vacuum's Full Review: Jane Jacobs - The Death and Life of Great American...
In Jane Jacobs _Death and Life of Great American Cities_ (1961) there is a great story told of the corner store owner who is the hub of his neighborhoods's public space. He holds newspapers for the regulars, sets kids right if they start to misbehave, keeps keys behind the counter for people who have friends visiting. But although he is well known and respected by the corner community, he never introduces any of the people who he knows to each other. The shopkeeper starts conversations on topics of common interest and waits for people to connect on their own - but never makes an introduction directly.
Jacobs talks at length about how the health of the sidewalk is a key to the health of a city, a topic echoed by Christopher Alexander in _A Pattern Language_ ("Street Windows", "Opening to the Street"). Both authors go on about how the planning of the city and of the neighborhood need to make the city street more than just a broad high speed thoroughfare for automobiles.
It's a great book, makes you want to go find a place with good sidewalks and soak up the people around you.
A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in ...More at HotBookSale
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