What’s Next for Jane Jacobs' Sidewalk Ballet?

Author and activist Jane Jacobs argued that cities thrive when they mingle “everyday diversity of uses and users in its everyday streets.”

Nestled in the heart of a bustling city is Unity Avenue, a vibrant street teeming with life. It's early morning, and the sunlight washes unevenly over a diverse mixture of new and old buildings ↕, some graffiti-sprayed and worn out by the ravages of time.

The problem is to hamper excess duplications at one place, and divert them instead to other places in which they will not be excess duplications, but healthy additions. The other places may be at some distance, or very close by indeed. But in any case they cannot be fixed on arbitrarily. They must be places where the use concerned will have an exce

... See more