Someone I admire in my field

Someone who I admire in my field is Jane Jacobs. She was an American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist best known for her influence on urban studies.  Her most influential book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" (1961) argued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of most city-dwellers. The book also introduced sociological concepts such as "eyes on the street" and "social capital". On her book she explains the richness of a multifuntional city, a compact and dense city, where the street, the neighborhoods and the comunity  are vital in the urban culture.

Jane Jacobs was born on 4 May 1916 in a small town in Pennsylvania in the Us and in his youth she emigrated to New York, attracted by the vibrant and noisy city life of this mega city.
There she became interested in urban issues, without having any degree or specific studies she became editor of the magazine Architectural Forum. From her articles she criticize the urban tendens in the 1950s, that promoted the growth of suburbs extended with individual houses, the cult of private cars and highways, along with the devaluation of the traditional urban centers, the preference fot the towers and the systematic demolition of old buildings and neighborhoods in the name of progress and modernization.

This year on her born century , Jane Jacobs remains an unavoidable reference to think but mainly to make better cities.

"If the street ends privileging the car above the people, the street dies and then starts the end of the city"