In this section, we're going
to talk about
the most famous name in urbanism.
If there's one urbanist that we all know,
it's Jane Jacobs.
Without a doubt,
Jane Jacobs has had the biggest impact
on the urban planning
and adjacent
fields related to cities
from the last 60 years.
I, like many of you,
were exposed to her work, The Death
and Life of Great American Cities,
and felt changed by the experience
It was inspiring,
not only because of her way of writing,
but also because of her ability
to connect with other people in the city.
Who are not specialists
in urbanism fields.
Jane Jacobs
herself
was not a proper urbanist
by our definition.
She had no formal training
and yet she is widely considered
the most knowledgeable expert
on human behavior,
especially in public spaces.
I'm sure if you look at your bookshelf
Jane Jacobs is there, and indeed
she is one of the 19% of female authors
in the subject that I refer to and love
and hold in great esteem within urbanism.
One of Jane's most influential quotes is
Cities have the capability of providing
something for everybody only
because and only
when they are created by everybody.
Everybody probably knows of this quote,
but what does it actually mean?
I think it's helpful
for us to take a step back
and think about Jane Jacobs,
her work, her legacy, her incentive
and her impact through this lens.
Of gender equity
in our urban environments.
I want you to stop for a minute
and think of the most powerful
man, you know,
somebody who has influenced
the places around you,
maybe your personal life,
maybe the country itself.
Somebody who has gotten to where they are
by sheer grace of goodness
and now has control over some part of
your life as a citizen.
Now, imagine that person was not elected.
Imagine that person
somehow arrived in that position
and was not held accountable
for their actions
as they carried out
whatever it is that they wanted to do.
And then imagine a woman,
someone who decided
to stand up against that behemoth,
put their foot down and say no.
I'm talking,
of course,
about the story of Jane Jacobs
and Robert Moses.
It's fairly
well known
and the general storyline is understood.
But I think that we do a disservice
in representing
this is simply a David and Goliath story.
And instead
should think of it as a gender story.
If Jane Jacobs had been another man,
we may not actually be talking about it
in the same way that we are today.
And again, it's incredibly important
to understand
that one of the most influential
works of literature and urbanism
was, in fact, written by a woman.
I think this is
a fact that
we don't celebrate often enough
And so I'd like to revisit this story
through this lens at this time.
Robert Moses was very influential
because of his position in society
much like the God Kings of Old.
He put himself in a position of power
and had around him
a team of individuals
that respected his opinion
his relationship to other individuals
and power above him
also prevented him
from being punished for his actions
because of this.
Robert Moses
thought of the city as a plaything,
as something that he could look down to
from above and negotiate at his own whim.
That kind of machismo or bravado
and an understanding that you
yourself can be an expert in
this position is pretty absurd.
I think we can all understand
that this kind of power
should not be left to one individual
when it comes to a city,
especially one as complex
as New York City.
But it wasn't until this exact event
that we really, truly
understood the kind of power
that some people could wield
to the detriment of others.
The most famous of his projects
was the Crosstown Expressway.
This was a proposal to run a highway
through Lower Manhattan,
and this is where Jane Jacobs
became greatly involved
in urbanism, beyond
what she had written
before as a citizen
in a lively neighborhood in Manhattan.
Jane Jacobs had already done
observations of different kinds
of subcultures,
much in the same way
that an anthropologist
looks at cultures today.
Through these observations,
she understood what it means
to have a vital neighborhood,
what it means to have social cohesion,
to know your neighbors
and to have a sense of ownership
over the built environment.
From that grass roots perspective
at the time,
the modern construct of a highway
was seen as innovative.
It was a peak of efficiency.
It was something modern to be lauded.
And any kind of destruction
that went with
it was for the betterment of the good.
The era of the car
was the dominant idea
of an urban environment.
There was an understanding
that more space
had to be taken up for cars
to have a more efficient experience
in the city.
Still, comparatively new
highways were seen as innovative.
An expressway through the city
would be efficient.
The most direct route from A to B.
Robert Moses did not care
that this highway
would have destroyed neighborhoods.
He did not mind that it would have
completely done away
with a thriving neighborhood park.
