The Death and Life of Great American Cities

“The Death and Life of Great American Cities” is a classic book about urbanism. It warned city leaders in 1961 that they were killing cities through their efforts to build highways, demolish old neighborhoods and construct public housing projects. And it described in detail what actually makes neighborhoods and cities safe and successful. The essential ingredient: people and how they interact with places.

Jane Jacobs was a writer who lived in New York and Toronto. She died in 2006.

The big ideas for Urban Atlanta:

• This is a book about seeing cities and understanding how they work. Its central message: We do not engineer our cities. When successful, we create the conditions out of which good outcomes emerge.
• Cities prosper from the inside out and from the bottom up. What this means is that neighborhoods are the keys to urban success. Helping neighborhoods thrive should be a central mission of local governments.
• While neighborhoods will differ, there are conditions that make all of them safer and more successful. Among them are a mix of residences, stores, restaurants and workplaces tied together by walkable streets. These connect neighbors to one another, and the human connections make neighborhoods safe.
• Jacobs has the right idea about cars. Motor vehicles did not ruin cities; it was their numbers and voracious appetite for roads and parking that damaged cities. The answer is an attrition of cars in appropriate places that gradually reclaims a portion of the lost land.
• Urbanists need to focus more on what they want than what they don’t want. This includes mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhoods, well-designed parks, more sidewalks, trails and bike lanes.