This week’s readings by the authors Jacobs, Duany and Zyrberk, Beatley, and Wheeler, all focus on ways to improve urban areas. This is very relevant to our current final projects, as we are working towards improving neighborhoods by attempting to solve essential problems found in them and make more efficient use of the land and resources they offer. These four articles consider a very wide range of issues of urban planning and living, including community safety and satisfaction, transportation and accessibility, efficient and economic land use, and the sustainability of the natural world and ecosystems. To do this they often compare American living environments and their problems to more efficient European cities and their planning practices as proof of the potential to improve the quality of life and future of American cities. All the authors were firm believers in the superiority of dense cities over spread out suburbs (Lakshman, I thought you would enjoy this) and were very optimistic about the possibility of improving them. What I found most interesting was that the authors addressed how largely culture comes into the way a city is planned and its patterns of development. When looking to improve these living areas it is therefore crucial to define and emphasize social values of the community and to plan towards a sustainable future that will satisfy both the population who lives there and the well being of the environment.

In “The uses of sidewalks: Safety,” Jane Jacobs emphasizes the significance of high density and crowdedness for the safety of a community and a healthy and happy living environment. She writes that if a city looks interesting and attractive it is because its streets look interesting and attractive, and that people thus value a city based on the quality and safety of its public streets and spaces. Jacobs constantly compares urban areas to suburban ones, emphasizing the superiority of cities and the drawbacks of extended and unpopulated suburban spaces. A central point is that unlike in suburbs, in cities you are constantly surrounded by strangers and it is therefore crucial to create an environment where one feels comfortable among so many people one doesn’t know. I completely agree with this remarkable phenomenon in cities like New York, where I can walk around Manhattan, crossing hundreds of people a day, and never once feel uncomfortable among such a large group of strangers. Jacobs discusses how the more crowded the street, the safer it is and the more people are likely to come to it as people love to see people and not empty space, which I couldn’t agree more with. Yet while I personally would choose to live on a loud and crowded street over a peacefully quiet one, I am not convinced that this is necessarily more of an attractive living environment to everyone, and many people would still prefer to live in a more quiet and slow moving area.

Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater Zyberk, in their article “The Neighborhood, the District, and the Corridor,” discuss the concept of ‘new urbanism’ to increase urban patterns of interaction and decrease the dependence on cars for mobility. Like Jacobs, these authors disapprove of suburban living practices, and emphasize that cities are no longer dangerous and polluted environments that they used to be when people first began moving out to suburbs. They focus their planning on the concepts of the neighborhood, the district, and the corridor, and for each define their ideal vision for what they see is the most satisfying and efficient living environment. A central argument of theirs is that dependence on cars in suburbs reduces the ability of children and elderly to travel within a community, decreases human interaction, and also highly pollutes the environment. They therefore strongly encourage efficient public transportation plans that will allow for everyone to be able to access and reach different places. Additionally, Duany and Zybrek highlight the importance of community interaction on the street, promoting more walking public spaces where people can meet and interact with each other much more often than they would by sitting in their cars on empty roads and high ways.

In “Green Urbanism and the Lessons of European Cities,” Timothy Beatley uses the example of several European cities and planning practices to prove the point that it is very viable and possible to work towards both a happier living community and more sustainable and ecologically friendly energy use. Like the above authors, Beatley constantly compares urban and suburban life, speaking about how European culture values the importance of cities and crowdedness over largely separate living communities like in American suburbs. An ideal element of European cities he speaks about is its efficient transportation methods. With faster trains, more bike routes, and larger walking spaces, European cities allow for more community interaction and accessibility to more places. Additionally, public transport largely reduces the pollution exerted from the excessive car use in the United States. Beatley also focuses on the green planning practices of these cities, showing that with the support of the government and public, it is indeed possible to find economic alternatives to wasteful energy use and their replacement with more friendly and renewable energy sources. A very valid point, however, is that all these great aspects of European cities including their social interaction and activeness, and their high value on urban life and dense population are all embedded in historical and cultural values of many European communities. The question is if the American population has the interest in adopting European patterns or if the car-culture and wasteful practices of the Americans is culturally embedded and will not necessarily be willfully changed.

Lastly, Wheeler writes in “Planning Sustainable and Livable Cities” about sustainable urban development and the significance of long term planning for the wellbeing of the community as well as the human and natural environment on the long run. He begins by defining the different conceptions of sustainability and the struggle to agree on what it means to plan for the wellbeing of the future. He also emphasizes the importance of ‘livability’ and again addresses the question of how to improve the quality of life for people in the present and in years to come. Wheeler, as the other authors this week, also focuses on pedestrian satisfaction as a way to improve community and decrease environment pollution and destruction. He reviews in detail the central problems that are needed to be addressed in long term future plans: While each problem should be addressed on its own, solutions must take in all of the different urban issues at the same time make sure not to worsen other important factors affecting urban life. Wheeler, too, writes about the cultural aspects that often compromise long term planning for social and environmental wellbeing such as capitalist values that tend to focus on creating short-term profits as opposed to addressing larger social issues more difficult to grasp.

Although the issues discussed in these four articles are far reaching and complex to address, I agree with these authors completely that it is crucial to be optimistic and plan towards an ideal vision of long term improvements. While not all the problems will ever be solved completely, we can hope that with time we can work towards improving urban areas and the quality of life for the people and ecosystems that inhabit them.