Few authors reach the fame of Jane
Jacobs, whose masterpiece The Death and Life of Great Americ an Cities celebrates its 50th anniversary
this year. In the best tradition of radical reformers, Jacobs wrote and acted
to influence the political process and offer constructive options to urban
sprawl and decline.
In examining urban settlements
through history, Jacobs concluded that “lively diverse, intense cities contain
the seeds of their own regeneration.” She saw cities as dynamic eco-systems that
required those designing and preserving the built environment to respect
natural patterns of human use and interaction.
For Jacobs, diversity was a natural
part of neighborhood evolution. “You don’t get new products and services out of
sameness, she said. “This is one of the things that is boring people – this
sameness. All kinds of things show us … that the more diverse we are in what we
can do the better.”
Jacobs had little patience for
standardization and far less for regulation.
And as a grassroots urban activist, she continued to rail against
federal intercession in local affairs that caused the “self-destruction of
diversity.” Jacobs offered an alternative she called “unslumming and its
accompanying self-diversification.” She
urged the continued but gradual flow of money and public buildings into established
communities.
While Jacobs spoke critically of planning and
planners, she encouraged people to enjoy and think about their environments.
After decades of fighting the establishment, Jacobs welcomed the emergence of
environmental and community groups pressing for green infill development,
sustainable smart growth, and the reclamation of degraded land.
Jacobs died in 2006, the year after
the Sierra Club published a guide to “Americ a’s
best new development projects.” The Sierra Club report highlighted twelve
projects “based on their ability to offer transportation choices, revitalize
neighborhoods, and preserve local values” – characteristics that Jacobs had
proffered a half century earlier. Given more time, she undoubtedly would have
reported on the evolution of these projects and the way these communities have
embraced their diversity through affordable, green developments.
Jacobs urged in The Death and
Life of Great American Cities that we imbue our cities and their neighborhoods
with the ability to update, enliven, and repair themselves by breaking
traditional barriers, taking a balanced, regional approach, and promoting
inclusive growth. If successful, she told
us, they would be “sought after, out of choice, by a new generation.” That generation, and all generations, still
have much to learn from Jacobs’ words and wisdom.
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