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Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs

This volume gathers a selection of shorter pieces by Jane Jacobs, spanning her career from the 1930s to the early 2000s. It includes previously uncollected articles, lectures, and correspondence that complement her major works like The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The pieces explore themes such as urban planning, grassroots activism, the ethics of development, and the intricate social and economic dynamics of neighborhoods. The collection offers insight into Jacobs's evolving thinking and her advocacy for organic, people-centered urban environments. more

Author

Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs, an American journalist and urban theorist, was born on May 4, 1916, and passed away on April 25, 2006. She is renowned for her profound insights into urban life and her unique perspectives on urban planning. Her book, 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities,' had a revolutionary impact on modern urban planning. more

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“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.”

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Author:Jane Jacobs
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“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.”

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Book:The Death and Life of Great American Cities
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“I have been dwelling upon downtowns. This is not because mixtures of primary uses are unneeded elsewhere in cities. On the contrary they are needed, and the success of mixtures downtown (on in the most intensive portions of cities, whatever they are called) is related to the mixture possible in other part of cities.”

Has BeensUseCitiesNeededContraryPrimariesRelatedPortionsElsewhereMixturesDwellingDowntown
Book:The Death and Life of Great American Cities
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“Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel together. The combination is not coincidental.”

Has BeensTogetherSocialCitiesEconomyCreativeTroubleCoreCombinationPhenomenon
Book:Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs
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