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Jane Jacobs
Sign in to saveAlso known as Jane Butzner, Jane Butzner Jacobs
American–Canadian journalist, author, and activist (1916–2006)
OverviewAI-generated
Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) was a female journalist, urban planner, writer, and sociologist. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, she was educated at Columbia University School of General Studies. She held citizenship in both Canada and the United States, residing in New York City and Toronto. Jacobs wrote in English and was influenced by Le Corbusier. Her archives are held at Boston College.
Among her notable works is *The Death and Life of Great American Cities*, published by Random House in 1961. Other listed works include *American Earth* and *Tod und Leben grosser amerikanischer Städte*. Jacobs received the Order of Ontario. She died of a stroke in Toronto from natural causes.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 4 May 1916
- Died
- 25 April 2006
- Works
- 32
Top works
- Jane Jacobs visits Pittsburgh
- American Earth
- Reprints of three reviews of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, Random House. 1961
- Tod und Leben grosser amerikanischer Städte
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Known for
- Citizen Jane: Battle for the City — Herself (uncredited, archival footage)2017
- Wild Hearts1992
- Empire City — Self1985
- City Limits — self1971
via TMDB
Key facts
- Born
- Jane Isabel Butzner , ( 1916-05-04 ) 4 May 1916, Scranton, Pennsylvania , US
- Died
- 25 April 2006 (2006-04-25) (aged 89), Toronto , Ontario, Canada
- Occupations
- Journalist author urban theorist activist
- Employers
- Amerika Architectural Forum
- Organizations
- Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway Stop Spadina Save Our City Coordinating Committee
- Notable work
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life (1984)
- Spouse
- Robert Jacobs ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1944 )
- Awards
- Vincent Scully Prize (2000)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Jane
- Family name
- Jacobs
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Scranton
- Place of death
- Toronto
- Occupation
- economist
- Employer
- Amerika
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Notable work
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities
- Field of work
- journalist
- Image
- Jane Jacobs (cropped).jpg
- Residence
- Toronto
Show 10 more facts
- date of birth
- 1916-05-04
- date of death
- 2006-04-25
- Commons category
- Jane Jacobs
- cause of death
- stroke
- manner of death
- natural causes
- influenced by
- Le Corbusier
- archives at
- Boston College
- writing language
- English language
- name in native language
- Jane Jacobs
- birth name
- Jane Butzner
Sources (15)
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Jane Isabel Jacobs (née Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers.
Jacobs organized grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from urban renewal and slum clearance, in particular plans by Robert Moses to overhaul her own Greenwich Village neighborhood. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through the area of Manhattan that would later become known as SoHo, as well as part of Little Italy and Chinatown. She was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on that project. After moving to Toronto in 1968, she joined the opposition to the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of expressways in Toronto that were planned and under construction.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jane Jacobs” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.