Happy to have finished my first book of 2022: The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
This book was a little different than I expected. I thought it would interact more actively with Robert Moses as a City Administrator, which I was excited for after finishing the Moses book. It was more about proper planning theory for a city. As with all non-fiction books, I hope to have some sort of applicability to my own life. This goal was limited in chances of accomplishment because a book based in New York City will have a hard time relating to Orlando, a city of much less density. However, I learned a lot and definitely found myself thinking about the book in my day-to-day walks/bike rides. The book provided excellent overarching perspectives on mixed uses, financing of buildings, government processes, and flaws in the planning profession.
In a moment of humility and as someone who regularly derides car centric planning, I do want to give credence to Jacobs's statement: "the destructive effects of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building" (p12). Additionally, I would like to clarify that, for those who may have heard me rant about roads, trucking is, arguably, the most important industry in the US that must be protected. I think having fewer single passenger vehicles on the road would improve supply-chain efficiency by reducing likelihood of truckers to get caught in traffic jams, have a hard time transporting urban freight, and the like.
A lot of the development we see today, at least in Central Florida, tends to be suburban sprawl and single family homes. Sprawl in this context refers to the unrestricted growth of spread out development, which consumes high quantities of land. In a criticism of modern suburban sprawl "the promised seclusion becomes a crowded settlement...". In seeking privacy or nature, we tend to actually destroy quite a bit of it. "It is silly to try to deny the fact that we Americans are a city people, living in a city economy- and in the process of denying this lose all the true countryside of metropolitan areas too, as we have been steadily losing it at about 3000 acres a day for the past ten years," (p.234).
This is a harsh quote, but valid: "It is no accident that we Americans, probably the world's champion sentimentalizers about nature, are at one and the same time probably the world's most voracious and disrespectful destroyers of wild and rural countryside...each day, several thousand more acres of our countryside are eaten by bulldozers, covered by pavement, dotted with suburbanites who have killed the thing they thought they came to find. Our irreplaceable heritage of Grade I agricultural land is sacrificed for highways or supermarket parking lots as ruthlessly and unthinkingly as the trees in the woodlands are uprooted, the streams and rivers polluted and the air itself filled with the gasoline exhausts required in this great national efforts to cozy up with a fictionalized nature," (p.475). Particularly in Central Florida, it is disappointing to say the least, that our diseased citrus groves were sold to pavement and concrete instead of invested in to nurture the soil and build our local food system.
Furthermore, "High densities of dwellings and overcrowding of dwellings are often confused. High densities mean large numbers of dwellings per acre of land. Overcrowding means too many people in a dwelling for the number of rooms in contains," (p.219) I think this is an important point still missed today. When we talk about increasing density in a neighborhood, it does not mean a 10 story apartment building in the middle of a low density neighborhood, but things like duplexes, townhomes, row houses, and other creative ways to create gentle density.
On this note, one of the most interesting parts of this book for me was about financing. When I drive through newly built neighborhoods, I always think about how sad it is that everything is a chain and wonder why. Jacobs answered that question and highlighted the importance of financing in building a city. New buildings are more expensive, so only large chains or companies can afford the rent. Thus highlighting the importance of maintaining old buildings.
Also understanding how blacklisting, similar to redlining, has systematically created slums commercially by swearing off of lending in certain areas. Apparently, at the time of writing, "New York's average dwelling density is 55 units per net residential acre," (p.218). This is good perspective and I'd really like to know the same metric for Orlando, but could not find it online. This is also interesting because, from what I've read, though many many people want greater walkability in their communities, single family homes and other low density residential uses are built due to financing safety. Single family homes seem to be a 'sure-sell' of sorts, so they are safe for financing construction.
She goes on to explain primary and secondary functions. With all of my urbanism and the new year, I've made it a goal to try to do as many trips under 4 miles without a car as possible. Last week, I walked 0.8 miles to dinner. The walk was along one of the most busy roads in Orlando, but it's busy for cars and filled with office buildings. After 5pm, it was scary to walk alone at night because it was completely vacant. Secondary uses, like restaurants could have been more intermingled in a way that would attract people after 5pm, improve safety, and bolster the local economy.
Jane Jacobs effectively highlighted the need for diversity on our city streets- economically, by demographic, commercially, and housing diversity. We need people who stay in neighborhoods *by choice* in order to effectively unslum or improve a neighborhood, but also people who will turn over. Having too much of either creates stagnation or failure.
Jacobs says the most important thing for local governments to mix uses is to permit it where possible. Right now, we don't do that. "Flourishing diversity anywhere in a city means the mingling of high-yield, middling-yield, low-yield, and no-yield enterprises," (p.201). "The point of cities is multiplicity of choice...[which] depend[s] also on immense concentrations of people," (p.359).
As we consider ways to improve walkability locally, it is good to note that "the closing of streets for pedestrian use, being almost always accompanied by compensating provisions for vehicles is not attrition but reorganization of traffic," (p.381).
After reading this book, I find myself even more aware of the importance of sidewalks- their width and primarily, their visibility. If there are public spaces without safety, they will not be used. With sidewalks too small and density too low to have any sort of frequent visibility from housing, there is little reason to expect safety on a sidewalk at night. Safety is "kept primarily by an intricate, almost unconscious, network of voluntary controls" by the people watching the sidewalk (p.35). "Without effective eyes to see, does a light cast light? Not for practical purposes," (p.46). This point was novel, but may be flawed in reality due to things like the bystander effect.
Describing the culture in truly dense areas, the art of the acquaintance on the street which is intimate enough that those neighbors will defend you but not so intimate that one loses privacy. This translated interestingly to how much information is known about those who receive welfare and how this dehumanizes them. I must say, the more I learn about our welfare system, the more I want to take a page of Michael Tanner's "Inclusive Economy" and rethink our welfare system in a more libertarian way- less government. Give people their basic needs, as they deserve, and don't dehumanize them with systematic mistrust only to ask why giving people a shelter without the authority to take care of it leads to failure.
Referring to the Board of Estimate, "the eight rulers who sit behind the raised bench (we cannot call them servants of the people as the conventions of government have it, for servants would know more of their masters' affairs)," (p.432). Reveals anti-political sentiment but also appreciate the pity she gives for navigation of such an incredibly complex system. "Persons of hope, energy, and initiative who enter in the service of [government] almost have to become uncaring and resigned, for the sake of their self-preservation," (p.439). People must "work inductively, reasoning from particulars to general, rather than the reverse," (p.469) I think this is a responsible and reasonable approach to governance.
Overall, this was a great book, though a bit dry. It was sometimes hard to get through when it focused so heavily on New York, as someone who has only been there once or twice. However, it was insightful as to systems, planning theory, community building, and financing structures.
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