New York Daily Photo Analytics

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Jane Jacobs

This is the house where Jane Jacobs, who died yesterday, wrote the Death and Life of Great American Cities. From those windows she observed the urban life of her West Village neighborhood which she offered as an alternative to the suburban sprawl and car culture taking over the country. Her work became a major influence on urban planning and the appreciation of city life in the US, convincing many Americans that cities were good. She was instrumental in saving the Village and Soho neighborhoods, which were threatened by urban planners who wanted to build the Lower Manhattan Expressway. She was a self taught outsider who criticized and triumphed over very entrenched authorities. More photos here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phew! It'll take me more than one visit to get through this post and its links. (If there's anything worse than no public space, it's fake public space.)

Sam said...

A very small and unimposing building to house such an influential life!
Nice photo!

Alex said...

Interesting, touching picture and comment. Thanks for bringing it up. I'll put Jane Jacobs on my reading list. I also clicked on your link “west village”. This neighborhood looks like an attractive provincial town. Hard to believe this is located in "the big Apple" :-)

Anonymous said...

Makes me wonder why no comment abiut her was made on the morning talk shows. She certainly deserved the attention, By the way, what is Luiggi's problem?
Chris

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: my comment was meant as a compliment; B & L's post links to many interesting photos that will take me some time to get through. Obiously, "fake public space" does not refer to the post.

Brian Dubé said...

Thanks for the reassurance, guys, we figured/(hoped) it meant physcial public space -- as for the coverage, I think she may be getting more public attention in the weeks to come. Hopefully someone will do a documentary on her for PBS, or try to put up a plaque on her house, or in Washington Square Park. Now that many of the players in these controversies have passed away, more or less, there probably will be more said and done about honoring Jane Jacobs.