« Bucking the Trend | Main | Firefighting: A Public Good? »
Monday, August 31, 2009
Jane Jacobs and Gentrification
In a recent review of Anthony Flint’s book on Jane Jacobs (Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs took on New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City), Jason Epstein* argues that Jacobs has had a remarkable effect on urban planning and development in North America. Her triumph over Robert Moses and James Felt (New York planners who wanted to build an expressway through the heart of Lower Manhattan) shifted that city’s focus from epic infrastructure projects, especially for cars, to the preservation of mixed-use neighborhoods, replete with multiple housing types, mixed commercial and industrial properties, and accessible streets that organically connected citizens and structures alike. However, as Epstein concedes, this preference for preservation over slum clearance came at a cost:
The West Village was saved, but as with all victories, unintended consequences ensued. Clarence Davies, a Felt ally and head of the Housing and Redevelopment Board that
replaced [Moses's] Committeeon Slum Clearance wrote ... "that if the Village area is left alone and if no middle-income housing is projected by the Board ... eventually the Village will consist solely of luxury housing, which we, of course, will be powerless to prevent ... This trend is already quite obvious and would itself destroy any semblance of the present Village that [Jacobs and her allies] seem so anxious to preserve."
The term was not yet in use but Davies had foreseen the gentrification that would within twenty years turn the Village into some of the most expensive real estate on earth. The mixed-income neighborhood of dockworkers and middle-class households and artists’ lofts that Jacobs championed would become the victim of its own charm. There would be little room for working-class families or struggling artists in the Greenwich Village that Jacobs fought to preserve. "Her vision of organic city growth," Flint writes, "would do little to curb gentrification."
Such unintended consequences remind me of
Vancouver, a city that likes to believe it has successfully
followed Jacobs’ vision. To a certain extent, it has
followed her advice, such as avoiding large freeways through the middle
of the city and encouraging (certain types of) people to live downtown.
For this, Jacobs did compliment the City of Vancouver. On the other
hand, the gentrification
of Vancouver is well documented, and Vancouver is now one of the
most expensive cities in North America. Like a planned forest, the
downtown peninsula is a mono-cultured farm of cookie-cutter condos with
no more than two bedrooms apiece. Many neighbourhoods appear devoid of 6
to 16 year olds. For working class and middle class people, the search
for a place to live almost inevitably leads to substandard housing or a
move to the suburbs. For families seeking three-bedroom anything,
it’s no longer a lifestyle choice; it’s simple mathematics... and goodbye.
The dialectic of urban development, therefore, produces winners and losers. I`m now in Chilliwack. You can guess which side I am on.
The dialectic of urban development, therefore, produces winners and losers. I`m now in Chilliwack. You can guess which side I am on.
..................
* Epstein, Jason (August 13, 2009), "New York: The Prophet." The New York Review of Books, Vol. 56, Issue 13: 33-35.
Posted by Colin Welch at 3:41 PM
Edited on: Thursday, September 24, 2009 4:50 PM
Categories: American Politics, BC Politics
Edited on: Thursday, September 24, 2009 4:50 PM
Categories: American Politics, BC Politics