Jane Jacobs was an influential American-Canadian urbanist, writer, and activist, best known for her work on urban studies and her advocacy for community-based approaches to city planning. She was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to New York City, where she became deeply engaged in its urban fabric.
Jacobs had no formal training in urban planning, which allowed her to approach the field with fresh insights and a critical eye toward established planning methods. Her seminal work, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" (1961), challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of urban renewal policies of her time, which often involved large-scale slum clearance and the construction of segregated high-rise housing developments. Jacobs advocated for more organic, community-driven approaches to urban planning and development. She emphasized the importance of mixed-use neighborhoods that included both residential and commercial properties, arguing that such environments were safer and more vibrant due to the constant presence of people at different times of the day.
Jacobs criticized the designs and ideas of prominent urban planners like Robert Moses, whose work reshaped much of New York City's landscape from the 1930s through the 1960s. She argued that Moses' approach to urban planning destroyed communities and disregarded the needs of city dwellers. Jacobs' activism included organizing grassroots efforts to protect neighborhoods from destructive development projects, most notably her leading role in the campaign to stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have cut through SoHo and Little Italy.
In 1968, Jacobs moved to Toronto, Canada, continuing her work and activism in her new home city. She opposed similarly grandiose urban renewal projects in Toronto and became a beloved figure in her adopted city.
Her other notable works include "Cities and the Wealth of Nations" (1984) and "Dark Age Ahead" (2004), in which she continued to explore economic and other broader societal issues related to urban life. Jane Jacobs passed away in 2006, but her work remains highly influential in urban planning and community activism circles. Her ideas have inspired generations of urban planners, economists, and civic activists around the world, advocating for a more human-centered approach to urban design.
In her groundbreaking book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," published in 1961, Jane Jacobs critiques the urban planning policies that were prevalent in mid-20th century America, which she argues were leading to the decay of many city neighborhoods. Jacobs challenges the conventional wisdom that cities should be planned in a tidy, orderly fashion, which often involved large-scale slum clearing and the construction of high-rise housing blocks and wide roads that separated different land uses.
Jacobs advocates for a more nuanced understanding of city life and the complex social and economic dynamics that contribute to its success or failure. She emphasizes the importance of diversity in building a vibrant urban environment — diversity of uses, of architectural styles, and of people. According to Jacobs, successful neighborhoods feature a mix of old and new buildings to accommodate a wide range of economic activities and residents. She also highlights the role of what she calls "eyes on the street": having more people present in public spaces at all times, which enhances safety.
The book is structured around a critique of several dominant trends in urban planning of the time, including the reliance on zoning laws to separate residential areas from commercial ones, and the design of large, impersonal housing projects. Jacobs proposes a series of principles for creating and maintaining lively urban neighborhoods, such as fostering street life by ensuring streets and sidewalks are comfortable and interesting places for people to walk.
"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" remains a seminal work in urban planning, influential for its incisive critique of the prevailing norms and its compelling vision for how cities can thrive. Jacobs writes with clarity and conviction, drawing from a wealth of observations and everyday examples that make her theories tangible and relatable. Her passionate advocacy for vibrant, diverse, and densely populated cities resonates through her detailed descriptions of street life and urban interaction.
One of the strengths of Jacobs' work is her emphasis on empirical evidence derived from real-world observation, which lends credibility and force to her arguments against more abstract, theoretically driven planning models. She successfully challenges many assumptions of modernist urban planning, advocating for a more organic, bottom-up approach in which the needs and desires of city dwellers are paramount.
It likely comes as no surprise that I think Jacobs is largely correct in her pronouncements. From an intellectual standpoint, most institutions which result from human interaction are formed best when they are bottom up and organic. This applies not just to economics but also law, language and architectural / urban planning. We should give a major thanks to Jane for her pioneering work on the topic.