Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs (May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was a Canadian and American journalist, author and activist. She changed urban studies. In her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs described how urban renewal did not respect the needs of most city people.

Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs as chairperson of a Greenwich Village civic group at a 1961 press conference.
Born	Jane Butzner (1916-05-04)May 4, 1916 Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	April 25, 2006(2006-04-25) (aged 89) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cause of death	Stroke
Education	Graduated from Scranton High School; two years undergraduate studies at Columbia University
Occupation(s)	Journalist, author, urban theorist
Employer(s)	Amerika, Architectural Forum
Organization(s)	Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
Notable work	The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Spouse	Robert Jacobs
Awards	OC, O.Ont, Vincent Scully Prize, National Building Museum

Jacobs made local efforts with regular people to protect existing neighborhoods from "slum clearance". In 1968, she was arrested for inciting a crowd to stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. In 1968, she moved to Toronto. In Toronto, she fought against building the Spadina Expressway (now Allen Road).

Mostly men work in urban planning and have power. Jacobs was a woman and a writer who criticized the ideas of male experts.^[1][2] So, established planners often said bad things about her personally. She was often described first as a housewife,^[3] because she did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning.^[4][5] However, her ideas became more and more popular and respected. Professionals such as Richard Florida and Robert Lucas said her work was important.^[6]

Jacobs got the second Vincent Scully prize from the National Building Museum in 2000.

Jacobs was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She died from a stroke in Toronto at age 89.^[7]