Thanks Jane
Several years ago a friend of mine pointed me to the work of Jane Jacobs. Since then I’ve had the chance to read most of her books and hear her speak. I have been moved to a way of thinking about life and living in cities that underlies a lot of how I view local issues and politics generally. With all the international travel I’ve been able to experience I’ve also had the chance to see her ideas in action (or inaction). The city I live, and both of the neighbourhoods I’ve called (and call) home are examples of at least some of the way she thought cities should be organized. She died this week. The New York Times writes…
“In her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” written in 1961, Ms. Jacobs’s enormous achievement was to transcend her own withering critique of 20th-century urban planning and propose radically new principles for rebuilding cities.
At a time when both common and inspired wisdom called for bulldozing slums and opening up city space, Ms. Jacobs’s prescription was ever more diversity, density and dynamism — in effect, to crowd people and activities together in a joyous urban jumble.”
Thanks for thinking differently.