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The Death & Life of Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs, author of the 1961 classic, Death and Life of Great American Cities, died at age 89 at her home in Toronto.

From today’s Toronto Star:

Her first book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961, became a bible for neighbourhood organizers and what she termed the “foot people”.

It made the case against the utopian planning culture of the times — residential high-rise development, expressways through city hearts, slum clearances, and desolate downtowns.

She believed that residential and commercial activity should be in the same place, that the safest neighbourhoods teem with life, short winding streets are better than long straight ones, low-rise housing is better than impersonal towers, that a neighbourhood is where people talk to one another. She liked the small-scale.

Not everyone agreed. Her arch-critic, Lewis Mumford, called her vision “higgledy-piggledy unplanned casualness.”

From an Associated Press article in USA Today

Her impact transcended borders. Basing her findings on deep, eclectic reading and firsthand observation, Jacobs challenged assumptions she believed damaged modern cities — that neighborhoods should be isolated from each other, that an empty street was safer than a crowded one, that the car represented progress over the pedestrian.

Her priorities were for integrated, manageable communities, for diversity of people, transportation, architecture and commerce. She also believed that economies need to be self-sustaining and self-renewing, relying on local initiative instead of centralized bureaucracies.Her impact transcended borders. Basing her findings on deep, eclectic reading and firsthand observation, Jacobs challenged assumptions she believed damaged modern cities — that neighborhoods should be isolated from each other, that an empty street was safer than a crowded one, that the car represented progress over the pedestrian.

Her priorities were for integrated, manageable communities, for diversity of people, transportation, architecture and commerce. She also believed that economies need to be self-sustaining and self-renewing, relying on local initiative instead of centralized bureaucracies.

From the Project for Public Spaces:

Jacobs had no professional training in the field of city planning, nor did she hold the title of planner. She instead relied on her observations and common sense to illustrate why certain places work, and what can be done to improve those that do not. Together with 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.

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.

The PPS link above includes a great amount of detail of her life and a list of sources. For your convenience here are some selected books by Jane Jacobs from locally owned Left Bank Books:

Death and Life of Great American Cities: Paperback, Hardcover

The Nature of Cities: Paperback

Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principals of Economic Life: Paperback

The Nature of Economies: Paperback

Dark Age Ahead: Paperback, Hardcover

It is no secret that I am attempting to follow in her footsteps; writing about my observations, stopping freeways (or drive-thrus) and advocating better planning. She has left some mighty big shoes to fill.

The world has just lost the greatest urbanist of our lifetime.

– Steve

 

Urbanists Taking Back the Streets in NYC

February 23, 2006 Books, Planning & Design Comments Off on Urbanists Taking Back the Streets in NYC

A friend and regular Urban Review reader sent me a link to an interesting new site, New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign:

Streets are more than just car corridors; they are valuable civic spaces and resources that need to be wisely allocated. The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign is building the movement to re-imagine our streets as lively public places.

Amen.

Perhaps it is time to take back our streets from the territorial aldermen and developers lacking any urban vision…

– Steve

 

New Urbanism and the Christian Faith

January 7, 2006 Books, Religion 6 Comments

The other day I was having lunch at the new Prancing Pony Cafe & Bookstore in New Town at St. Charles and one book caught my eye, Sidewalks in the New Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith. I thumbed through a bit of it while waiting for my lunch companions to arrive but what I read was intriguing. I am personally not the religious type but many of my friends and family are. I think I’ll be ordering this book in bulk for birthday and Christmas gifts.

Here is what one person wrote in a review on Amazon.com:

People of all religious persuasions can find wisdom in this plain-spoken portrait of how humanity and culture are enriched by the informal social contacts of city life. Jacobsen, a pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Missoula, Montana, builds a case for why Christians should have special concern for traditionally designed urban areas. At the same time, the book explores themes of community and identity that are relevant to people of all spiritual traditions.
He argues that we have been lulled into “worshipping false gods in the name of American values.” The concepts of individualism, independence and freedom are wrongly associated with life in the suburbs, Jacobsen tells us. Pointing out that identical tract homes and big box retailers are not expressions of individual choice, he says we have allowed corporations to bend our communities to their bottom-lines instead of our communal needs.