Jane Jacobs experience on the ground
gave her
an understanding
of that kind of community nature
that a city really needs
to have to thrive.
And she was able to position
this argument in a very specific way.
Washington Square Park at the time
did have a road going through it.
Jane Jacobs
latched on to this idea
of taking away cars from a park
that was really seen
as a vital play space
for the neighborhood's children
as she mostly walked
and biked throughout the city.
She again
intrinsically
without professional education
or anything of the sort, understand
the human nature on the ground,
face to face.
At that slower speed.
Jane saw the value
of arguing
for this important public space
on behalf of vulnerable populations
around it.
When they were protesting,
they decided to feature children
in that protest
as major users of this park
in particular.
Jane coordinated
the protests of local women,
especially mothers, to bring out buggies
and to invite their children
along to play games and have exercises
demonstrating the potential
and importance
of this park in particular.
And Jane Jacobs
was incredibly adept
at getting cameras out
in front of these problems.
Unfortunately,
this project did go through
and other parts of New York City,
especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods
that were unable
to have the same kind of impact
on their protest sites.
These neighborhoods in the Bronx
were not spared destruction,
and the expressway was built
like in many other cities,
completely dividing neighborhoods
and separating
vulnerable populations
from necessary city services.
This kind of segregation
was forced upon neighborhoods
especially of people of color for decades
without any kind of engagement,
without any kind of understanding
of the community's needs.
Or voice or preferences.
These projects were pushed through
by people like Robert Moses
and others and other cities
across the country.
But the work that Jane did
to prevent Washington
Square Park
and Lower Manhattan
from having the same fate
is still incredibly important.
And it was her qualitative experience
of looking at people in the city
that allowed that to happen.
She was no doubt influenced by her friend
Margaret Mead,
an anthropologist at the time
who focused on
cultural areas in Southeast Asia.
Margaret Mead is a huge inspiration to me
as a contemporary
to Jane Jacobs, in part
because she's an anthropologist,
but also because of her
sheer determination
to make things better for everyone.
One of Margaret Mead's most famous
quotes was Never doubt
that a small group
of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has
Jane's influence
went on to include her
new home of Toronto and Canada,
where she also stopped a highway
from happening in her neighborhood.
You can still see the memorial today
where the construction
had already started,
and yet she was able
to change the minds of the people
in power there, too.
Today, Washington
Square Park is a thriving
neighborhood, public space.
It has all of the elements
of a good public space.
Water features, places to sit A diversity
of locations
out in front and tucked away.
And it still even acts as a place
for protest.
Today,
this protest in particular,
was actually for Vision Zero.
In the last few years in New York City,
I don't think that it's a stretch to say
that this kind of protest and advocacy
towards zero
pedestrian deaths on our street
can be directly correlated
to Jane Jacobs focus and intense ferocity
for people first
in our urban environments.
But going back to that,
Jane Jacobs quote,
I want to give you another one.
This one to me is my absolute favorite
I think it really speaks
to her qualitative experience
on the ground.
But also,
I think it speaks more to her ideology
and the reason behind the kind of work
she was doing at the time.
You can't prescribe decently
for something you hate.
It will always come out wrong.
You can't prescribe decently
for something you despair in.
If you despair in humankind,
you're not going to have good policies
for nurturing human beings.
I think people ought
to give prescriptions
who have ideas for improving things
or to concentrate
on the things that they love
and that they want to nurture.
In this way,
Jane Jacobs is not only standing
up against Robert Moses
and his top down development
that has no consideration
of the impact of the lives
of the people on the ground,
but Jane Jacobs is speaking
aspirationally about us
as a collective species
and our place in these cities
that we have built for ourselves
and for each other.
Jane Jacobs truly loved her city,
but she really loved
the people
that lived around there with her.
She understood that you needed
that kind of compassion for other people
in order to be successful.
This was what Robert Moses did not have
that compassion
for the other people around him
in that city
that he shared
with a lot of other people.
We'll talk a little bit more about that
at a later cause,
but for now,
we're going to follow up this section
with some examples of other women
that have taken this ideal to heart.
Women who have understood
what Jane Jacobs was about,
the work that she was
really doing on the ground,
and how to bring that into
the contemporary city.