Experts to debate, discuss the future of cities

Skidmore will host a debate on the future of cities featuring two noted scholars and moderated by an expert on transportation issues.

"The Long Emergency vs. NYC's Resurgency: A Debate about the Future of Cities" will feature Paul Steely White, executive director, Transportation Alternatives, and author James Howard Kunstler. Jeff Olson of Alta Planning & Design, a Skidmore faculty member, will moderate. Free and open to the public, the talk is scheduled at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall. There will be a "meet and greet" in the Palamountain/Dana hall lobby from 5 to 6 p.m., before the debate.

Skidmore's Environmental Studies Program is sponsoring the panel.

We live in a time of either the collapse of our society or the emergence of innovative solutions. This discussion will feature two of America's most interesting voices: Kunstler, whose book The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, is an apocalyptic vision of a post-oil future, and White of Transportation Alternatives, a leader who is helping to transform New York City into a livable metropolis. Both speakers share a common vision of the need for a sustainable future ? the debate will focus on whether or not change is possible in light of our modern condition.

In September White received the Jane Jacobs Medal from the Rockefeller Foundation. The medals are awarded each year to recipients whose work creates new ways of seeing and understanding New York City, challenges traditional assumptions and creatively uses the urban environment to make New York City a place of hope and expectation.

Kunstler's many books include The Long Emergency, The Geography of Nowhere and The Witch of Hebron. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Sunday Magazine and Op-Ed page, where he has written on environmental and economic issues, and to Orion Magazine. His most recent article in Orion Magazine (July/August 2011) titled "Back to the Future: A Road Map for Tomorrow's Cities" is of particular relevance to the Oct. 20 discussion.

Olson is an architect and planner who has been involved in greenways, open space, active living and alternative transportation projects for more than 20 years. He is also an adjunct lecturer for Skidmore's ES Program who taught Sustainable Mobility Solutions in fall 2010. Olson and his company Alta Planning & Design were recently chosen to run the largest bike-share effort in the country in New York City.