A week ago today the world lost a dynamic and influential voice in the lives of cities. Jane Jacobs, author of the 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities, was an advocate for the human scale of cities, and a formative force behind much of the urban planning we see at work today (read the obituary in the New York Times or a nice overview of her work and its impact in the Chicago Tribune).
In an era when old buildings were being razed for newer, colder developments, Jacobs cried out in support of the ”sidewalk ballet” that comes when density, diversity, and an eclectic mix of architecture brings people out into the streets to interact in daily life. It was a call for a more organic city, a more human city, and it was a vision worthy of any cultural manager’s attention. Said she:
There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.
Wise words for any city-based cultural institution. Does your presence add to the streetlife around you, or inhibit it? Are you fostering and encouraging a vibrant community, or suppressing that vibrancy through false order?
Thanks to Jane Jacobs for calling the questions. Let’s honor her by striving to answer them better.
