Safety in Numbers

The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/books/25cnd-jacobs.html) article reporting the death of Jane Jacobs had this to say about her West Village neighborhood and lifestyle there:

“She puts out her garbage, children go to school, the drycleaner and barber open their shops, housewives come out to chat, longshoremen visit the local bar, teenagers return from school and change to go out on dates, and another day is played out. Sometimes odd things happen: a bagpiper shows up on a February night, and delighted listeners gather around. Whether neighbors or strangers, people are safer because they are almost never alone.”

How could someone imagine of bulldozing a neighborhood such as this? City planners often see unpleasant or older looking building and believe that they can improve upon it. That never seems to work; as Jacobs has tried to convey, people are what make the city, not the buildings or landscape. These people living their everyday lives and interacting with one another are what makes the city, New York in this case, what it is.

This neighborhood is diverse-there are people of all different professions, age groups, and probably ethnicities, that allow this neighborhood to function in this manner. The housing projects that Jacobs speaks out against are the downfall of our cities, and the origin of crime. There is no diversity, the people there are contained, and they are supplied with areas, such as parks, where there is no watching eye, no pedestrians to potentially stop them from committing crime.

So, maybe cities are something that should develop naturally. For hundreds of years they formed on their own, near resources, businesses and other people. Why do we now need to plan out how they will be set up when they have come about naturally for all this time?