On a recommendation by you-know-who, I've started reading The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. It shocks me that, although it was written in 1961, the utterly stupid ideas that it exposed STILL form the foundations of modern city planning, only moreso, on a horrendous scale.
And now history seems to have borne out her theories. The more we spread out into housing tracts and suburbs, the more difficult it becomes to raise civilized children and maintain order and peace. Our high-crime ghettos are no longer inner-city slums, but outer-city projects, and it only gets worse.
It's almost horrifying to read her descriptions of Los Angeles, the unique, bizarre city-less city, and realize that it has probably doubled in size and ridiculousness since the book was written.
While the book doesn't cure cancer or turn water into wine, it DOES make you want to run for City Council and clean up your town. In a nutshell, the idea is that modern city-planning separates and isolates people into totally-residential neighborhoods without any reason to leave your house except to get into your car, and no way to develop the casual acquaintances and network of familiar people that you develop on a healthy, bustling city street. The more isolated people, particularly children, are, the more difficult it is to socialize them, teach them civic responsibility, and prevent crime. The suburban model costs cities dearly in lost economy, in crime, and in a total loss of enjoyment and personality.
Anyway, it's a very entertaining and edifying read. So check out Card's next "serious" column (which addresses a lot of the same issues), and buy the book!
[ October 05, 2003, 10:48 AM: Message edited by: A Rat Named Dog ]
Posted by tancath (Member # 5769) on :
Hi, that was really interesting, even though I can't tell how true it is because I live in England. Still, it seems to me that city layouts are more a consequence of the present society rather than the cause for society problems. Why would anyone want to get out the house when they only just arrived from work? If think that part of the problem is that there is no one to look after the children anymore. It is the house wives who socialised during the day, livened an area by visiting one another, etc. Today, women have to work, which lives no one in those residential areas. Oh I don't know, really.