Jane Jacobs' Legacy Lives On

Architecture critic Christopher Hume writes an homage to urban planning icon Jane Jacobs, highlighting the resiliency of her positions on density and diversity.

1 minute read

May 6, 2011, 2:00 PM PDT

By Jason Van Patten


Jacobs' influence on her adopted hometown of Toronto live on, as do many of the issues she so vehemently advocated against. Christopher Hume of the Toronto Star says her principles of diversity and density are applied when convenient, shunned when not. Her impact remains, but so does the anti-urban bias:

"Death and Life gave shape and form to the idea of the city. It has helped generations understand how the ordinary comings and goings are signs of a healthy city."

"Yet outside the core we continue to practise what the late Metro boss Fred Gardiner once called 'multiplication by subdivision.' For the many who view the city as a Dickensian hell - dirty, dangerous and diseased - fleeing to the 'burbs is as inevitable as marriage and parenthood."

Friday, May 6, 2011 in Toronto Star

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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