WWJJD: What Would Jane Jacobs Think Of Green Building In New York City Circa Now?

If you dabble in urbanism even a little bit, you know who Jane Jacobs is. I write this with conviction, because I only dabble in urbanism a little bit, and I know who Jane Jacobs is. But for most of us — or at least for me — the actual outlines of who Jane Jacobs is and what her legacy means are fairly vague. I know her as the opposite... [read more]

Two responses to the terrorism question

<!--break--> Both the New York response and the Washington response to security threats just happen to be on display in the same week ... The New York response to terrorism has been "see something, say something." These were the words that the T-shirt vendor who alerted a mounted police officer of the smoking SUV told reporters as he... [read more]

Interview with Anthony Flint, Author of “Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on America’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City”

<!--break--> Anthony Flint, author of “Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City” (Random House, 2009), is director of public affairs at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a think tank in Cambridge, Mass. A journalist for 20 years, primarily at The Boston Globe, he... [read more]

Chicago: Lewis Mumford on Daniel Burnham

<!--break--> Lewis Mumford’s The City in History is one of the all time great books on cities. Published in 1961, it is contemporary with Jane Jacob’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” Both of these are landmark works, and are also rhetorically magnificent. It makes me think back to the early 1600’s when the formative... [read more]

Hiking through Arlington County

<!--break--> Last weekend I hiked along the Appalachian Trail in the Shenandoah National Park, and this weekend I hiked the Arlington corridor, outside of Washington D.C., from Ballston to Rosslyn. These are both beautiful places in very different ways. It seems like everyone in the country is watching Ken Burn’s series on the... [read more]