Join us on April 14 at 7 pm at Amesbury City Hall for the inaugural event in our Bailey Family Foundation Speaker series.

Jeff Speck is a city planner and urban designer who advocates internationally for more walkable cities. Walkable cities encourage pedestrian traffic by offering safe and comfortable places and spaces for walking. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, Speck presided over the Mayors' Institute on City Design and created the Governors' Institute on Community Design.

With Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Mr. Speck is the co-author of The Smart-Growth Manual and the “modern classic” Suburban Nation, which the Wall Street Journal calls "the urbanist's bible.”  His latest book, Walkable City, was the best selling city-planning book of 2013-14.

In a 2012 interview with NPR Speck said, “…what happened in the last decade is that these other groups who get a lot more attention — doctors, economists, scientists — have begun to realize that the traditional neighborhood and particularly urban neighborhoods are much more sustainable environmentally, much more successful economically, and much, much better for us in terms of our health."

Speck's talk will begin at 7 pm followed by a Q&A and book signing. This event is offered free and open to the public thanks to the generous and continued support of the Bailey Family Foundation.