Rosenzweig discusses public works projects such as PlaNYC in her article. How successful, if at all, would Jane Jacobs consider these projects in regards to city planning to improve New York City?
week 2 – Engage
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I think that Jane Jacobs would have been an important advocate for PlaNYC, as many of the initiatives seem to align with Jacobs’ own beliefs. Jacobs was a firm believer in strong local communities that were self-sustaining. PlaNYC builds on these ideas by creating a stronger economy, starting at the neighborhood level. PlaNYC has added and improved hundreds of parks and created new housing for neighborhoods, all while creating a “greener” community that fights climate change. Jacobs believed in dense neighborhoods that relied on traffic and PlaNYC has echoed these same beliefs by creating greater access to transit for some neighborhoods.
Jane Jacobs’s vision for New York City’s future was to improve the physical communities of every neighborhood in New York City so that each resident could have an emotional sense of community. PlaNYC’s benefits and goals fit this vision because it takes current sustainability issues into account. Today, whether people want to believe it or not, extreme climates are becoming more and more problematic. PlaNYC takes this into consideration and acknowledges the fact that New York City must take precautions to prevent damage resulting from natural disasters rather than wait until after the damage has already occurred. In addition, PlaNYC is not afraid to set ambitious goals, just like Jacobs. A 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions over the span of just 25 years may seen unachievable, but that is exactly what PlaNYC intends on accomplishing, and Jacobs would support that.
Jane Jacob believed that there should be a “great abundance of parkland, campus, playground and other open spaces” (Jacobs.6) . A city is a place for community and breathing and she hates the steel coldness that some of the skyscrapers bring. She continues that a community needs “plenty of grass. It occupies high and pleasant ground with magnificent river views” (Jacobs.6). Her actions and philosophies were shaped around sustainability and aesthetics. Her position on PlaNYC, would be to enforce the projects that make NYC green by reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions. Jacobs would make a great advocate for PlaNYC.
Jane Jacobs would surely be a proponent of PlaNYC, a program that has improved parks, made buildings more energy efficient, and increased neighborhood access to public transportation. Jacobs seems to be an advocate of parks, but states that their impact depends vastly on location, which in turn determines who will make use of the parks and how they will do so. Jane Jacobs would also likely cite the inadequate clean-up efforts in “lower income areas” following Hurricane Sandy. Jacobs would advocate fortification and preparation. If the devastating effects of climate change cannot be prevented, at least their impact can be ameliorated.
PlaNYC focuses on climate changes, parks, housing and many other aspects of the city. Jane Jacobs would consider these projects in regards to city planning to improve New York City as successful. She would especially be an advocate for adding more green to the neighborhoods and though not mentioned in the article by Rosensweig, part of PlaNYC’s desire is to make parks more accesible to all New Yorkers. Specifically for every New Yorker to live 10 minutes walking distance away from a park. Jacobs would probably be concerned though as she demonstrated with the residents of the New York’s East Harlem, with only focusing on how the city looks while neglecting how it really works in real life. And learning from the lawn in front of the housing project basically became a “mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served (15)”, developments of the PlaNYC must watch out for those mistakes as well.