about Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs was born more than a hundred years ago, yet the ideas she popularized — about cities, about people, about creating a more equitable world — remain hugely relevant today. Debut author Rebecca Pitts paints a vivid picture of a headstrong and principled young girl who committed her life to building cities made for, and by, the people who live in them. Refusing the conventional wisdom of the time, Jacobs championed diversity, community, grassroots organizing, and “the life of the street” — and she never backed down, even when it meant going up against the most powerful man in New York, Robert Moses. This is a story about standing up for what you know is right, including a playbook full of real-world takeaways for young activists.

Shortlisted for the GODDARD RIVERSIDE CBC YOUTH BOOK PRIZE for SOCIAL JUSTICE, 2023

PRAISE

Here is an engaging and lively biography of icon Jane Jacobs, a journalist and community activist for city planning and renewal, who stopped legendary urban planner Robert Moses from building a number of NYC construction projects that would have destroyed communities. Born in 1916 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Jacobs was a rebel from a young age who lived for most of her adult life in the West Village. In this text, her biographer is aware of her flaws: Jacobs’ best-known book, the influential 1961 Death and Life of Great American Cities, made no mention of housing inequities and the redlining that many people of color faced due to the existing systemic racial discrimination, a fact that Pitts points to as a valid criticism. Jacobs also believed that communities of people “created a sense of shared safety,” but her privilege as a white woman blinded her to the systemic racism of the time. Still, she was widely impactful; she was arrested several times, the second time for allegedly inciting a riot at a public hearing. Pitts occasionally addresses readers directly in the text, which includes black-and-white photographs and uses invented dialogue (in italics) at times to move the narrative along. Jacobs was a remarkable woman, and her advocacy for community action and citizen participation is more valid today than ever. It’s a view that will resonate with teen readers. —Sharon Rawlins, Booklist, ⭑ Starred Review⭑

“Thank you, Rebecca Pitts. Each generation deserves their own Jane Jacobs biography, written in the rhythms and sensibilities of today’s youth. When future urbanists now in school are asked where they first were introduced to the work and life of Jane Jacobs, I would not be surprised how many will credit Pitts’ phenomenally researched and entertaining book.”
—Barry Wittenstein, author of NCTE Orbis Pictus Award-winning A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation

“Jane Jacobs: Champion of Cities, Champion of People is the civics education I wish I had when I was a teenager. Pitts brings Jacobs’s lessons on community organizing, civil disobedience, and city building to life with casual ease—all while not being afraid to question how Jane’s ideas hold up today.”
—Nathan Storring, co-editor of Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs

Q&A with Shelf Awareness

Q: Why will young adults be interested in Jane Jacobs?

A: Young adults will appreciate her sincerity and her inability to tolerate a politician's long-winded excuse for not doing the right thing. Her spirit is childlike—and I say that as a compliment, with great admiration. Her seemingly limitless energy, her idealism—she carries these qualities with her throughout her life. While researching this book for young adults, I was stunned to stumble upon this quote from Jane, written at age 77: "I'm not all that different as far as I can see from when I was 13 years old."