The Death and Life of Great American Cities: Difference between revisions

The Death and Life of Great American Cities (view source)

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 It resonates with a series of other great books in adjacent fields over the last sixty years all of whom caution against executive, top-down direction networks of autonomous individuals who are better placed, motivated and incentivised to make executive decisions for themselves. Jacobs was there first, and she if she didn’t articulate [[complexity theory]], [[systems theory]] then she anticipated it with spooky, eerie accuracy. So read ''American Cities'' with {{br|Seeing Like a State}}, {{author|Charles Perrow}}’s {{br|Normal Accidents}} and {{author|Donella H. Meadows}}’ {{br|Thinking in Systems}} and you will have the bones of a grand unifying theory of everything.
+So, of the thundering, plainly right, observations Jacobs makes are these:
+*The streets, and not the buildings, are the vital part of the city, whcih is largely comprised of people when you can see them. When they’re in their houses, from the city dynamic they’re largely out of circulation;
+*
+If, like me, you prefer your books on the go, buy with confidence, by the way: Penguin’s 50th anniversary audiobook is beautifully narrated by Donna Rawlins.
 {{sa}}