Jane Jacobs and the Cosmopolitan Metropolis

Abstract

Since the death of Jane Jacobs in 2006 there has been a long list of tributes and retrospective evaluations of her work. This essay joins in the retrospection and questions the influence of Jacobs on actual metropolitan development as opposed to writing and talking about metropolitan development. The essay argues that most metropolitan residents have not shared Jacobs’s enthusiasm for diverse, dense, eyes-on-the-street, sidewalk-oriented residential life but instead have gravitated to suburbs, high-rise condominiums, or bland gentrified neighborhoods. Residents have preferred peace and tranquility over vitality and have zoned their lives, maintaining separate physical spheres for home, work, and amusement. The fascination of the great cosmopolitan metropolis is not the diversity and vitality that exists within each block and within walking distance of each residence. Instead, the greatness of the cosmopolitan metropolis is that it encompasses the full range of diverse zones of endeavor and life, all linked by modern means of transportation.