“THE GENERATORS OF CITY DIVERSITY” BY JANE JACOBS Phạm Nguyên Thảo Student ID: 14510673775 Urban planning plays an important role in city life, especially in a dynamic economy and environment of the city nowadays. Because of the rise in number of crime, pollution, traffic jam,…, many cities are looking for new solutions to deal with these ever growing problems. In the past, many urban planners tried to create perfect cities to completely replace the old cities, for example Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City, or Le Corbusier’s Radiant City.
Nevertheless, recent planning has switched from strict building codes and grand schemes, to a more community-based approach that focuses on improving community life and the environment in which
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In the first condition, primary uses are those main uses which bring people to a specific place. Jane Jacobs stated that the intricate mingling of diverse use in city didn’t form chaos, but in contrast, they show a complicated and highly developed form of order. Jane Jacobs believed that when offices exist alongside residential, park, shop, a neighborhood is active in both day and night. These activities create safer street and the neighborhood park, and also offer more business opportunities. Just as neighborhood parks need people who are in the immediate vicinity for different purposes, most shops are dependent on people passing by during the day. If consumers are missing, businesses will disappear or never appear in the first place. Not only neighborhood businesses are dependent on the residents but they are also dependent on the people working in the neighborhood who contribute with their demand to the diversity of merchants and services. Jane Jacobs emphasized the significance of time spread using the example of the Wall Street district, which is suffering from extreme time unbalance among its users. During working hours, a considerable number of people visit the district mostly on office or government business. On evenings and weekends, however, office districts are dull and deserted. Jacobs regards all efforts to vitalize Lower Manhattan by attracting a residential population as inadequate and instead favors attracting tourists and visitors from the city using the district during their leisure time on evenings, Saturdays and Sundays when the district needs them most for time balance. Primary uses, such as offices, manufacturing plants, residences as well as leisure facilities should be combined in a way that people are around throughout the