Jane Jacobs died on tuesday of this week, at the age of 89. She devoted herself to saving what is good about vibrant, alive neighborhoods. She had a naturalist's eye, and her classic work, The death and life of great american cities, is still essential reading for understanding why cities work, when they do.
Stephen Johnson, in his book Emergence, as well as on his blog, talks quite eloquently about her influence on his thinking -- not just the content of his thinking, but the mind-set -- the compulsion to look for the interesting connections.
Eric Alterman had this to say about her --
"Ms. Jacobs was a one-woman argument for the role of the individual in history; the ability of someone using her brain, her heart, and her pen to say “we’re not going to take it” and to create and lead a creative community to wage that fight collectively. Solidarity without sentimentality can be a rare and beautiful thing and if you read her life’s story, perhaps you will be inspired by her example. I sure was."In her memory, take a walk in your neighborhood, and think of the ways it works as a human ecology. How do the interconnections of your neighborhood feed the different parts of the whole? How alive is your neighborhood? What could help it be more alive?
1 comment:
Thanks for posting that Jane Jacobs had passed. I purchased her book when I was working on my dissertation, but as it often happens, I never got around to reading it. I'm now re-inspired to pick it up - good summer reading.
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