Urbanist and economic author Jane Jacobs died in Toronto this morning at the age of 89. Jacobs was the author of several books, including The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Economy of Cities, and Cities and the Wealth of Nations. She was credited with one of the most forceful indictments of mid-century urban renewal in Death and Life, which is now a canonical work in discussing urban revitalization. Its emphasis on mixed uses, diversity, and density in cities are now axioms in much of contemporary urban planning.
Online interviews with Jacobs are available here, here, and here.
I'm sad to say that I've only read parts of Death and Life, and none of the rest of her work. Yet even from the chapters I read, I loved her writing style and where she was coming from. She loved cities, thoroughly and whole-heartedly, and wanted to protect them. It's a fight worth having.
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