Mr. President, yesterday we lost one of New York City’s greatest champions and a pioneer in the world of urban planning when Jane Jacobs died at the age of 89.

Millions of people visit New York every year, and many are overwhelmed by its sheer size.  The hulking skyscrapers.  The bustling crowds.  The bright lights.

But the dynamism of Manhattan during rush hour is just a piece of the story. 

A more complete picture of the Big Apple is colored by the scores of local communities that are defined not by big business of the world’s economic capital, but rather by the rhythm of parents walking kids to a local elementary school, families attending religious services at a local church or synagogue, and mothers and fathers shopping along the neighborhood shopping strip. 

While the Manhattan skyline may spring to mind when someone mentions New York, the DNA of the City’s everyday life is defined much more by each local neighborhood.  Forest Hills in Queens.  Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn.  Throgs Neck in the Bronx.  Stapleton on Staten Island.  Jacobs’ beloved West Village in Manhattan.  There are so many others.

It was Jacobs’ masterpiece – “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” – that argued that the health of the City as a whole depended on the vibrancy of its urban neighborhoods.  At a time when grand visions of urban renewal were spurring planners to pave over entire communities, Jacobs stood at the forefront of a movement to preserve the City’s most fundamental building blocks.

And today, as a result in part of Jacobs’ efforts to preserve New York’s neighborhoods, New York City is as vibrant as ever.  We are a magnet for what Richard Florida has termed the “Creative Class” – the highly-educated, highly-motivated young people who are key to economic growth. 

And while scholars like Robert Putnam worry about the deterioration of social capital – afraid that Americans are interacting less and more likely to “bowl alone” – the neighborhoods of New York City continue to have dynamic communities that interact on the street with a swirl of new and old faces.

In fact, today, Jacobs’ successes have left New Yorkers with a new set of challenges.  Because so many people want to live in New York, property values have skyrocketed, and tax bills along with them.  Because so many people are using our public transportation systems to get to work, we’re forced to invest in building new infrastructure.  Because so many young people want to raise families in the five boroughs, we are forced to foot the bill for building more schools.

Our new burden in New York is to manage the success of Jane Jacobs’ vision of a vibrant, dense, growing, exciting city. 

And for that, we owe Jane Jacobs a debt of gratitude.