RIP, Jane Jacobs
So this is old news, I realize. But I thought I'd take a minute to say something about Jane Jacobs, who died earlier this week.
Jane Jacobs wrote a slim little book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities. If you haven't read it, I urge you with all possible speed to go out and get it.
One of the little things you may not know about BBD is that among our other skills (bong cleaning, advanced Marsology, political ranting) there's a degree in Urban Studies lying around somewhere. And if you have come even within 100 yards of an Urbanist (which I suppose is what one is when one has the degree, although perhaps just Urbane?) you'll find out that Jane Jacobs is the mother of us all. She is that to which everyone else is reacting.
There are not so many people about whom you can say, "this one person changed the world," but she was one. She changed the way that the environment around us is planned and constructed. What she posessed, as far as I can tell, was the ability to see things that are obvious, and explain them in a way that can be understood. Harder than you think.
What was it that she said? Well, you should really go read for yourself (she's Readable and Witty, btw) but basically, it goes like this:
What makes cities great is people. Specifically, a mix of people. A mix of people interacting and intermingling. It is life on the street and the sidewalk and in public that makes a city a city. Anyting that isolates people, stratifies cities, keeps people apart or sanitized or smoothes out unpredictability is bad. No to empty lawns and yes to hanging out on the stoop.
Oh yeah, and she stopped Robert Moses from building a highway through Greenwich Village.
Jane Jacobs wrote a slim little book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities. If you haven't read it, I urge you with all possible speed to go out and get it.
One of the little things you may not know about BBD is that among our other skills (bong cleaning, advanced Marsology, political ranting) there's a degree in Urban Studies lying around somewhere. And if you have come even within 100 yards of an Urbanist (which I suppose is what one is when one has the degree, although perhaps just Urbane?) you'll find out that Jane Jacobs is the mother of us all. She is that to which everyone else is reacting.
There are not so many people about whom you can say, "this one person changed the world," but she was one. She changed the way that the environment around us is planned and constructed. What she posessed, as far as I can tell, was the ability to see things that are obvious, and explain them in a way that can be understood. Harder than you think.
What was it that she said? Well, you should really go read for yourself (she's Readable and Witty, btw) but basically, it goes like this:
What makes cities great is people. Specifically, a mix of people. A mix of people interacting and intermingling. It is life on the street and the sidewalk and in public that makes a city a city. Anyting that isolates people, stratifies cities, keeps people apart or sanitized or smoothes out unpredictability is bad. No to empty lawns and yes to hanging out on the stoop.
Oh yeah, and she stopped Robert Moses from building a highway through Greenwich Village.
posted by chiniqua at 10:52 PM
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