The Death and Life of Great American Cities

“This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding.” 

With this strongly worded thesis statement, Jacobs positions herself against the chief urban theorists of the 20th century, notably, the proponents of the City Beautiful, Radiant City, and Garden City movements. 

“Automobiles are often conveniently tagged as the villains responsible for the ills of cities and the disappointments and futilities of city planning. But the destructive effects of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building.” 

This passage cautions against oversimplifying the problems facing modern cities. Automobiles are easy to vilify. As Jacobs points out, however, the real problems are of a more complex, socio-economic nature. 

“There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretend order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.” 

Jacobs is critical of the false order imposed on urban settings by planners, who demolish entire neighborhoods and replace them with neat, modern buildings. She hints at an order that exists beneath the apparent chaos of slums. Urban designers should support this underlying order, critical to the functioning of cities, and strengthen it.