Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems. Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance.
Jane JacobsRead
This is something everyone knows: A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A bustling city street fosters safety through community presence, while deserted streets tend to harbor danger.
Jane Jacobs emphasizes the importance of active urban spaces in promoting safety. When a street is busy with people, it creates a sense of community and vigilance that naturally deters crime. Conversely, a deserted street lacks this dynamic social interaction, making it more susceptible to unsafe behaviors and events. The underlying argument suggests that urban design and human presence are critical in ensuring safety in cities.
Themes
SafetyUrbanCommunityCrimeDesign
In practice
Example use cases
In a neighborhood watch meeting, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of community engagement.
More from Jane Jacobs
All quotes βIt may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things do work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give. If so, there is little hope for our cities or probably for much else in our society. But I do not think this is so.
Jane JacobsRead
Streets and their sidewalks-the main public places of a city-are its most vital organs.
Jane JacobsRead
(The psuedoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate empiric failure and ignore empiric success.)
Jane JacobsRead
Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel together. The combination is not coincidental.
Jane JacobsRead
This is what a city is, bits and pieces that supplement each other and support each other.
Jane JacobsRead
Similar quotes
Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?
Haruki MurakamiRead
Essential characteristics of a gentleman: The will to put himself in the place of others; the horror of forcing others into positions from which he would himself recoil; and the power to do what seems to him to be right without considering what others may say or think.
John GalsworthyRead
I realised that if I wished to write about the dark and not allow for hope, people would recognise it as false - because hope is the nub of what we are.
Richard FlanaganRead
Spirituality is recognizing the divine light that is within us all. It doesn't belong to any particular religion; it belongs to everyone
Muhammad AliRead
However strong, however imposing a ship may appear, it is not 'disgraced' because it flies before the tempest. A commander ought always to remember that a man's life is worth more than the mere satisfaction of his own pride. In any case, to be obstinate is blameable, and to be wilful is dangerous.
Jules VerneRead
Space ails us moderns: we are sick with space.
Robert FrostRead