And she'll be laid to rest in a walk up over a dry cleaner

Legendary civic activist and writer Jane Jacobs passed away at the age of 89. Jacobs radically shifted the way that urban planners thought about cities with her seminal 1961 book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." At a time when urban renewal meant bulldozing high occupancy buildings in order to create more suburban-like living arrangements and using expressways to bring suburbanites directly into the heart of a city, Jacobs argued that a city's density and diversity created the energy that makes it great.

Coincidentally and perhaps taking up my call to make effective city planning a major issue for the next mayor's race, the Design Advocacy Group, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the cause of good planning and design, released a report that's intended to serve as a manifesto for the City and candidates for mayor.

WHYY's Susan Phillips talked to one of the groups founders.