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Despising one another's ideas from a distance, Jacobs and Moses only came face to face once at a Board of Estimate hearing in 1958 that squashed Moses's plan to build a ten-lane expressway through Downtown Manhattan that would have razed the cast-iron district of Soho and much of Chinatown and Little Italy through a "slum-clearance" initiative."All of Soho, Chinatown, the Lower East Side—were ready to be wiped out for the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Those are all monuments to Jane," said Roberta Gratz, another rare female urbanist and close friend of Jacobs's.Self-educated but with no college degree, Jacobs was disparaged by the Establishment for her lack of formal credentials at every turn. "To this day, she is often referred to as the housewife who wrote a book," said Gratz. "She didn't let any of that stuff bother her. She had a job to do."Jacobs has inspired politicians in Brazil; projects based on her ideas are currently taking shape in India. She's even big in Japan, where her death in 2006 was commemorated with an entire magazine. A series of walks in her honor has spread to 180 cities. Her seminal critique of 1950s urban-planning policy, The Death and Life of Great American Cities , has been translated into six languages."All of Soho, Chinatown, the Lower East Side—were ready to be wiped out for the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Those are all monuments to Jane," - Roberta Gratz
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