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
Streets and their sidewalks-the main public places of a city-are its most vital organs.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Public spaces like streets and sidewalks are essential for the life of a city.
In this quote, Jane Jacobs emphasizes the critical role that streets and sidewalks play in the vibrancy and functionality of urban environments. She suggests that these public spaces are not just pathways for transportation but are vital organs that foster interaction, community, and the overall health of a city.
Themes
CityPublic SpacesStreetsSidewalksUrban Life
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about urban planning, this quote could illustrate the importance of pedestrian-friendly design.
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
(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
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.
Jane JacobsRead
Similar quotes
New York is a city with virtually no habitable public space - only private spaces expensively maintained within the general disaster.
John UpdikeRead
You are not here to please other people or to live your lives their way. You can only live it your own way and walk your own pathway. You have come [here] to fulfill yourself and express love on the deepest level. You are here to learn and grow... When you leave the planet... the only thing you take is your capacity to love!
Louise HayRead
My mother was the concert master of the symphony. Absurdity and eccentricity were not criticized.
Martin ShortRead
This is the city, and I am one of the citizens/Whatever interests the rest interests me
Walt WhitmanRead
One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.
Bertrand RussellRead
It would be nonsense to say that it was not in the interests of a stone to be kicked along the road...A stone has no interests because it cannot suffer. The capacity for suffering and enjoyment is, however, not only necessary, but also sufficient for us to say that a being has interests - at an absolute minimum, an interest in not suffering. A mouse, for example, does have an interest in not being kicked along the road because it will suffer if it is.
Peter SingerRead