On Jane Jacobs

I think I have learned about Jane Jacobs before, but basically forgot about her until she was discussed in class on Monday. I LIKE HER. from what I heard in class, she sounds like she advocated a style of zoning/planning that I like and was trying to advocate in my first blog post. Her idea of a sort of laissez- faire, libertarian attitude towards zoning, that would just let the city develop on its own, and on its own would great dense and diverse communities, is one that I really like. You should just let the city grow as it and its people want it to over time, and the end result will be a very unique and varied condition. There may be problematic issues that arise, but then the community should simply edit itself. Pruning and trimming and mowing the lawn. I think that the government should impose some basic rules and guidelines, like rules for fire-safety and such, and say don't put a porno shop next to a school, things like that, but beyond that, specifics should be set out. Does that make sense? At the end of the lecture on Jane Jacobs we discussed reasons why her plan for no planning wasn't as perfect as she thought and reasons why it wouldn't really work other places. I think basically it was what she liked was just her rich white lady neighborhood, and simply letting areas be themselves wouldn't produce similar results in other locations, because there was a very specific set of circumstances that led the the development of her neighborhood as she liked it? now I'm thinking that maybe her ideal neighborhood and the one in which she lived were very different, and her ideal one never really existed? I should look into her more. Anyway, I think that any sort of attitude and method toward planning is not going to be perfect and have problems, but I still think that the libertarian approach is best. Have a libertarian attitude towards planning in all places, and you will see as a result vastly differing neighborhoods and cities with varying densities and lots of diversity... and if something undesirable develops, simply trim it out. I like this train of thought, but I am worried it sounds like nonsense... I should refine this idea and use it in my policy paper...