I was just re-reading part of Death and Life again last night, and the following imaginary conversation occurred in my head.
Jane Jacobs: Great cities happen because people and activities come together and urban magic happens. Planning is bad for cities, and planners are deluded.
Planners: Jane Jacobs is our new intellectual god.
The end.
My impression was that Jane Jacobs herself kept evolving over the decades after her book was published, and she didn’t treat it as a ‘bible’ — now that I think of it, that’s the problem with bibles in general 🙂 At the end of the day, I understand she favoured Toronto’s St. Lawrence Neighbourhood which is sometimes considered a model for urban planners as well as an illustration of some of her most important beliefs about density, walkability, etc….. Another increasingly important and relevant factor is the urbanization of the human race, and the need to reverse urban sprawl. Neither of those factors was central or urgent when she wrote her book.