.

Read an excerpt of Subdivided here.
Purchase your copy at Coach House Books, Indigo and the Spacing Store.

website-subdividedbooksection-edit-large

Subdivided: City-building In An Age Of Hyper-diversity

How do we build cities where we aren’t just living within the same urban space, but living together? Subdivided aims to provoke the tough but pressing conversations required to build a truly connected city and is sparking important city-building conversations.

Read an excerpt of Subdivided here.
Purchase your copy at Coach House Books, Indigo and the Spacing Store.

JAY PITTER ON TVO’S THE AGENDA

Housing prices in Toronto have continued to skyrocket, with the average the price jumping to nearly $678,00 in August. The Agenda examines the high-price of housing and asks: has living in a big city become a luxury?

Length: 32:23      Air Date: Sep 26,2016

Watch the full episode here.

Share This Episode

TALKS + LECTURES

  • UN Women, Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders’ Forum
    Keynote Speaker (2018)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
    Keynote Speaker and Conference Guide (2018)
  • Canadian Urban Transit Association
    Keynote Speaker (2018)
  • University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture
    Keynote Speaker (2018)
  • Memphis River Parks Partnership
    Keynote Speaker (2018)
  • Ryerson University
    Instructor, School of Urban & Regional Planning (2017)
  • Walrus Talks
    Saskatoon (2017)
  • University of Toronto and Neighbourhood Change
    Hyper-Diversity: Opportunity or Challenge (2016)
  • Word on The Street Festival
    Interview with Premier Kathleen Wynne (2016)
  • Wordfest, Uncivil Politics: I’m Right and You’re an Idiot
    Panelist (2016)
  • Ontario Professional Planners Institute: What Would Jane Jacobs Say? The Absence of Equity Considerations in Contemporary Planning Policies
    Panelist (2016)
  • York University Urban and Regional Environments
    Guest Lecturer (2016)
  • University of TorontoThe Rotman School of Management: Prosperity and Competitiveness, Guest Lecturer (2016)
  • University of AlbertaCity-Region Studies Centre (CRSC)
    Guest Lecturer (2016)
  • NXT City Symposium
    Speaker (2016)
  • University of Guelph
    Part-time Professor (2015)
  • University of TorontoOISE
    Lecturer and Instructor (2006 + 2013)
  • York University
    Research Co-lead – The Alternative Campus Tour (2010 – 2013)

  • Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative
    Guest Lecturer and Participatory Research Lead (2010)

PUBLIC SPACES MATTER.

“Cities are becoming increasing divided. Public spaces have the power to foster understanding, inspire meaningful community participation and ownership, and instill joy. Every park, market, street, and alleyway is a litmus test for belonging.”
___________
Jay Pitter

BELOW: Guiding a story-based walk with 100+ Torontonians to explore the dimensions of street-based safety following the tragic mass shooting on Danforth Ave.

CLIENT COMMENDATIONS

  • With enthusiasm we recommend Jay Pitter as a placemaker. Over 750 of our citizens participated in the (RE) IMAGINING Cheapside work. This group included grassroots partners, city staff, business leaders, urban designers and our local community foundation. Ms. Pitter trained over 25 local residents to co-lead placemaking initiatives. She was sensitive, understanding and collaborative. The work was received incredibly well in Lexington. The media reported favorably on her work. Throughout the project, Ms. Pitter worked diligently to keep everyone positive and engaged. Her skillful placemaking approaches brought a very wide group of Lexingtonians together to deliver tangible, high profile, and sustainable outcomes.

    Glenn Brown and Jenifer WuorenmaaOffice of the Chief Administrator. Lexington, Kentucky
  • While in Edmonton, Jay worked with staff from the City of Edmonton, City Region Studies Centre (University of Alberta), and the Edmonton Heritage Council. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable our consultation was with her. Jay shared many insightful placemaking principles and practices from her own work that have and will continue to improve engagement processes here. For example, she addressed: how to engage with hard-to-reach stakeholder groups, how to create space for uncomfortable or painful experiences without creating divisions between stakeholder groups, and how to demonstrate accountability to stakeholder groups. In addition to sharing insights, Jay is an active listener and is respectful of multiple perspectives. Her ability to identify urban issues while providing strategies and instilling hope in everyone is admirable.

    Marco MelfiPlanner, CITYlab
  • I assigned Jay Pitter’s brilliant book Subdivided to my second year class of urban and environmental studies students at York. Jay generously agreed to come and speak to the class of one hundred last fall. She lit up the room with her presentation and inspired the students with her engaging and challenging conversation on city building in an age of hyper-diversity. A real treat! I hope she will come to my class again!

    Roger KeilYork Research Chair in Global Sub/Urban Studies
  • When Jay Pitter first took the stage to guide our symposium at MIT called Collective Wisdom, within seconds, the room came to standstill to listen.  Instantly, we all knew this was not going to be business as usual. This was going to be unlike any conference anyone had ever attended. The room woke up. Jay not only came prepared, she knew when to draw on her well-crafted script, and she knew precisely when to go off it. For two days, Jay welcomed, celebrated, challenged, and ultimately united all present. She asked us all to show up. Because of her, we did, and our symposium transcended into a gathering of profound intellectual, emotional, and political significance to our field.

    Katerina Cizek and Prof William UricchioMIT Open Documentary Lab and Co-Creation Studio
  • Jay Pitter spoke at UN Women’s Safe Cities – Safe Public Spaces event in Edmonton in October 2018 and was subsequently invited to present to our staff team in New York City. In both instances, she was rigorous, thoughtful, eloquent and impressive. Drawing on her own personal experiences along with her professional expertise gives her an authority that enriches our policy discussions for better urban planning and design today and in the future.

    Purna SenUnited Nations Women
  • Jay Pitter has developed a unique approach to engaging communities, often using streets themselves as the locus of the conversation, and incorporating new media and digital storytelling. In this way, she has been able to build thoughtful dialogues with groups often overlooked or excluded from traditional stakeholder engagement, weaving together a range of stories and analysis to build new ideas around familiar places.

    Michael McClellandERA Architects

LET’S CREATE INCLUSIVE CITIES

Contact Jay to collaborate on a placemaking project, deliver a talk, develop public space policy, or lead an inclusive city-building professional development process.

Contact Me

I'm not around right now. But you can send me an email and I'll get back to you, ASAP.