Bloomberg Center for Cities

The Sidewalk is Political: Rethinking Democracy Through Everyday Spaces

AN EVENT OF THE BLOOMBERG CENTER FOR CITIES AND THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN

REGISTER

The Sidewalk Is Political: Rethinking Democracy Through Everyday Spaces


11:00 a.m. EST
Virtual (Zoom)

About the Event

Co-sponsored with the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Open to all Harvard University ID holders.

What can an ordinary sidewalk tell us about the way we govern, design, and share our communities?

Join us for a Community Conversation with Michael Pollack, author of “Sidewalk Nation,” as he examines the overlooked infrastructure that shapes everyday life. Drawing on stories from cities and towns across the United States, Pollack reveals how sidewalks sit at the center of debates about accessibility, public space, housing, free speech, public safety, and climate resilience.

Through a discussion of his new book, Pollack will explore why sidewalks deserve greater attention from policymakers, designers, and residents alike—and how rethinking these everyday spaces can help create stronger, more connected communities.

Registration is requested.

Community Conversation is an initiative for the GSD to informally engage with each other around topics that advance discussions about perspective, difference, and commonality.

Speakers

Michael Pollack

Michael Pollack

Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Faculty Development,‌ Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Michael Pollack is a Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Faculty Development. Prior to joining the Cardozo faculty in 2017, Professor Pollack was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and to Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, an attorney at the Department of Justice’s Federal Programs Branch in Washington, D.C., and a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School.

Professor Pollack graduated with a J.D. summa cum laude from the New York University School of Law, where he was a Furman Scholar, and with a B.A. with highest honors from Swarthmore College. He teaches and conducts research primarily in the areas of property law, state and local government law, land use regulation, and administrative law to explore how local institutional decision-making and the public and private regulation of space affect people’s lives, wallets, health, satisfaction, and overall welfare.

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