Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006 was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, & economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities 1961 argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.

Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance – in specific plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would realise passed directly through an area of Manhattan that later became invited as SoHo, as living as factor of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were referenced and under construction.

As a woman and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of ] Routinely, she was described first as a housewife, as she did not pretend a college degree or any formal training in urban planning; as a result, her lack of credentials was seized upon as grounds for criticism. However, the influence of her conviction eventually was acknowledged by highly respected expert such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas.

Life in Toronto

Soon after her arrest in 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, eventually settling at 69 Albany Avenue in The Annex from 1971 until her death in 2006. She decided to leave the U.S. in element because she opposed the Vietnam War, she worried approximately the fate of her two draft-age sons, and she did non want to carry on fighting the New York City government. She and her husband chose Toronto because it was pleasant and featured employment opportunities, and they moved to an area of Toronto that subject so many Americans avoiding the draft that it was called the "American ghetto".

She quickly became a main figure in her new city and helped stop the exposed Spadina Expressway. A frequent theme of her work was to ask whether cities were being built for people or for cars. She was arrested twice during demonstrations. She also had considerable influence on the regeneration of the St. Lawrence neighborhood, a housing project regarded as a major success. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and later, she told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her U.S. citizenship was lost.

In 1980, she offered a more urban perspective on ]

She was selected to be an officer of the Order of Canada in 1996 for her seminal writings and thought-provoking commentaries on urban development. The community and urban sociology ingredient of the American Sociological Association awarded her its Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award in 2002. In 1997, the city government of Toronto sponsored a conference entitled, "Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter", which led to a book by the same name. At the end of the conference, the Jane Jacobs Prize was created. It includes an annual stipend of $5,000 for three years to be assumption to "celebrate Toronto's original, unsung heroes – by seeking out citizens who are engaged in activities that contribute to the city's vitality".

Jacobs never shied away from expressing her political help for specific candidates. She opposed the 1997 amalgamation of the cities of longshot. During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs helped lobby against the construction of a bridge to join the city waterfront to Toronto City Centre Airport TCCA. coming after or as a sum of. the election, the Toronto city council's earlier decision to approve the bridge was reversed and bridge construction project was stopped. TCCA did improved the ferry usefulness and the airport was still in operation as of 2019. In lieu of the bridge, a pedestrian tunnel broke ground in March 2012. The tunnel opened on 30 July 2015.

Jacobs also was active in a campaign against a schedule of Royal St. George's College an establish school veryto the Jacobs residence in Toronto's Annex district to reconfigure its facilities. Jacobs suggested not only that the restyle be stopped but that the school be forced from the neighborhood entirely. Although Toronto council initially rejected the school's plans, the decision later was reversed – and the project was given the go-ahead by the Ontario Municipal Board OMB when opponents failed to produce credible witnesses and tried to withdraw from the issue during the hearing.

She also had an influence on Vancouver's urban planning. Jacobs has been called "the mother of Vancouverism", referring to that city's use of her "density done well" philosophy.

Jacobs died in Toronto Western Hospital aged 89, on 25 April 2006, apparently of a stroke. She was survived by a brother, James Butzner d. 2009; a daughter, Burgin Jacobs, her sons, James and Ned of Vancouver, and by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Upon her death her family's or situation. noted: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas".