The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs

The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Published 1961
Author: Jane Jacobs 1916-2006, American-born Canadian urbanist.
Along with her well-known printed works, Jacobs is equally well known for organizing grassroots
efforts to block urban-renewal projects that would have destroyed local neighborhoods.
“Streets in cities serve many purposes besides carrying vehicles, and city sidewalks serve
many purposes besides carrying pedestrians.” by Jane Jacobs
If one thinks of a city, streets come to mind. And if the streets look interesting the city does so
too, if not, neither does the city. And if the streets are considered safe so is the city.
But if a city or a part of it is considered dangerous, the people don‘t feel safe on their streets
and sidewalks and use them less which makes them even more unsafe.

Great cities aren't just towns, on
a bigger scale and with a higher
density.
One out of several designative
points is that a city is full of
strangers.
And somehow one needs to get
a feeling of safety among all of
them.
The insecurity and barbarism
isn't a slum bound problem, it's
rather a serious mater of quite
residential areas.
It doesn't appear more often in
places where minority groups and
the poor live.
In New York those sidewalks are
considered one of the safest, by
day and night.
Lower East New York 1909

One can say that well used
streets are also safe streets,
and that abandoned streets are
to be unsafe.
But how does that work?
Lower East New York 1909

In a city privacy is something
personal, oneself can choose
how much one will tell or not tell,
its not like in a small town where
everyone knows ones matters.
So privacy will be carefully guarded.
And it has to been chosen
between privacy and the contact
necessary between people.
In good city-street adjacencies
privacy and contact are in balance
allowing the community to
work.
Lower East New York

In some areas where sidewalks
don‘t exist people have to enlarge
their private space to
have contact with their neighborhood
and loose so more
of their privacy, as when there
would be a sidewalk to use for
those proposes.
Where people share so much
privacy they get picky about
who they want to share it with,
so they start to isolate themselves.
Like this privacy and contact
start to fall out of balance.
Chatham Village, Pittsburgh

Some planing ideas want to
emphasize the contact, the togetherness,
among the people
and force them almost into contact
and sharing.
But this divides cities more than
tying them together.
There must be a clear boundary
between public and private
space.
Suberben area Pittsburgh

An other misbelieve by city reformers
is that people hanging
around the street corners increases
the street insecurity.
“ ...If these people had decent
homes and more private
or bosky outdoor places, they
wouldn‘t be on the streets.”
According to the author this is
a terrible misunderstanding of
cities.
Insecurity can‘t be salved by
spreading people more thinly.
Gathering areas are important
for cities, they bring together
strangers, and there comes up
a feeling of “community”, a presence
of casual public trust.

An other misbelieve by city reformers
is that people hanging
around the street corners increases
the street insecurity.
“ ...If these people had decent
homes and more private
or bosky outdoor places, they
wouldn‘t be on the streets.”
According to the author this is
a terrible misunderstanding of
cities.
Insecurity can‘t be salved by
spreading people more thinly.
Gathering areas are important
for cities, they bring together
strangers, and there comes up
a feeling of “community”, a presence
of casual public trust.
Ahmedabad

There must be eyes on the
street, meaning that inhabitants
and owners get involved what
is happing on the street. People
who notice what goes on in
the streets and which can take
action if necessary.
It is important that the eyes
which watch a street can generate
a feeling of trust to the
people on the streets, in order
for the community surveillance
to work, to know if that guy is
just hanging around or if he
seems to have bad intentions.
This trust gets built up by many
small social activities which
happen in a community, which
build a community identity.
This is something that can not
be provided by an institution,
these contacts have to come
from the people.

There must be eyes on the
street, meaning that inhabitants
and owners get involved what
is happing on the street. People
who notice what goes on in
the streets and which can take
action if necessary.
It is important that the eyes
which watch a street can generate
a feeling of trust to the
people on the streets, in order
for the community surveillance
to work, to know if that guy is
just hanging around or if he
seems to have bad intentions.
This trust gets built up by many
small social activities which
happen in a community, which
build a community identity.
This is something that can not
be provided by an institution,
these contacts have to come
from the people.

There must be eyes on the
street, meaning that inhabitants
and owners get involved what
is happing on the street.
People who notice what goes
on in the streets and which can
take action if necessary.
It is important that the eyes
which watch a street can generate
a feeling of trust to the
people on the streets, in order
for the community surveillance
to work, to know if that guy is
just hanging around or if he
seems to have bad intentions.
This trust gets built up by many
small social activities which
happen in a community, which
build a community identity.
This is something that can not
be provided by an institution,
these contacts have to come
from the people.

Sidewalks should have continuously
users on it.
So a mixture of residential and
commercial would be wise.
Like this the city doesn‘t become
abandoned at day or
night.
Also important is that public
peace of cities isn‘t kept primarily
by the police, its kept by the
people themselves.

Conclusion
Fist, there must be a clear boundary between public and private space.
Secondly, there must be eyes on the street, meaning that inhabitants and owners get involved
what is happing on the street and take action if necessary.
Thirdly, the sidewalks should have continuously users on it.