Death of an urbanist

File under: urbanism, obituary

I wouldn't usually post an obituary here, but I'll make an exception for Jane Jacobs, who died yesterday at the age of 89. She was an activist and a flaneur; she was passionate about cities and a fierce advocate of urban values such as density and diversity. I've always seen her as an inspiration, and it's no exaggeration to say that her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities changed my life. St Louis' Urban Review has excerpts from the press obituaries and sums them up by saying "The world has just lost the greatest urbanist of our lifetime".