(The psuedoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate empiric failure and ignore empiric success.) Jane Jacobs More Quotes by Jane Jacobs More Quotes From Jane Jacobs Dull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves. Jane Jacobs energycitieslittles Never underestimate the power of a city to regenerate. Jane Jacobs never-underestimateunderestimatecities Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings. Jane Jacobs old-buildingshistoryideas All through organized history, if you wanted prosperity you had to have cities. Cities are places that attract new people with new ideas. Jane Jacobs citiespeopleideas When we deal with cities we are dealing with life at its most complex and intense. Planners are guided by principles derived from the behaviour and appearance of suburbs, tuberculosis sanatoria, fairs and imaginary dream cities - from anything but cities themselves. Jane Jacobs principlescitiesdream Automobiles are often conveniently tagged as the villains responsible for the ills of cities and the disappointments and futilities of city planning. But the destructive effect of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building. Jane Jacobs causesdisappointmentcities In our American cities, we need all kinds of diversity. Jane Jacobs diversitycitiesneeds There are two ways you encounter things in the world that are different. One is everything that comes in reinforces what you already believe and everything that you know. The other thing is that you stay flexible enough or curious enough and maybe unsure of yourself enough, or may be you are more sure of yourself - I don't know which it is - that the new things that come in keep reforming your world view. Jane Jacobs viewstwobelieve I think it is fatal to specialize. And all kinds of things show us that and that the more diverse we are in what we can do, the better. Jane Jacobs kindshowsthinking You can neither lie to a neighbourhood park, nor reason with it. 'Artist's conceptions' and persuasive renderings can put pictures of life into proposed neighbourhood parks or park malls, and verbal rationalizations can conjure up users who ought to appreciate them, but in real life only diverse surroundings have the practical power of inducing a natural, continuing flow of life and use. Jane Jacobs artistreallying Neighborhoods built up all at once change little physically over the years as a rule...[Residents] regret that the neighborhood has changed. Yet the fact is, physically it has changed remarkably little. People's feelings about it, rather, have changed. The neighborhood shows a strange inability to update itself, enliven itself, repair itself, or to be sought after, out of choice, by a new generation. It is dead. Actually it was dead from birth, but nobody noticed this much until the corpse began to smell. Jane Jacobs smellregretyears There are dangers in sentimentalizing nature. Most sentimental ideas imply, at bottom, a deep if unacknowledged disrespect. 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. Jane Jacobs championnatureideas it is immoral for powerless people to accept this powerlessness. They may not succeed in getting power but they can fight for it, and if enough fight for it, it makes it very difficult for the people with the big sticks. Jane Jacobs succeedfightingpeople ...frequent streets and short blocks are valuable because of the fabric of intricate cross-use that they permit among the users of a city neighbouhood. Jane Jacobs blockcitiesuse When we deal with cities we are dealing with life at its most complex and intense. Because this is so, there is a basic esthetic limitation on what can be done with cities: a city cannot be a work of art. Jane Jacobs donecitiesart The primary conflict, I think, is between people whose interests are with already well-established economic activities, and those whose interests are with the emergence of new economic activities. Jane Jacobs conflictpeoplethinking A region is an area safely larger than the last one to whose problems we found no solution. Jane Jacobs lastsproblemfound Writing, printing, and the Internet give a false sense of security about the permanence of culture. Jane Jacobs writinggivingculture New ideas must use old buildings Jane Jacobs old-buildingsuseideas You can't rely on bringing people downtown, you have to put them there. Jane Jacobs downtownrelypeople
