Jane Jacobs’, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, predominantly allows readers to see cities as having ‘life cycles,’ as determined by their architectural nature. Given that, city planners design urban living according to how they think such living spaces should work. Jacobs on the other hand, attacks the […]
Monthly Archives: February 2019
One of Jane Jacobs’s main points in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities is that city planners misunderstand the benefits of city living and only value an ideal that is similar in look to a small town or village. These planners promote a society in which […]
“The room for great differences among neighbors- differences that often go far deeper than differences in color- are possible and normal only when streets of great cities have built in equipment allowing strangers to dwell in peace together.” -Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. A woman- […]
The way we treat the stranger is of crucial importance to the way we live our lives as moral and ethical people part of a world beyond ourselves. Jane Jacobs, in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, discusses the importance of different types of diversity in […]
The company Nintendo is notorious for making video games that offer unique interactive experiences, such as their popular franchise Animal Crossing. The Animal Crossing series of video games allows people to take on the role of a new resident in a town full of talking animals that have all sorts […]
In Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she mentions how important it is for there to be a natural place for people to interact with each other because if they don’t, they become more private and less social which in turn makes the damages the […]
After reading the assigned portions of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, “Our House” the 1982 pop song by Madness “popped” into my head. For those unfamiliar with the song, the lyrics are available here: https://genius.com/Madness-our-house-lyrics. In “Our House” Madness constantly repeats the phrase “Our house in […]
In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs discusses the importance of public spaces in cities—places where residents can socialize and develop a sense of community and trust. Public spaces instill a sense of togetherness in neighborhoods. They allow for residents to occasionally and voluntarily interact with […]
The conflict between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, the difference between their two visions can be generalized to a battle between interest in capital and interest in public life; the automobile vs the human; the middle class vs the working class. One of the lines that highlights the antagonistic relationship […]
Throughout the readings I kept finding myself coming back to the fact that Robert Moses seems to have done so much for the city, and yet I have never heard of him. When I started reading about the Washington Square Park ordeal though, I realized that I actually have heard […]
When compiling the many facets of the “Master Builder” as illustrated by the words of Ballon and Jackson, I was scouring numerous platforms to find a piece of media which artfully expressed Robert Moses as the NY figurehead he is. A piece which captures his ability to construct what he […]
Among the many projects Robert Moses brought to completion, the Cross Bronx Expressway was one with many negative repercussions. This freeway, blamed for cutting the Bronx in half and causing the migration of thousands of residents at the time it was built, is now considered the “most congested urban roadway […]