This is Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs (1916 - 2006) was born and raised Scranton Pennsylvania (USA), the daughter of a doctor and a school teacher.  Upon graduating from Scranton's Central High School, Jacobs worked as the assistant to the women's page editor at the Scranton Tribune. Jacobs left Scranton for New York City during the Great Depression. Jacobs held several jobs in New York City, mainly as a stenographer and freelance writer, focusing on the working districts in the city. Jacobs moved to Toronto in 1968, where she lived until her death.

Jacob is best know opposing expressways and supporting neighborhoods. The most infamous American expressway she opposed was the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Once she moved to Canada her passions did not change. She continued to champion for causes such as the opposition of the Spadina Expressway. Although Jacobs' was never professionally trained or school in the fields of city or urban planning she applied her own observations about cities to compose her philosophy about them. Even though her views are not traditional, her work is well respected by both practicing planners and planning students.

In addition to her passion for activism, Jacobs also was an author of books pertaining to urban planning.  Her first and best known book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) "...proved to be one of the most influential works in the history of city planning and has been particularly important to America's New Urbanist" (Columbia Encyclopedia)