Jane Jacobs: What's Old Is Good

"If there's a Gospel According to Jacobs, it's that old is better than new, and small is better than big. Anecdotal evidence counts for more than chunky stacks of authoritative data. She's old school in the sense that she clearly would prefer if suburbs -- what she calls "ghastly communities" -- simply ceased to exist... She has a contract for two other books. One will be an anthology of her writings on how metropolitan economies wither or fade based on local smarts rather than national policies. And the other? "You'll probably laugh at my brashness," Jacobs confided with a broad grin during our interview, "but it has the working title 'A short biography of the human race.' "