An icon of urbanism is dead
I’ve been on a Jane Jacobs kick lately. So far, I’ve made it about halfway through The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and I just switched to her newest book Dark Age Ahead. Both are excellent books on urbanism and the North American way of life (can’t forget Canada!). So far, both of these books expose what has gone wrong with American society in the last 70 years and why it is in a state of unstablity and decay. While her latest work is a tad ranty, it brings up some very good points as to why America will soon cease to exist as a culture. I don’t mean the American way of life will change, I mean it will simply no longer exist; much like Rome no longer exists, and we will venture into the dark age that followed the fall of Rome.
In this daily reading, I got really excited about all the ideas this woman was showing me. I was even hoping to make it to a book signing at some point. Alas, she died last night at the age of 90.
So a moment of silence for one of the few great minds on urbanism lost.