Kevin Bacon will probably not like the way his father is depicted in “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” a documentary about urban preservationist Jane Jacobs, opening Friday.
“Ed Bacon was the Robert Moses of Philly. He was one of Jane Jacobs’ targets as a misguided city planning czar,” director Matt Tyrnauer told me.
Many of the ideas in Jacobs’ classic book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” came in reaction to Bacon’s plans to remake Philadelphia, where Kevin was one of six children growing up.
Jacobs wrote about the elder Bacon as a reporter for Architectural Forum. “She told him he was wrong — to his face and in print,” said Tyrnauer.
“There is a part of the book where Bacon is showing off his beautiful new streets of Philadelphia, and she points out that the old areas he considered slums were more vibrant and lively than what he created,” Tyrnauer said. “He was not happy.”
Another Hollywood star, Edward Norton, is also name-checked because his grandfather James Rouse was a pioneer in planned communities and an early adopter of Jacobs’ ideas who is shown in the film alongside Jacobs, studying city plans.
“Two of our most enduring male movie stars were descended from two of the titans of urban planning in the 20th century,” Tyrnauer said. “Once again, ‘six degrees of Kevin Bacon’ holds true!”
Marisa Tomei is Jacobs’ voice in the film when passages from her writings are read. Vincent D’Onofrio is the voice of Moses. Tyrnauer said, “We needed someone who could play a heavy.”