Jane Jacobs’s most obvious and enduring characteristic was her unabashed love of cities
and urban life.
Jacobs derided urban renewal as a process that only served to create instant slums.
She questioned universally accepted articles of faith - for example, that parks were good and
that crowding was bad. Indeed she suggested that parks were often dangerous and that
crowded neighbourhood sidewalks were the safest places for children to play.
Safety, particularly for women and children, comes from “eyes on the street”. A sense of
personal belonging and social cohesiveness comes from well-defined neighbourhoods and
narrow, crowded, multi-use streets. And, finally, basic urban vitality comes from residents’
participation in an intricate “street ballet”, a diurnal pattern of observable and
comprehensible human activity.
Contrast Louis Wirth’s theory of how population size, density and heterogeneity in cities
create a distinct urban personality with Jacobs’s argument that these very same city
characteristic may create neighborhood vitality, social cohesion, and the perception and
reality of safety.
Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs.
and urban life.
Jacobs derided urban renewal as a process that only served to create instant slums.
She questioned universally accepted articles of faith - for example, that parks were good and
that crowding was bad. Indeed she suggested that parks were often dangerous and that
crowded neighbourhood sidewalks were the safest places for children to play.
Safety, particularly for women and children, comes from “eyes on the street”. A sense of
personal belonging and social cohesiveness comes from well-defined neighbourhoods and
narrow, crowded, multi-use streets. And, finally, basic urban vitality comes from residents’
participation in an intricate “street ballet”, a diurnal pattern of observable and
comprehensible human activity.
Contrast Louis Wirth’s theory of how population size, density and heterogeneity in cities
create a distinct urban personality with Jacobs’s argument that these very same city
characteristic may create neighborhood vitality, social cohesion, and the perception and
reality of safety.
Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs.
