Describing her book as an attack multiple times, one can straight away from “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” see how strongly opinionated Jane Jacobs is and exactly what she values. This is also demonstrated from how others perceived her (negatively or positively) in “Citizen Jane.” Her focus in prioritizing the people above traffic and her criticism on improper use of money for city planning is what made me very intrigued by her ideas.
A quote that really stood out to me was of the tenant at one of East Harlem’s buildings who said “Nobody cared what we wanted when they built this place…Nobody cared what we need. But the big men come and look at that grass and say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful! Now the poor have everything!’ “1 This tenant’s attitude really highlights exactly what Jacobs’s was fighting for and the problems she saw in city planning or those with too much power who obviously didn’t care about the people but rather prioritized making money. As highlighted in the videos, one of those people was Robert Moses. As a New Yorker, I’m very biased against Moses’ plans for the city. He already was responsible for so many things (“several bridges, an underwater tunnel, 416 miles of parkway, 2,567,256 acres of parkland, numerous public housing projects, 17 public swimming pools and 658 playgrounds” 2) and what everything else he had planned would of, in my opinion, removed a lot of character from the city but also enhance problems of gentrification. It’s also ironic how he wanted to build these expressways to help the traffic but in reality it would have made it harder for residents of the city to complete their everyday commute. This also shows some valid criticism to ideas of architects like Le Corbusier who really wanted to merge nature and urbanism while also embracing the modern automobile through traffic.
1.Jacobs, The Death and Life of the Great American City (1961)
2. Lloyd, Joe. “Everything You Need to Know About Robert Moses, New York’s 20th-Century ‘Master Builder’.” Culture Trip. The Culture Trip, January 6, 2016. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/robert-moses-a-20th-century-master-builder/.