The Death and Life of Great American Cities

This book is a direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized urban planning in this century. In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed—this book provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.