The Death and Life of Great American Cities has always caught my eye, because as my geographical biography will tell you, I’ve mostly just seen the death part.
When you bounce from Milwaukee to New Haven to St. Louis to Hartford to Rochester (NY), that amounts to nearly one million residents lost since the mid-20th century. In other words, from the point of view of urban centers, that’s a good deal of kicking the bucket.
But the real fascination comes from the fact that 64 years ago, a lady who started in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and ended up in Canada, who had no formal training in urban planning, who somewhere in the middle landed in New York City and just by looking around figured out how cities work, predicted all the carnage I would see.
That was the brilliance of Jane Jacobs, whose 1961 work The Death and Life of Great American Cities haunts us—and guides us—to this day.
This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding, was the first line in Jacobs’ classic.
Sixteen years later, in 1977, I was born into the so-called planning she derided, initially knowing no better and still hardly knowing more beyond the fact that my biographical canvas didn’t have to look so blighted.
What exactly did Jacobs note?
A lot.
Cities, in her observations, were complex organisms, built from the ground up to suit the needs of its residents.
The most successful cities—or parts of cities—valued diversity, as in a mix of uses ranging from residential to commercial to recreational. Those focused on only one—the monofunctional—lacked vitality.
Sidewalks and short blocks meant walkability, translating into vibrant streets, as did a mixture of buildings, old and new, that attracted multiple income levels and interests.
The result of all of the above was organically-achieved density.
Instead, top-down urban planning—think large-scale housing developments, parking lots, and highways—did none of the above.
Stated another way, the top-down approach—the one to which she referred in her opening sentence—destroyed the cities it claimed to save.
Jacobs, it could be said, relied heavily on common sense.
The urban planners of her day, of course, disagreed.
As I roamed the country from one life stage to the next, I saw the consequences:
- Monotonous housing
- Highways instead of pedestrians
- Seas of parking
- Dead zones
In short, I saw why even soulless suburbia had gained the upper hand.
Fast forward to 2025, as I now roam around places like Buffalo and Syracuse, obsessing over lost potential while watching a hardy few help that potential be met, I hear about—and see—historic preservation, highway removal, mixed-use development, and an emphasis on walkability.
I flip through the pages of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and thank Jane Jacobs, whose simple genius predicted death but is now, finally, providing life.
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