Urban Geographer
Few of our faculty combine their professional work, community involvement, and personal lives as thoroughly and successfully as Judith Martin. Martin is Professor of Geography and Chair of the University of Minnesota's Urban Studies Program. She has lived in Minneapolis since she came here as a graduate student in the early 1970s, and has been a member of the Minneapolis Planning Commission since 1991 and its President since 1998, an activity that fits remarkably with her academic work.
Today's Downtown Journal/Skyway News has a good article about how Martin's university and community work connect. Here are some excerpts:
While serving on the commission, Martin has had a unique opportunity to delve into urban development issues she also analyzes as an academic. ...
The Planning Commission, a 10-member citizen’s advisory committee, is charged with long-term planning and works with the City Council on development and zoning issues."Being engaged in the public stuff is important for me because it kind of keeps me thinking about the ways in which the world is changing and the students are changing at the same time,” she said during an interview at her office on the university’s West Bank. “Minneapolis and St. Paul, and this region, has become a much more vibrant and interesting region than it was when I first came here for graduate school. You see here really in a microcosm a lot of what are the major issues that are happening in the New Yorks and Chicagos of the world.”
A former planning commissioner said “The thing that I am impressed by is she has a lot of understanding of urban places from all over the world. She tries to bring that perspective to Minneapolis as often as she can, and Minneapolis doesn’t appreciate it as much as they could...She is a champion of urbanism, which means density. Density means eyes on the street.”
Among the issues Martin has been concerned with in Minneapolis, in addition to urban density, are the displacement of industrial activity by residential housing, traffic congestion, and a more people-friendly urban core.
Being an engaged citizen of her city has not kept Judith Martin from equally active and effective involvement with her university community. She has served as Chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee and is about to become Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.
Judith Martin provides a great example of how the two definitions of "civic" - "of or related to a city", and "of or related to the duties or activities of people in relation to their locale" - can be productively combined.