458 pages
English language
Published July 12, 1961 by Random House.
Jane Jacobs critiques the comprehensive modernist approach to urban planning after 1945. By the 1950s, various American cities were pursuing ambitious urban renewal policies, influenced by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier's concept of the "Radiant City." Jacobs sees this being utterly at odds with urban realities, and leading to the destruction of the city as a living community. This futurist vision insisted on the absolute segregation of the city's different activities into separate zones, linked (though also physically isolated) by super-highways set in wide parkland landscaping. The colossal physical destruction that was necessary to implement this vision tore apart the traditional multi-activity street and densely populated neighborhood that Jacobs avers is the bedrock of urban living.
Jane Jacobs critiques the comprehensive modernist approach to urban planning after 1945. By the 1950s, various American cities were pursuing ambitious urban renewal policies, influenced by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier's concept of the "Radiant City." Jacobs sees this being utterly at odds with urban realities, and leading to the destruction of the city as a living community. This futurist vision insisted on the absolute segregation of the city's different activities into separate zones, linked (though also physically isolated) by super-highways set in wide parkland landscaping. The colossal physical destruction that was necessary to implement this vision tore apart the traditional multi-activity street and densely populated neighborhood that Jacobs avers is the bedrock of urban living.
Rated this well because I think it's got something important to say given the time it was written, but I can't say I enjoyed reading it.
Rated this well because I think it's got something important to say given the time it was written, but I can't say I enjoyed reading it.
An interesting look at the ecology of cities and how American city planning goes awry in creating healthy livable environments.
Jacobs asserts that effective self-government requires community continuity. Social ties developed over time can fracture in an instant when city planners "revitalize" a neighborhood, preserving its buildings, but gutting the connections that make a city alive. Intentional or not, this atomizing of social connections destroys The People's ability to effectively resist tyrannical city policies and leaders.
Political action is needed and enormous effort to bring together coordination of multiple departments, and individual experts don't know what they don't know about specific neighbors in the city. Communication and coordination among stovepiped government agencies and departments and committees is done through a patchwork of communication channels and liaisons and informal back channels.
Fragmented administration, fragmented and overlapping authority is perceived as being hypocritical or not caring, but it's the structure of administration itself. Planning Commissions are supposed to be the solution to complexity and coordination breakdown, but they're still very vertical and …
Jacobs asserts that effective self-government requires community continuity. Social ties developed over time can fracture in an instant when city planners "revitalize" a neighborhood, preserving its buildings, but gutting the connections that make a city alive. Intentional or not, this atomizing of social connections destroys The People's ability to effectively resist tyrannical city policies and leaders.
Political action is needed and enormous effort to bring together coordination of multiple departments, and individual experts don't know what they don't know about specific neighbors in the city. Communication and coordination among stovepiped government agencies and departments and committees is done through a patchwork of communication channels and liaisons and informal back channels.
Fragmented administration, fragmented and overlapping authority is perceived as being hypocritical or not caring, but it's the structure of administration itself. Planning Commissions are supposed to be the solution to complexity and coordination breakdown, but they're still very vertical and understand the city only at a very high level. Proposals have to be made to them. Timing is an issue when engaging neighborhoods, and because communication didn't get to all the stakeholders.
Jacobs looks to techniques used in the sciences to manage this complexity, rather than treat every problem like a 19th century 2-variable problem, like the ratio of residential units to greenspace.
Overall, I love her identification of the problem and solution for her local issues in New York City. Her recognition that “City Planning is all bustle and no progress” rings true, and it’s exciting to read her diagnosis of the issue. Systemically, Jacobs doesn’t offer specifics on how to solve the problem for everyone, but I think through progressively solving more “local” coordination problems and working toward increasing economic and “use” diversity in cities, we’ll converge to a solution that uses the best mathematical and scientific techniques available.
A surprisingly readable introduction to urban planning, as well as an attempt to challenge the existing, historical conception of the field and propose best practices that actually encourage cities to succeed. Gave me a lot of new lenses through which to understand cities and neighborhoods.
To be perfectly honest, I had a hard time getting through this book. It's at times quite dense with highly specialized language and at other times, repetitive and dry. But I loved how concerted and passionate the arguments were in tone, and how detailed and studious they were in content.
Everything caught me by surprise. The arguments I thought would be there, about parks and neighborhoods and walkability and cars, were mostly turned on their heads, ensuring at every turn that the reader was anchored in discussion of these matters to the principle criteria making up "city diversity," or a tight-knit, interdependent mixture of uses. This book is worth making it through for the study in nuance alone. It will make you rethink what's good and bad about the parts of cities you like and dislike.
My least favorite part was Jacobs' tendency to something like New York exceptionalism. It's …
To be perfectly honest, I had a hard time getting through this book. It's at times quite dense with highly specialized language and at other times, repetitive and dry. But I loved how concerted and passionate the arguments were in tone, and how detailed and studious they were in content.
Everything caught me by surprise. The arguments I thought would be there, about parks and neighborhoods and walkability and cars, were mostly turned on their heads, ensuring at every turn that the reader was anchored in discussion of these matters to the principle criteria making up "city diversity," or a tight-knit, interdependent mixture of uses. This book is worth making it through for the study in nuance alone. It will make you rethink what's good and bad about the parts of cities you like and dislike.
My least favorite part was Jacobs' tendency to something like New York exceptionalism. It's no issue that she wrote primarily about the city and neighborhood she knew and lived; the problem was that when she did have things to say about other cities, they were mostly negative. Few places other than the West Village of New York seemed to provide her with functional models to study.
My most favorite part was the last chapter, in which she quotes extensively from Warren Weaver's "Science and Complexity" and discusses how cities might be considered such, as well as schools of thought we need for reasoning about it. If you can't make it through the entirety of this book, I highly recommend at least reading this one chapter.
In a sentence, I think you could fairly summarize this book as "cities succeed by sustaining tremendous diversity in concentrated areas over long periods." While Jacobs rarely strays from this single message, the book is rarely dull; instead, she explores the nuances of this point and bolsters her claims with numerous interesting examples. The writing is clear, acerbically witty, and at times surprisingly poetic. While it tends to get a little repetitive in the middle, it redeems itself by the final third, and the last chapter is fantastic.
In a sentence, I think you could fairly summarize this book as "cities succeed by sustaining tremendous diversity in concentrated areas over long periods." While Jacobs rarely strays from this single message, the book is rarely dull; instead, she explores the nuances of this point and bolsters her claims with numerous interesting examples. The writing is clear, acerbically witty, and at times surprisingly poetic. While it tends to get a little repetitive in the middle, it redeems itself by the final third, and the last chapter is fantastic.
Very informative, but got repetitive after a while. One can only use the adjective 'lively' so many times before it gets old...
Very informative, but got repetitive after a while. One can only use the adjective 'lively' so many times before it gets old...
