Urban visionary, pioneer, patron saint of cities. These are just a few titles that have been bestowed upon Jane Jacobs, the 88 year-old author and activist whose insight into how cities prosper changed the course of urban planning and design in America. Forty years after the publication of her seminal book, The Life and Death of Great American Cities, Jacobs continues to court controversy with provocative examinations of city planning, economic theory—even biology. Her prophetic observations about the way people interact with the built environment—cities, neighborhoods, buildings, streets, parks and open space—are increasingly relevant to discussions of public health.

Diversity Stimulates Vitality

Jacobs champions diversity in all its forms, from mixed-use streetscapes to communities of people. She likens vibrant, healthy neighborhoods to complex ecosystems, supporting lively and interactive public spaces as well as varied pedestrian traffic.

“Diversity itself permits and stimulates more diversity,” says Jacobs. “The greatest asset that a city or a neighborhood can have is something that’s different from every other place.”

Of the utmost importance, says Jacobs, are community “hearts” or centers that pulse with activity and stimulate routine interaction. The disappearance of such active public spaces, she argues, is the folly of modern urban planning.

"A heart is not a disembodied thing that you just sit down arbitrarily like choosing a shopping center site,” says
Jacobs. “It has to have an anatomy that runs into the neighborhood.”

This anatomy includes “more than one pedestrian path,” safe and convenient routes for bicycles, and ample opportunities for “incidental activity.” Such a system fosters a sense of connectedness, and bolsters a community’s indigenous vitality and sustainability. People with incentive to participate and invest in their communities, says Jacobs, will “want to stay in their neighborhoods, and improve them as a byproduct of improving their own lives.”

Achieving such places doesn’t require clean slates, cautions Jacobs, but encouragement of places that already work. This means investing in existing neighborhoods, preserving old buildings and promoting a rich mixture of uses from retail to residential.

“Maybe they aren’t very attractive, and maybe they only have poor people in them, and maybe they only have immigrants in them,” says Jacobs. “But think, what can you do here to keep these people here, and to make them feel that they are valued? That’s one thing that would be meaningful and hopeful for the future.”

Active Places Make Healthy Kids

Jacobs visualizes a culture “where you don’t have to put children into cars for everything to transport them. Where they can go to school in groups or on their own. Or on a bike.” She cites the steep decline in incidental activity among youngsters, from biking to school to playing outside, and blames prohibitive, car-centered environments that remove people from the streets. Without a coordinated, focused effort to buck this design trend, says Jacobs, convenient, interesting and safe places for kids to “just be kids” may become a thing of the past.

"When children or youths latch on to something active or free, like skateboarding, this shouldn’t be automatically disapproved of,” says Jacobs. “This is a healthy thing, and there are some places where this has been recognized and places provided for them to do their weird skateboarding things. That is part of freedom.”

Jacobs contends that ordinary conveniences such as wide sidewalks sprinkled with attractive, varied storefronts offer safe places to for youngsters to play under the watchful eyes of shopkeepers, area residents and passersby. They can also be havens for spontaneous activity and play, which empower children with a sense of autonomy in an increasingly schedule-oriented culture.

“Every planning decision and so on should take into account what it does for pedestrianization,” says Jacobs. “Is this place going to be interesting to walk in, is it going to be useful to walk in, is it going to get more so?”
Jacobs has seen bicycling burgeon in her quaint Toronto neighborhood, something, she says, that gives her hope.
“This has only happened with a lot of encouragement from the city itself, with bicycle paths and bicycle racks and arrangements for people taking them on transit,” says Jacobs. “But it’s still not as safe as it ought to be, and not as frequent.”

Change Starts With Ordinary People

Jacobs’s arguments and insights are perceptive, in part, because they came from the unschooled, ideology-free mindset of an ordinary citizen. She is a reminder of the potency of grassroots activism, and the importance of balancing lofty ideals with the needs of real people.

“Goodness, you would think that in the last couple of years that there is enough experience with central planning and its failures to give people some faith in self organization,” says Jacobs.

In 1962 Jacobs waged a fierce political battle against urban planning magnate Robert Moses, whose plans for a 10-lane expressway through Lower Manhattan sought to level 14 city blocks in and around her Greenwich Village neighborhood. Jacobs led a community-based campaign that empowered thousands of residents, labeled by the establishment as slum-dwellers, to preserve their community. Despite his defeat, Moses defended his plans in the name of urban renewal, pegging Jacobs as a know-nothing housewife. It wouldn’t be the first time Jacobs would take to the street in protest, or publish a biting editorial that contradicted conventional wisdom.

“You have to pay attention to what the people in the neighborhood want,” says Jacobs. “One thing they want—I think this cuts across every ethnic group in every city—they don’t want to live in an undignified place.”
This year Jacobs published her sixth book, Dark Age Ahead, and another is in the works. She eschews visions of the future in favor of real world examples, and cites working communities as those that cater to individuals instead of automobiles and offer a host of safe and convenient options to walk, bike, and play. She insists there is much to be done to reverse the decades of poor planning and unimaginative design trends that contribute to the troubling surge in obesity and related health problems in this country.

“Don’t think it can be done with wishful thinking or free words,” says Jacobs. “Think of how to get examples done and then don’t hide them under a bushel. Trot them out use them for public education. Show what they mean.”"Any city at all that's worth learning from and considering has parts that work and are good and admirable, and parts that don't," said Ms. Jacobs. "We should study the parts that work and the parts that people use"
Full Interview
Additional Links
View the Video
Profile