Jane Jacobs: Urbanist Author of The Death and Life of Great American Cit

Jane Jacobs was an American-Canadian writer and activist who changed how cities are planned. Born Jane Butzner on May 4, 1916, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, she worked as a magazine writer in New York.

Her 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities argued for dense, mixed-use neighborhoods and criticized urban renewal. She led the campaign that stopped a highway from cutting through Greenwich Village. She moved to Toronto in 1968 and fought the Spadina Expressway there.

She also wrote The Economy of Cities and Cities and the Wealth of Nations. Jacobs died in Toronto on April 25, 2006, at age 89.

Achievements: Author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Order of Ontario.

Birth: May 4, 1916 - Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Profession: Writer and activist.

Interesting Facts: She moved to Canada in 1968 partly to keep her sons from the Vietnam draft.