Since Tuesday morning, the passing of Jane Jacobs has been a source of a lot of blog posts and newspaper tributes. Technorati, the web portal that collects posts from 36.7 million blogs from around the world, reports the search-string of “Jane Jacobs” is one of the most popular topics in the blogsphere over the last few days (specifically, she ranks fifth behind “American Idol,” “Smithy Code,” “Stuck With Bush,” and “Sketchup”). Locally, you can read the Jane Jacobs memorial blog which has collected links to blog posts and previous interviews that you can listen to and/or download.
Though she warned us that grim days may lie ahead for cities, her words during Toronto’s amalgamation battle are just as profound as any of her books: “…A battle like this would be intolerable if we didn’t have a good time, if we didn’t have the joy of battle, if we didn’t have a high old time in this. Never, never underestimate the power of high hearts when they’re combined with principled, unyielding wills.”
Though Spacing has never specifically profiled Ms. Jacobs, our magazine is an extension of her theories. Small details of what makes a city unique played a large role in her vision — that type of thinking permeates Spacing and we are are filled with gratitude for the inspiration she has provided us.