The life and death of great american cities pdf

The book is a critique of s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States. Jacobs was a critic of " rationalist " planners of the s and s, especially Robert Moses , as well as the earlier work of Le Corbusier. She argued that modernist urban planning overlooked and oversimplified the complexity of human lives in diverse communities. She opposed large-scale urban renewal programs that affected entire neighborhoods and built freeways through inner cities. She instead advocated for dense mixed use development and walkable streets, with the "eyes on the street" of passers-by helping to maintain public order. Jacobs begins the work with the blunt statement that: "This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding. Branding the mainstream theory of cities as an "elaborately learned superstition" that had now penetrated the thinking of planners, bureaucrats, and bankers in equal measure, she briefly traces the origins of this "orthodox urbanism.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs is concerned with the problems of city planning and the strategy that planners followed throughout most of the twentieth century. The strategy of rebuilding has not been successful. It has not accomplished anything in eliminating slums or halting the decay of city neighborhoods. Jacobs blames not only the city planners but places the burden of the blame on the theorists and educators. Jacobs provides a good analysis of what contributes to the success of neighborhoods by looking at city streets and sidewalks, parks and neighborhoods. She deduces the factors that result in vital neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have streets, sidewalks and parks that are safe, that provide for contact between people, and that provide the opportunity for children to be watched and taught.