Jane Jacobs' Ideas on Big, Diverse Cities: A Review and Commentary: Fid-Bau Portal

Jane Jacobs' Ideas on Big, Diverse Cities: A Review and Commentary

Hill, David R.

Over the last quarter-century Jane Jacobs has developed the argument that the dense central areas of large cities are both quality living environments and the indispensable hatchery of new jobs and economic advances for society as a whole. Her most recent book, Cities and the Wealth of the Nations, extends her earlier urban design and economic thought to the regional, national, and international scales, and it completes the sketch of a general theory of planning. Despite her great popularity, her many formulations have not been summarized for professional planning audiences, located in the context of other planning ideas, or assessed for theoretical quality. This article addresses each of those topics. I find her theoretical strengths to be originality, emotional force, style, and timeliness. I give her mixed reviews for completeness, consistency, equity, technical design, and impact. Her weakest areas are in strategic detail, empirical verifiability, and documentation.