Death and Life and Death

It sounds weird to say, but I think about Jane Jacobs (clothed) pretty much every day. I don't think I would be able to express what I like about where I live, or where I've ever lived, without her. For some reason it's nice to learn that she used to have imaginary conversations with Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin.

What the NYT doesn't really say is that she basically won the battle with Le Corbusier et al. It's not just the New Urbanism (which, apparently, is quickly becoming a Disneyland-style parody of itself). It's that the principles she laid out in D&L are now pretty much universally accepted as desirable. Even many of those horrible exurban developments, which pretty much violate every other Jacobsian commandment, now have alleys in the back for parking, which is a small thing, but it's something.