This was my favourite reading to date. Jane Jacobs is an interesting women to read and to be honest whilst she does critique the role of a planner she does have some good views which have shaped the profession to what it is. My favourite quote from this reading was;
"Designing a dream city is easy, rebuilding a living one takes imagination"
I think this emulates the challenges to planners, which is to make a better city which is currently already developed. Especially now in the age of sustainability, it is better to infill and remodel a current city then to let it crumble beneath itself.It is our job as the planners to find a way to incorporate the old citys and be able to modernise its facilities without loosing the things that make a place special.
Jane Jacobs advocated for new urbanist ideals.She attributed the success of Greenwhich, New York wa because it had 1) Mixed Use development 2) Short blocks 3) Narrow streets lined with commericial use 4) A dense population 5) It has conintued to develop over time. This encouraged people to always roam the street. This discouraged crime and encouraged vitality and social capital. Other things Jacobs outlines as important for downtowns, are their individuality ( history) and the people ( Clustered of actitiveies). As well as them having the potential to be two shift cities, so that it is busy both by day and night. Therefore projects to take away this individuality or create more space between people has the potential to deaden them.
The most important parts of a neighbourhood to Jacobs was the streets. It was here that the flavour, feel and sights of a city are communicated. Therefore it was important that these are appealing for pedestrians, thus the street cannot be boring. It must have variety and that planners need to incoporate this rather then planning blocks of land without individuality. The effects of planning should be judged by the people rather then the maps. As the planner should get in the thick of the planning process by having a hands on approach. This means they should ask themselves if their project is what is needed by going to the site and talking to the poeple. In the end it will be the citizens who deside what results they want in the end.
I thorougly enjoyed this read and found myself tending to agree with much of what she was saying. Whilst many say she was against planning. I tend to think she didn't. She was just saying that the planner must experience things first hand and that they must provide the ingredients for a happy city. But ultimatly its up to the people to help shape this over time.
So what did you think of Jacobs ideas? Did you see the merit in what she was saying?
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