But look what we have built ... This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities. Jane Jacobs More Quotes by Jane Jacobs More Quotes From Jane Jacobs By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange. Jane Jacobs given strange education What if we fail to stop the erosion of cities by automobiles? ... In that case America will hardly need to ponder a mystery that has troubled men for millennia. What is the purpose of life? For us, the answer will be clear, established and for all practical purposes indisputable. The purpose of life is to produce and consume automobiles. Jane Jacobs erosion men america Virtually all ideologues, of any variety, are fearful and insecure, which is why they are drawn to ideologies that promise prefabricated answers for all circumstances. Jane Jacobs insecure answers promise Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems. Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance. Jane Jacobs cities dream people Subsidiarity is the principle that government works best most responsibly and responsively when it is closest to the people it serves and the needs it addresses. Fiscal accountability is the principle that institutions collecting and disbursing taxes work most responsibly when they are transparent to those providing the money. Jane Jacobs accountability government people Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles? Jane Jacobs attrition erosion cities To seek "causes" of poverty in this way is to enter an intellectual dead end because poverty has no causes. Only prosperity has causes. Jane Jacobs poverty intellectual way I think that things are going to change just because people get too damn bored with what they have. Jane Jacobs bored people thinking City diversity represents accident and chaos. Jane Jacobs chaos diversity cities There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served. Jane Jacobs real struggle order Cities never flourish alone. They have to be trading with other cities. Jane Jacobs trading cities One of our troubles is that we try to make municipalities that are totally different from each other all act as if they were the same kind of creature, with the same kinds of possibilities. Jane Jacobs different kind trying It may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things work but only the kind of quick, easy outer impression that they get. Jane Jacobs care may people Redundancy is expensive but indispensable. Jane Jacobs redundancy indispensable expensive The second mode to deal with unsafe cities is to take refuge in vehicles. This is the technique practiced in the big wild-animal reservations of Africa, where tourists are warned to leave their cars under no circumstances until they reach a lodge. It is also the technique practiced in Los Angeles. Jane Jacobs car cities animal Some men tend to cling to old intellectual excitements, just as some belles, when they are old ladies, still cling to the fashions and coiffures of their exciting youth. Jane Jacobs fashion intellectual men You don't get new products and services out of sameness. Jane Jacobs sameness new-products products Nothing is so clear in history that is it happens for any one thing. It seems that a lot of things come together to make great changes. Jane Jacobs great-change clear together I don't think of the New Urbanism as an economic or political train wreck. I think of it as one of these great generational upheavals that's coming. Jane Jacobs train-wrecks political thinking There were lots of programs over the course of the two referendums and the general tenor of them was that if Quebec were to separate, then Canada would disintegrate. Jane Jacobs program canada two
