Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs OC OOntwas an American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist best known for her influence on urban studies. Her influential book The Death and Life of Great American Citiesargued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of most city-dwellers. The book also introduced sociological concepts such as "eyes on the street" and "social capital"...
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth4 May 1916
CityScranton, PA
cities small-changes wealth
Lowly, unpurposeful, and random as they appear, sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a city’s wealth of public life must grow.
cities ballet improvisation
The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.
cities people logic
There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.
thinking might wells
While you are looking, you might as well also listen, linger and think about what you see.
cities creative together
Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel together. The combination is not coincidental.
dream cities imagination
Designing a dream city is easy; rebuilding a living one takes imagination.
business successful cities
Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind--no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be--there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.
order cities different
Intricate minglings of different uses in cities are not a form of chaos. On the contrary, they represent a complex and highly developed form of order.
sight order cities
That the sight of people attracts still other people, is something that city planners and city architectural designers seem to find incomprehensible. They operate on the premise that city people seek the sight of emptiness, obvious order and quiet. Nothing could be less true. The presences of great numbers of people gathered together in cities should not only be frankly accepted as a physical fact... they should also be enjoyed as an asset and their presence celebrated...
cities streets sidewalk
Streets and their sidewalks-the main public places of a city-are its most vital organs.
cities architect capability
Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.
bringing death great life people rely
You can't rely on bringing people downtown; you have to put them there, ... The Death and Life of Great American Cities.