Fifty years after its publication , Death and Life of Great American Cities is , according to the New York Times, "probably the most influential book in the history of urban planning." Jane Jacobs , a columnist and critic of architecture of the early sixties , argued that the diversity and vitality of cities were being destroyed by some very influential architects and planners .
Popular not only among professionals, the book is a strong critique of the urban renewal policies of the fifties , which destroyed communities and created isolated , unnatural urban spaces. Jacobs defends abolishing zoning regulations and the restoration of free land markets , which would result in dense , mixed-use neighborhoods. Often cites the New Yorker Greenwich Village as an example of a dynamic urban community. Rigorous , lucid and delightfully epigrammatic , Death and Life is a program in humani...read more
