{"id":444,"date":"2006-05-02T03:12:41","date_gmt":"2006-05-02T03:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=444"},"modified":"2018-08-22T19:19:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T23:19:15","slug":"tuesday-may-2-2006-death-of-jane-jacobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=444","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday, May 2, 2006 \u2014 Death of Jane Jacobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"06-05-02<\/a>Jane Jacobs died last week. I did not always agree with her ideas, but I always had tremen\u00addous respect for her intel\u00adlect and integri\u00adty. She was among the century\u2019s most bril\u00adliant and orig\u00adi\u00adnal thinkers, and her pres\u00adence alone made my city of Toron\u00adto an impor\u00adtant intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal center.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was born in 1916, in Scran\u00adton Penn\u00adsyl\u00adva\u00adnia. Her first, and best-known book, The Death and Life of Great Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Cities<\/em>, was pub\u00adlished while she still lived in New York City. It rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion\u00adized think\u00ading about urban plan\u00adning and the nature of city neigh\u00adbour\u00adhoods. But her sub\u00adse\u00adquent books are equal\u00adly impor\u00adtant. They log\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly moved from the small scale ques\u00adtions she began to ask, such as \u201cwhy is one street pop\u00adu\u00adlar and safe, and anoth\u00ader shunned and dan\u00adger\u00adous?\u201d, through pro\u00adgres\u00adsive\u00adly larg\u00ader issues of macro-eco\u00adnom\u00adics, and final\u00adly to unex\u00adplored areas of ethics. She moved to Toron\u00adto, with her archi\u00adtect hus\u00adband, in 1969, large\u00adly because of her oppo\u00adsi\u00adtion to the Viet\u00adnam War. Once in Toron\u00adto, she quick\u00adly became a pub\u00adlic fig\u00adure, spear\u00adhead\u00ading oppo\u00adsi\u00adtion to urban poli\u00adcies that had already crip\u00adpled many Amer\u00adi\u00adcan cities. Thanks to her influ\u00adence, Toron\u00adto avoid\u00aded many of these dis\u00adas\u00adters. Like any tru\u00adly good thinker, she man\u00adaged to be arrest\u00aded at least twice, but she was nev\u00ader an enthu\u00adsi\u00adast for the pos\u00ades and pre\u00adtens\u00ades of the pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal \u201cactivist\u201d. What she was good at was look\u00ading at the real world with\u00adout the fil\u00adter of ide\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal ortho\u00addoxy, and then writ\u00ading down her com\u00admon-sense con\u00adclu\u00adsions with in a clear, sim\u00adple style, more akin to the work of Mon\u00adtaigne than to the obscu\u00adran\u00adtist fash\u00adions of her time. So it didn\u2019t sur\u00adprise me when I learned that, as a lone\u00adly child, she amused her\u00adself by car\u00adry\u00ading on imag\u00adi\u00adnary con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions with Thomas Jef\u00adfer\u00adson, Ben\u00adjamin Franklin, and an Anglo-Sax\u00adon chief\u00adtain named Cerdric.<\/span><\/p>\n

I first read her work when I was a teenag\u00ader. One sen\u00adtence of hers had a pro\u00adfound impact: \u201cThere is a qual\u00adi\u00adty even mean\u00ader than out\u00adright ugli\u00adness or dis\u00ador\u00adder, and this mean\u00ader qual\u00adi\u00adty is the dis\u00adhon\u00adest mask of pre\u00adtend\u00aded order, achieved by ignor\u00ading or sup\u00adpress\u00ading the real order that is strug\u00adgling to exist and to be served.\u201d<\/em> Remem\u00adber\u00ading this sen\u00adtenced saved me many times from being tak\u00aden in by the waves of fake \u201cratio\u00adnal\u00adism\u201d, pseu\u00addo-sci\u00adence, and mys\u00adti\u00adcism mas\u00adquerad\u00ading as rea\u00adson, that char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adized the cen\u00adtu\u00adry I grew up in. John Sewell, the may\u00ador of Toron\u00adto who actu\u00adal\u00adly took her ideas seri\u00adous\u00adly, did not waste time explain\u00ading her writ\u00adings, or their mean\u00ading. Instead, he spoke of her as a charm\u00ading din\u00adner com\u00adpan\u00adion, addict\u00aded to sweets (espe\u00adcial\u00adly but\u00adter tarts), and relent\u00adless\u00adly curi\u00adous and ques\u00adtion\u00ading. Sewell was even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly oust\u00aded by an alliance of devel\u00adop\u00aders, cor\u00adrupt police, and sleazy politi\u00adcians, but in his term in office, Toron\u00adto blos\u00adsomed, while oth\u00ader North Amer\u00adi\u00adcan cities sank into decay and chaos. Many cred\u00adit this pos\u00adi\u00adtive era to her influ\u00adence. The sad thing is that Jane\u2019s strug\u00adgle will go on in a new form. In all like\u00adli\u00adhood, her ideas will be over\u00adsim\u00adpli\u00adfied and grotesque\u00adly dis\u00adtort\u00aded, and used by some future gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion to do harm. That is the most hor\u00adri\u00adble thing about being an orig\u00adi\u00adnal thinker.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jane Jacobs died last week. I did not always agree with her ideas, but I always had tremen\u00addous respect for her intel\u00adlect and integri\u00adty. She was among the century\u2019s most bril\u00adliant and orig\u00adi\u00adnal thinkers, and her pres\u00adence alone made my \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12,946,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-au-blog-2006","category-b-reading","category-bu-reading-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9604,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/9604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}