The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacob

The traffic today in NYC is hectic enough and imagine how it would look like without the highways that were built in the city today. The traffic would be ten times as worse as it is today. Robert Moses was guiding NYC in the right direction when it came to elevating the traffic coming in and out of the city by building or proposing more highways.

In the past, cities were looked at as places to get a job, and then leave once the work day was over. There were no parks, no side walks, no interaction among civilians. City planners did not understand the negative impact this was having on cities until a woman named Jane Jacobs riled

An analysis by SGS Economics and Planning claim that ‘over five million Australians experience insufficient public transport and urban congestion on our outer western suburbs’. Mr Fowler said, “If it isn’t placed in a timely manner, we will fail society into the future. Working too far from home, decreasing employment, increasing sickness and mental stress are all signs of this. It’s not a loss of productivity in terms of producing something, it’s a loss of productivity in

Ten million dollars is a lot of money. When this money has been generated over years of increased taxes, and is to be put back into a community, it’s important to know that this money is being used wisely. Ten million dollars is the amount of money that the Budlong Woods community is using in their “Tax Increment Financing Redevelopment Area Project.” This paper will investigate the current state of the Budlong Woods community, as well as the specific focus areas of the redevelopment project and determine whether Budlong Woods is on track to be Chicago’s next successful neighborhood.

It's interesting to see the relationship between the undesirable situation within a community. I live in a residential area in Mississauga, where a car is an important form of transportation. The city is developed around roads in order to suit cars and to allow them to move around easily.

Urban sprawl increases traffic on our neighborhood streets and highways. It lengthens trips and forces us to drive everywhere. The average American driver spends 443 hours per year behind the wheel. Residents of sprawling communities drive three to four times as much as those living in compact, well-planned areas. Adding new lanes and building new roads can only makes the problem worse or even create bigger problems. An escalation in road capacity can only lead to more cars on the road, more sprawl, and more traffic. Also as sprawl boosts our dependence on cars and driving, it give rise to grimier air and makes it unhealthy to breath.

Sidewalks and streets, the major areas of transportation in any city, determines many characteristics of a city such as whether people feel safe or not walking alone at night. If the streets aren’t safe, if there is a murder late at night, people will avoid walking in that area, causing the streets to become even more unsafe. One important lesson my parents have always impressed on me is that when I am walking at night in the city, always stick with the crowded streets in the main vein of the city, never the alleyways or the shortcuts. Jane Jacobs elaborates on this particular lesson in “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by stating that while a heavier population does not necessarily mean that a street is safer (as evidenced by the Christmas tree

Cities consist of a mass of residents, businesses, and culture all concentrated into one specific area. With that being said, we can all agree that these things are important in order to make a city livable and preserve its diversity, residents, sidewalks, parks, and the sizes of its blocks. Everyone has their own opinion of what make a city livable. For instance, city planners also known as decentrist believe that the standard way of building a city was the right way of doing things. Their idea was to the centralize the city by endowing small towns. In the book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs, She introduces new principles in city planning and reconstruction. She believes that city planning isn't the conflict

Jacobs addresses the most common idea of city planning as beautification and questions the effect it has on restoring a neighborhood. Jacobs states “Handsome is as Handsome does. All that glitters are not gold” (Jacobs 15). As much as the city can be beautified and full of parks and land it does not make up for the needs of the people. Jacob provides the example of a housing project and a lawn; Everyone in the housing project was upset and seem to have an opinion on having a lawn, when someone finally asked why and bothered to listen to the people, they realized that the people wanted a space to come together but unfortunately no one had bothered to ask.

Traffic flow will be greatly increased during commuting hours especially. Going from two to three lanes is a 50% increase. This combined with the other promoted alternative forms of transportation such as buses, bicycling, and walking will all help to reduce congestion and extend the lifespan of the current transportation infrastructure.

The book describes diversity as the differences that exist among different people. There are many illustrations of diversity in the book by

In Jane Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” she pays special attention to sidewalks and sidewalk safety. As the title says, she spent her time writing about urban cities filled with strangers. Jacobs, knowing that there are more strangers than acquaintances in the vast cities, specified three qualities that must be present in a safe space. First, there must be distinct boundary between public and private space. Second, there must be “eyes on the street.” Finally, the sidewalk must be used continuously to ensure the streets are occupied (Jacobs 35). Although the qualities Jacobs describes are beneficial, there are many flaws that come with it.

Due to more cars on the road, traffic can be negatively affected and might result in congestion. It also leads to higher CO2 emission (Rogers, 2015).

The path of urban redevelopment and housing across nations emanated from the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the periodical periods of metropolitan mismanagement that subsequently followed. The urban landscape was altered and formed interchangeably to define both in meaning and shape of the metropolitan cities in the 20th century. Housing development, a subsequent factor of post-war destruction and urban renewal, different in shape and form from region to region, however, it precluded similar meanings of reconstructing national identity through the formation of new modern cities, fully separated from its past form. I argue that the failures of urban redevelopment and public housing in the United States greatly attributed to the persisting racial stigmatization and segregation. Meanwhile in Europe and in Asia, while racial stratification was present, the aspiration to demonstrate national scale modernization to a globally vigilant audience motivated its reconstruction.

New York is known for its skyscrapers; however, there is architectural diversity that does not only reflect major building projects, but