The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Conventional city planning holds that cities decline because they are blighted by over-crowding, byt old buildings and narrow streets, and by mixtures of commercial and residential use. Crowded neighbourhoods, it is generally stated, breed apathy and crime, discourage investment and contaminate the areas around them. The response of city planners is to tear the old neighbourhoods down, scatter their inhabitants, lay out super-blocks, and rebuild the area according to an integrated plan, with the frequent result that the crime rate rises still higher, the new neighbourhood is more lifeless than the old one, and the surrounding areas deteriotate even more, until the whole city is affected. In this groundbreaking study, Jane Jacobs offers a real alternative to conventional city planning that we have had in this century. Herself a city dweller, she asks what makes cities work, why are some neighbourhoods full of things to do and see and others dul, why is the crime rate soaring in public housing developments, and why are some of the areas condemned as slums so much more safe, stable and congenial?