Jabatan Perancangan Bandar Dan Desa Semenanjung Malaysia ...

Jabatan Perancangan Bandar Dan Desa Semenanjung Malaysia
Kementerian Perumahan Dan Kerajaan Tempatan

Jane Jacobs, then chairperson of a civic
group in Greenwich Village, at a press
conference in 1961.
She was a strong critic of urban
renewal policies and urban
planning thought in the 1950’s
She observed street life and
neighborhoods in American
cities and made analysis of what
made a city work or did not work
She provided recommendations
on how government actions can
help a city regenerate and thrive

Cover of the book
The author Jane Jacobs
The book is written in 4 parts with 22 Chapters :
Part 1: The Peculiar Nature of Cities
Part 2: The Conditions for City Diversity
Part 3: Forces of Decline and Regeneration
Part 4: Different Tactics

PART ONE:
Sidewalks
Parks
Neighborhood

Sidewalks
Safety
Contact
Assimilating children
Sidewalks must be bordered by
buildings so that residents and
shopkeepers provide surveillance and
there will be people using the
sidewalks at all times, and parents can
keep an eye on children from windows

Neighborhood Park
When parks are not used they
become dangerous
A successful park is bordered by
buildings with people walking
through

Effective Neighborhoods
Lively and interesting streets
Continuous network
Parks,squares and public building

PART TWO : THE CONDITIONS FOR DIVERSITY
Diversity is vital for lively cities
A mixture and combination of
uses make up the diversity of
cities

Four conditions are necessary to
generate diversity in a city’s streets
and districts:

Districts with singular function
suffers from extreme time
imbalance among its uses.
An example she observed was
Lower Manhattan, New York
embracing Wall Street with its
financial, law and insurance
offices, the city municipal
offices, state and federal offices
and other work complexes.
During the day, especially at
lunchtime, the city is very
active. After five thirty and on
weekends, there is a deathlike
stillness and dullness.
There is inadequate eating
places, clothing shops, theatres
and other cultural opportunities.

Most effective would be having large
numbers of tourists at all times
New attractions which are attractive to
tourists would have to be planned
She suggested the regeneration of the
old waterfront, a marine museum, and
inexpensive opera and theatre, café and
restaurants

Blocks of buildings
must be short

The Self Destruction of Diversity
Prosperity or popularity
of a place does not last
forever
Duplication of most
profitable use, e.g.
restaurants, leads to
intense competition
The least competitive
closes down, leading to
stagnation and decline of
area
Deserted by people
looking for other uses
Solution to decline is to
deliberately zone the area
for other uses e.g. public
buildings

Border vacuums
refer to
developments
planned next to an
area for
infrastructure and
public facilities
such as railroad
tracks, waterfronts,
big-city university
campuses, express
ways, civic
centres, large
hospital grounds
and large parks

Resettling slums
requires great
amounts of public
money
Resettlement of
slums is just like
shifting the slums
from here to there
Sadly destroys the
neighborhoods
where constructive
and improving
communities exist

Gradual Money and Cataclysmic Money
Three principal kinds of money finance and shape most of
residential and business properties in cities.
First, is credit extended by conventional, nongovernmental
lending institutions
Second, money provided by the government
Third, money that comes from investment
Each does its part in financing city property changes
The kind of money for building upon and supplementing
what exists is gradual money, but this has been lacking
Cataclysmic money pours into an area in concentrated
form producing drastic changes, such as large-scale
clearance and rebuilding
To Jacobs, this is unacceptable as money for city building
should bring about continual, gentler change rather than
violent cataclysms.

Subsidizing dwellings
Attrition (reduction) of motor vehicles
Visual order: its limitations and possibilities
Salvaging projects
Governing and planning districts

Subsidizing dwellings
High population in cities. The poor
cannot afford adequate housing
Government has to take over
housing responsibility
Tenants pay subsidized rents, based
on income level
When incomes increase, tenants are
not asked to leave, but rents would
be adjusted
Let them own house gradually
As a result, diversity is enhanced by
them remaining

Attrition (reduction) of motor vehicles
Planning accommodates automobiles through street
widening, route changes and new bridges
Cities need multiplicity of choice of transportation because
centers of trade and commerce
Pedestrians and automobiles have to co-exist within cities
Widening sidewalks for pedestrians and reducing
roadbeds for automobiles automatically reduce car use
and traffic congestion

Visual order: its limitations and possibilities
Streets represent our visual views of
cities
They need some sort of visual
interruptions or they look like they
are endless
Introduce visual irregularities and
interruptions into the city scene with
art and historical buildings which is
synonym to the locality

Salvaging Project
Most urgent projects that need salvaging
are low income housing
Cities should hold their population through
lively, well-watched continuously used
public spaces allowing easier and natural
supervision of children
Inadequate mix-uses is precisely one of the
causes of deadness, danger and plain
inconvenience
Horizontal structures in city housing work
better than vertical structures for
supervision of children

Governing and Planning
Districts
The Authority members must deal with
large city populations and plan for
diversity and vitality
Planners must promote a continuous
network of local street neighborhoods
Users and informal proprietors can be
counted on to keep the public spaces of
the city safe, and in handling
strangers, and in keeping casual tabs on
children in places that are public

Jane Jacob’s view of city planning:
City planning, like the life sciences of biology and
medicine, deals with problems referred to as problems of
organized complexity
These problems involve numerous problems interrelated to
an organic whole
Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept and Le Corbusier’s
Radiant City vision are too simplistic to form the basis for city
planning
Planners need to have a better understanding of the working
and problems of the cities in order to help cities

Reviewing Jane Jacobs’ book has been a
challenging task
The contents are intensive and extensive, and
requires several readings for clarity
The book was written in the early 1960’s about
planning policies and practices in the 1950’s
taking place in large American cities, in
particular New York
Unfamiliarity with the time and the places make
it difficult to have a deeper understanding of the
issues involved

Jane writes passionately with intimate knowledge
of the cities and planning practices of that time
She analyzes the situation from different
viewpoints - social, economic, visual, political –
based on her diverse educational background
and work as a journalist
The book is highly recommended as it contains
many useful ideas on town planning and
development which is still relevant today as it
was fifty years ago.

the team:
lilian ho yin chan
kalsom yop mohd kasim
vikneswaren a/l jayasivam
noraziah abd aziz
norhayati abu bakar
azliza mohamed
norhasliza nazail
shahrin amir sharifuddin
azmi husien
yusnaim abd rani
fairulwati farok
sas2772@yahoo.com