Jane Jacobs - Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs

This might be the very best of Jane Jacobss books. The articles and speeches collected here are terrific summaries of her thoughts about the marvelous complexities of cities and how we might respond to city challenges to our best advantage.

J OHN S EWELL, former mayor of Toronto

Its one thing to bring important ideas to the world, quite another to do it with such wit and subtlety. This volume reminds us what a sheer, crackling great writer Jane Jacobs was.

J AMES H OWARD K UNSTLER, author of The Geography of Nowhere

Vital Little Plans lays out Jane Jacobss evolution as an intellectual, from her early reportage on the sidewalks of New York to her wide-ranging theories on cities and human economies. Her eye for details, for the small things that matter, was always there. It takes an anthology like this to capture the breadth of her work. Jacobs had no time for orthodoxy and wasnt afraid to change her views, many of which will surprise her fans, her critics, and all those who think they know what Jane Jacobs thought and what she would have done.

S HAWN M ICALLEF, author, columnist, editor of Spacing

Vital Little Plans is a generously annotated and beautifully curated celebration of Jane Jacobss life and work. Readers will find both shining jewels and marvelous curiosities here. Most important, theyll find new evidence of Jacobss depth, integrity, and indomitable spirit. A must-read for anyone interested in cities, systems, and societies.

C OLIN E LLARD, author of Places of the Heart and You Are Here

This remarkable compendium of Jane Jacobss writing covers a period that begins long before the publication of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and ends long after. We see how, piece by piece, she expanded her range into the next ring of connected ideas, periodically consolidating them in a book or an article, edging ever closer to a kind of unified theory linking ecology, economy, ethics, and social mores and their manifestations in real places. Like her fundamental observation about the city itself, her work was never finished.

K EN G REENBERG, urban designer and author of Walking Home

Reading Jane Jacobss short works again tells us what a visionary and creative thinker she was. Her words are as fresh today as when she wrote them and speak to us by telling compelling stories. There is, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, no virtue in meek conformity. This collection is a treasure for us all.

J ANICE G ROSS S TEIN, professor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

Vital Little Plans is an immensely important retrospective of Jane Jacobss articles and speeches. Her belief in the power of residents to make cities economically, environmentally, and socially successful shines through, as does her disdain for those who would build cities for cars, not people.

D AVID M ILLER, president and CEO of WWF-Canada and former mayor of Toronto

This indispensable anthology is a delight. Through older works and new writings, the urgency of Jane Jacobss message continues to ring clear. This book further exposes us to Jacobss unconventional, process-oriented thinking, and positions us to take action to transform our cities. There is a better world around us, if we are willing to see it. Vital Little Plans is simply superb.

J ENNIFER K EESMAAT, chief planner, City of Toronto

A book to get your blood running and ideas soaring!

M INDY T HOMPSON F ULLILOVE, author of Urban Alchemy

We seem to be facing a perfect storm. The population of cities will double to 7 billion in just thirty-five years, while we endure climate change, traffic congestion, a public health crisis, and an aging population. These are challenges, but we can also see them as opportunities. The world clearly needs more Jane Jacobs. In Vital Little Plans, she provides vision and action to create cities for people, especially those most vulnerable: children, older adults, and the poor.

G UILLERMO ( G IL) P EALOSA, founder and chair of 8 80 Cities and chair of World Urban Parks

We know Jane Jacobs wrote brilliant books, and it would a crime to let her equally brilliant smaller writings, speeches, and interviews be lost. This collection is more than the sum of its parts, and is a great book to have at your fingertips.

B RENT T ODERIAN, city planner and urbanist, TODERIAN UrbanWORKS, and former chief planner of Vancouver

Dont cheat yourself of the pleasure that lies between these covers.

J EFF S PECK , author of Walkable City

An essential read for those wanting to understand the contradiction and chaos of a woman whose legacy is that we must all think for ourselves. The editors have brilliantly selected and sequenced Jacobss writing so that we can plainly see how she wrestles with, and problem-solves around, messy and complex systems. Many of us have only scratched the surface with Jacobs, ending our love affair with her work at a time when shed just begun to connect the dots. Reading through the entire pilgrimage makes the calls to action more vivid and more urgent than ever before.

D ENISE P INTO, executive director, Janes Walk