Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

This feature-length documentary tells the story of the many battles between Moses and Jacobs, and the clarion call that was Jacobs’s influential 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. — (Image credit: Granger/REX/Shutterstock)

This feature-length documentary tells the story of the many battles between Moses and Jacobs, and the Jacobs's influential 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities

When ruthless city planner Robert Moses announced in 1955 that a four-lane highway was to be built through New York's beloved Washington Square, journalist Jane Jacobs, a local resident, decided she couldn't let this travesty happen.

This feature-length documentary tells the story of the many battles between Moses and Jacobs, and the clarion call that was Jacobs's influential 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

A passionate urban activist, she believed cities were about people, not buildings – in contrast to Moses, who was known as 'the master builder'. Inspiring.

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