Jane Jacobs, renowned urbanist and author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and the more recent Dark Age Ahead passed away early on Tuesday.
The obits are in all the major papers and they praise her as a major thinker, a singular mind and an urbanist. She made many North American cities better. If you think New York City is better with large parts of Greenwich Village and SoHo intact, you can thank Jacobs. Ditto for Kensington Market, Chinatown and the Annex in Toronto, her adopted home.
Despite penning respected volumes on urban planning, economics and other topics, Jacobs actually never received formal academic training and even rejected the 30 or so honourary degrees bestowed on her. The Project For Public Spaces has a wonderful little bio on her here.
Spacing magazine’s wire has a beautiful little tribute. We’re also pointing you to noted urbanist James Howard Kunstler’s interview with her from 2001. Finally, Timothy Comeau’s Good Reads project also links you to a few more article on Jane.