Jane Jacob PDF

Jane Jacobs
• Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urban writer and activist who championed new, community-
based approaches to planning for over 40 years. Her 1961 treatise, The Death and Life of Great
American Cities, became one of the most influential American texts about the inner workings and
failings of cities, inspiring generations of urban planners and activists. Her efforts to stop
downtown expressways and protect local neighborhoods invigorated community-based urban
activism and helped end Parks Commissioner Robert Moses's reign of power in New York City.
• Jacobs had no professional training in the field of city planning, nor did she hold the title of
planner. Instead, she relied on her observations and common sense to show why certain places
work, and what can be done to improve those that do not. Together with PPS mentor William H.
Whyte, Jacobs led the way in advocating for a place-based, community-centered approach to
urban planning, decades before such approaches were considered sensible. William
"Holly" Whyte was her editor at Fortune Magazine, who published her seminal article "Downtown
is for People" (1958)--the piece that inspired the Rockefeller Foundation to fund her to
write The Death and Life of Great American Cities
• Urban renewal championed by Robert Moses.
• His view based on “Cities are for traffic”.
• Jacob saw the principles that city planning as wrong and harm
tocities.
• She Introduced a new view on urban planning “Cities are for people”.
“Death and Life” was one of the first critiques on Urban Renewal and
still stands as one of the most influential texts on urban planning.
• Jacobs' view is an attack on “orthodox” modern city planning and city
architectural design.
• Jacob wants to introduce new principles in city planning.
• Part 1 -examines city problems, using sidewalks and parks as metaphors.
• Part 2- studies the economics behind city problems and city divercity.
• Part 3 -emphasizes decay along with regeneration including slumming unslumming.
• Part 4 -is where Jacobs makes suggestions for change in existing cities and different panning for
new ones.
• Jacobs looks to inner- cities for her main observations.
What she says
• City Planning errors.
• Successful Neighborhood vs Unsuccessful neighborhoods.
• Diversity
• Change is necessary
• Slumming/ Unslumming
SIDE WALKS
• The main uses of side walks
• SAFETY
• CONTACT
• ASSIMLATING CHILDREN
CITY PARKS & CITY NEIGHBOURHOOD
• intended as a vital park of neighborhoods, but some are detrimental and others are successful.
• Purposes of physical planning for effective neighborhood
• 1. Lively & interesting streets
• 2. Make streets as continuous network
• 3. Use parks ,squares, public buildings as part of streets
SAFE CITIES
• Residents must feel comfortable on the streets outside their homes at all times of day
• Sidewalk traffic and social interaction from porches promotes neighborhood security
• Children playing on sidewalks with heavily used streets are more monitored than those playing in
designated recreational/park areas
• District must serve more than one primary functions
• Blocks should be short
• Buildings should be at varying ages
• There should be a dense concentration of people
GOOD CITY
• Shorter blocks provide more route choices.
• Longer blocks result in a street being isolated.
• People will choose not to use a longer block because there are very few places they can choose to
go.
• Short blocks allow for more social interaction and economic diversity
• The district must mingle buildings that very in age and condition, including a good proportion of
all ones.
• Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to
grow without them.
• Age of a buildings, in relation to usefulness or desirability, is an extremely relative thing.
• Subsidized dwellings
• Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles
• Visual order
PERSPECTIVES
• Cities as Ecosystems. Jacobs approached cities as living beings and ecosystems. She suggested
that over time, buildings, streets and neighborhoods function as dynamic organisms, changing in
response to how people interact with them. She explained how each element of a city -
sidewalks, parks, neighborhoods, government, economy - functions together synergistically, in the
same manner as the natural ecosystem. This understanding helps us discern how cities work, how
they break down, and how they could be better structured.
• Mixed-Use Development. Jacobs advocated for "mixed-use" urban development - the integration
of different building types and uses, whether residential or commercial, old or new. According to
this idea, cities depend on a diversity of buildings, residences, businesses and other non-
residential uses, as well as people of different ages using areas at different times of day, to create
community vitality. She saw cities as being "organic, spontaneous, and untidy," and views the
intermingling of city uses and users as crucial to economic and urban development.
• Bottom-Up Community Planning. Jacobs contested the traditional planning approach that relies
on the judgment of outside experts, proposing that local expertise is better suited to guiding
community development. She based her writing on empirical experience and observation, noting
how the prescribed government policies for planning and development are usually inconsistent
with the real-life functioning of city neighborhoods.
• The Case for Higher Density. Although orthodox planning theory had blamed high density for
crime, filth, and a host of other problems, Jacobs disproved these assumptions and demonstrated
how a high concentration of people is vital for city life, economic growth, and prosperity. While
acknowledging that density alone does not produce healthy communities, she illustrated through
concrete examples how higher densities yield a critical mass of people that is capable of
supporting more vibrant communities. In exposing the difference between high density and
overcrowding, Jacobs dispelled many myths about high concentrations of people.
• Local Economies. By dissecting how cities and their economies emerge and grow, Jacobs cast new
light on the nature of local economies. She contested the assumptions that cities are a product of
agricultural advancement; that specialized, highly efficient economies fuel long-term growth; and
that large, stable businesses are the best sources of innovation. Instead, she developed a model
of local economic development based on adding new types of work to old, promoting small
businesses, and supporting the creative impulses of urban entrepreneurs.

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