His Cities Project Stresses Information

The Cities Project is an international information gathering venture originated and directed by Dan Dimancescu '64 which is based on the premise that we do not know enough about urban living in spite of the torrent of studies in recent years by both the media and social scientists. Dimancescu considers the me- dia's treatment of social needs superficial and the researchers' sterile, and sees the need for a study of urban problems which would combine factual academic research with subjective, photographic journalism, with each giving the other direction.

The resulting Cities Project brings together an international group of scholars, journalists, filmmakers, and photographers who will examine, from their various perspectives, the areas of housing, transportation and employment in four giant cities, London, Tokyo, Moscow, and New York City. They will receive assistance from a network of cooperating educational institutions.

Spread over a three-year period, the project plans to produce initially newspaper and magazine articles, a major television documentary, a general audience book and a more technical report, with educational materials for secondary school and college curricula following over a period of years.

This seems an ambitious venture for a man not yet thirty. Born in 1943 in England where his father was ambassador from Rumania, Peter Dan Dimancescu was five when the family left England for North Africa and thirteen when they moved to Hartford. Conn. He credits those early years abroad, the French education in Moroccan schools, his father's intellectual curiosity and vast library with shaping his interest in people and places international.

This interest has manifested itself in purposeful and enterprising ways. From winning the outstanding speaker award at the Model U.N. Security Council while a Dartmouth junior, to organizing a "good- will journey' for himself and eight other Ledyard canoeists down 1,685 miles of the Danube River, to putting together a similar Japanese odyssey by kayak for an international group of students two years later, he has been concerned with breaking down barriers between people. Accounts of the trips which appeared in the NationalGeographic in July 1965 and September 1967 testify to the emphasis on meeting people, not conquering physical frontiers. Between these adventures, he was part of the People-to-People program, visiting campuses in the East to promote closer communication between American and foreign students.

A graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Dimancescu is currently visiting lecturer to universities and secondary schools on urban policy. He is also a free-lance journalist, a book designer and illustrator, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London.

Dan Dimancescu '64