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CREDENTIALS_JANE_JACOBS

                                             October 24, 2015
                                             November 6, 2015
                                             
                                             CREDENTIALS
                                                                                       

But let's go even further into the outside,
consider the case of Jane Jacobs.

Jane Jacobs masterwork was "The Death and Life of Great
American Cities", a book published in 1969 which presented
some critical insights in urban design. Briefly: cities
work best when regions are shared by a diverse range of
people, using them for different purposes at different
times-- so high densities and short blocks without
single-purpose zoning are all key.

Jane Jacobs was one of the first to point out that there
were severe problems with both the trends toward suburbia
and the "urban renewal" game-- which involved calling
functional neighborhoods "slums" and replacing them with
phenomenally non-functional "housing projects": or
destroying hundreds of small businesses to replace them
with with gigantic institutions that take up entire city
blocks.

                                                              JANE_JACOBS
As I've said before: "Jacobs was not a Professor of
Urbanity, or an employee of the Department of
Demarcation, or some such thing.  Jane Jacobs was just
herself: An unaffiliated, uncompromised intellect."

This is a case where an intelligent, untrained outsider did a
better job than the insiders, almost certainly *because* she
was an outsider. Sometimes the outsider perspective is just
what's needed.

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