One of a Kind

"I am convinced we need continual but informal democratic explorations on the part of people who must thread their ways through governmental, business or volunteer and grass-roots policies, or must wrestle with the moral conflicts and ethical puzzles that sprout up unbidden in all manner of occupations"

That's a quote from Jane Jacobs, from the preface to 'Systems of Survival'. Jacobs died yesterday, and both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail have good reflections on her life.

If this blog aspires to anything, in its better moments at least, it is to take the same inquisitive, non-ideological approach to trying to figure out what works and what doesn't that Jacobs was so good at - and to try and make the informal democratic explorations that Jacobs describes in the preface. I can think of no better inspiration for this effort than the example Jacobs set in her 89 years.