Reply #3: The reason Jacobs is so compelling to me is her focus on

[GumboYaYa]

community and cities as the driving force in culture and our economy. She notes that the car culture where people see cities as event destinations from the suburbs instead of vibrant and full communities is destroying America.

The most chilling part of the book is the last paragraph. At the risk of ruining it for others, she states that America's salvation is in clinging to the basic principles that made it strong initially. That principle she says is best stated in Lincoln's quote (which I will now misquote) "Government by the people and for the people, shall never perish from the Earth." As long as we hold to that principle there is hope for our culture. That chilled me to the bone in light of our trend toward corporatism and the questions over the integrity of our elections.