The car, so often equated with freedom, does not, in Jacobsen’s view, equal the Biblical sense of liberation, instead it represents a form of escapism. He writes that we have allowed ourselves to be isolated from one another by our cars and our low-density developments. The result is a loss of civility and a dismissal of God’s command to “love the stranger.”

He notes that cities give rise to critical mass, a condition that stimulates and incubates new ideas, significant events and formal art. Sidewalks in the Kingdom is a powerful call for Christians to endorse our cities in the same way they have embraced our natural environment. Should the concept catch hold, Christians everywhere may soon be fleeing the suburbs for a city near you.

If you are a person of faith but are unsure about New Urbanism give this book a read and let me know what you think. I’ve provided a link above to Amazon.com but you can also order the book online through local independent retailer Left Bank Books. Also, the author’s website offers a sample chapter.


I started reading the sample chapter and I wanted to quote one small bit:

It is important to note that we have not been backed into sprawl and standardization as the dominant mode of development because of poverty, national crisis, or other limiting factors. Instead, we have boldly and confidently marched toward these unsatisfying arrangements with no one to blame but ourselves. We have done so, I believe, because we have been worshiping false gods in the name of American values.

I am so ordering a copy for myself!

– Steve

 

Predictions for St. Louis in 2006

December 30, 2005 Books 11 Comments

Over on the Urban St. Louis discussion forums there has been a thread discussing predictions for 2006, I posted mine a couple of weeks back but I’ve given it a little more thought.

I thought my 2006 predictions might be a good way to end up the year on Urban Review – St. Louis:

  • A gallon of regular gas will exceed $3.00, not due to a natural disaster or terrorism. Republicans and Democrats will argue over the best way to maintain our wasteful habits. Locally our sprawl and mass transit shortcomings will damage the local economy but the same will be true for most of the U.S.
  • The public will balk at the final design & costs for the riverfront plan, stalling the project.
  • Areas we may not expect like the Gateway Mall, St. Louis Centre, 22nd Street Interchange Alterations and the former Pruitt-Igoe site will begin having serious attention.
  • Easy guess but I do think the Ballpark Village and Bottle District will move forward in some form. I predict I’ll have a review of the proposed Bottle District in a January issue of the West End Word…
  • The measure to make it harder to recall aldermen will fail by a wide margin, two more aldermen will be recalled. The remaining Aldermen will continue with the status quo known as “aldermanic courtesy” rather than recognize the city would be better served by legislators that view the city as a whole rather than 28 odd-shaped fiefdoms. Candidates file to challenge more than half the incumbent aldermen in the even numbered wards as the filing period opens in late 2006.
  • St. Louis County residents will love the new MetroLink extension and they’ll forget about most of the delays and cost overruns (but not all). Efforts will begin to ask voters in the City and County to pony up for the next extension which will include North city and West County.
  • So am I off base? What are your predictions for the St. Louis region in 2006?

    – Steve

     

    The High Cost of Free Parking

    December 13, 2005 Books 1 Comment

    highcostfree.jpgUCLA urban planning professor, Donald Shoup, recently published a book entitled “The High Cost of Free Parking.” Looks like a good read. From NYC urban site “starts and fits”:

    The issue of parking is looked at from many different angles in the book, all adding up to the same issue … free parking creates the “asphalt commons” problem. As parking is free, and exclusive, it is over used. This overuse creates numerous negative side effects.

    For the full review click here.

    Local book retailer Left Bank Books now has online ordering. This shows up as a special order book. The first chapter is available as a free PDF here. The list price is $59.95, typical of books from the American Planning Association. Ouch.

    – Steve

     

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