American cities have lost a great advocate.
At a time when urban planners demolished entire neighborhoods to make it easier for cars to get around, Jane Jacobs was a voice of reason.
She opposed letting freeways strangle our cities and fought to save landmarks with deep meaning for their neighborhoods. You can still walk the streets of Greenwich Village because of her.
I have to admit that I'm one of those people who always intended to read her books, but never has.
I can only hope that her death will, at least briefly, bring urban renewal to the forefront of the media's consciousness. Not the massive, bulldoze-it-all projects of the last 50 years, but real renewal that engages the residents, rather than displaces them. Renewal that weaves a vibrant urban fabric, rather than tears it apart.
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