I'd never met my mentor Jane Jacobs, but I love her and honor all that she taught to me. Her ability to see through the common planning wisdom of her day, and into the real inner workings of people, cities and life were inspiring. She changed the way many people thought, lived and acted.

A few years back, there was an over-used term...paradigm shift. Jane Jacobs's book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" caused a true paradigm shift. She created a thought process, which helped others to understand cities and neighborhoods holistically.

Please take a few minutes to read the article about her life in the Toronto Star. Whether you are an artist, activist, sociologist, or philosopher, I believe that you will be inspired.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/A...

If every Councilmember, planning commissioner, parks director, newspaper reporter, banker and downtown developer would read her first book, the world (or even just Fresno) would be an even better place.

Yours,
Craig

Or Tim Stearns forwarded the NY Times story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/books/26jacobs.html?ei=5070&en=c35032d...