Who Was Jane Jacobs?

This video above is Dr. Richard Florida, who has given us a new picture of economic development and where we are as a society right now with his concept of the Creative Class.  At 31:13 in this clip, he mentions Jane Jacobs, who was a great mentor of his.

Much like many other days, many of you went to the Google homepage today to find a doodle about some woman you never heard of.  Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jane Jacobs.  So who was Jane Jacobs?  She was a woman who wrote several books about cities, and how people interact in cities.  As Richard Florida mentions above, she saw her biggest contribution to the world as figuring out that it's the interaction of a diverse group of people that ultimately form small businesses, start-ups of larger businesses, and every other kind of "progress."  Economic development, at it's very core, comes out of these interactions of people in cities.  Jane realized that factories and multi-national corporations improved efficiency, but they themselves didn't cause economic growth.  It was people getting together, talking, arguing, brainstorming, and drinking that led to new ideas.  Those new ideas turned into a variety of things, from bands and art projects to small businesses, social movements, larger start-up businesses, and inventions and innovations of all kinds.

At a time when society is literally in constant and massive change, we need all the good ideas we can get as a species.  Jane Jacobs, who never got a college degree or accepted an honorary one, was the person who simply watched and saw the magic happening around her in Greenwich Village, and reported it to the world in her books. 

I'm no longer writing this blog, check out my new stuff at:
 Get Weird Make Money