Read, in Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities,
22. The Kind of Problem a City is, pp. 558 - 585
You will notice that I'm leaving some chapters of Jacobs off the syllabus. If this were a class in Urban planning I would probably include them. But as it isn't, I think it best for us to proceed. The final chapter is a summary of her ideas, and is also a critique of certain applications of "the scientific method" to the analysis of Urban America.
Understand what she means by "disorganized complexity". Does she think it a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to saving Urban life in America? She both quotes and argues with Dr.Warren Weaver of the Rockefeller Foundation. You can see the Foundation's report by clicking here.
Note how she says that using the wrong kind of "scientific thinking" led to the destruction of cities. For example she says. "in the form of statistics, these citizens were no longer components of any unit except the family, and could be dealt with like grains of sand, or electrons, or billiard balls." Note the example she goes on to give, and see if you can find something in your city which resembles it.
Note the way she prefers to think...a three step program. Do you understand what she means? If not, come prepared to as questions about it.
Why does she prefer to use the idea of "ordinary citizens" instead of "city planners"? Do you agree with her?
What does she mean by "the semi-suburbanized and suburbanized messes we create in this way become despised by their own inhabitants tomorrow. You can probably use City-Data and Google earth to find such an area in your chosen city.. Give it a try, and add it to your resource folder.
Here is such a neighborhood in Minneapolis. The area in light red-orange has had its property value decline by almost 20 percent Click on the image to view it in City Data. Identify the block by shape not by color. Below is the same neighborhood in on Google Maps. And below that, Street View. Take a walk around.
Happy Thanksgiving
With this, we say good by to Jane Jacobs. When we get back, we're going to do some work with Studs Terkel's Division Street America. As I wrote on the course introduction, Terkel was perhaps America's greatest oral historian, and he had a radio program in Chicago, Illinois, for many years. I will be trying something different in our experience with Studs. All the audio recordings have been saved and there is a website for them. Click on the image to reach the archive. You might listen to a few of them. Specific assignments will be made in the next web page. I'll let you know when it is available to you.
22. The Kind of Problem a City is, pp. 558 - 585
