Posted on September 16, 2011

Rockefeller Foundation Announces Winners of 2011 Jane Jacobs Medal

The Rockefeller Foundation has announced the winners of the 2011 Jane Jacobs Medal, which recognizes individuals whose actions and accomplishments in New York City exemplify the principles of the late author and civic activist.

Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, film producers and founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, were awarded the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Medal, while Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner of the New York City department of transportation (DOT), and Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, were awarded the 2011 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. Along with the medal, each honoree will receive a cash award of $50,000.

Sadik-Khan will donate her award to the DOT's Safe Streets Fund and White will devote his to the ongoing work of Transportation Alternatives. De Niro and Rosenthal will donate their combined $100,000 to the film festival's Tribeca Teaches program.

"The Rockefeller Foundation Jane Jacobs Medal recognizes New Yorkers whose creative uses of the urban environment build a more diverse, dynamic, and equitable city for all of us," said Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin. "It is completely appropriate that this year's winners are Janette Sadik-Khan and Paul Steely White, whose impact on New York's urban landscape will be felt for generations, and Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, who were instrumental in the complete rebirth of one of our city's most vibrant and creative communities."