Happy Birthday Jane Jacobs!
“Why have cities not, long since, been identified, understood and treated as problems of organized complexity?”
Jane Jacobs was a self-taught journalist and community organizer that supported keeping the city of New York diverse in shape and function. She stood by beloved neighborhoods that were unjustly slated for “renewal” and revealed political biases in the permit process for new projects. In Jacob’s opinion, cities are for the people, and they’re safest when residents mingle on the street and in local businesses.
Jacobs developed her philosophy through living and interacting with the city itself, and described life on the city streets as a kind of social ballet. Her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) still sits in the American Library of Congress.
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