Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems. Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance.
Jane JacobsRead
(The psuedoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate empiric failure and ignore empiric success.)
Interpretation
What this quote means
Planning should learn from success rather than rigidly adhere to past failures.
This quote by Jane Jacobs critiques the tendency of certain planning practices to obsessively replicate mistakes from the past instead of drawing insights from successful outcomes. It suggests that an effective approach to planning should prioritize empirical evidence of success rather than neurotically focusing on past failures.
Themes
PlanningSuccessFailureEmpiricalNeurotic
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on urban development, this quote can be used to inspire participants to focus on successful case studies.
More from Jane Jacobs
All quotes βIt may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things do work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give. If so, there is little hope for our cities or probably for much else in our society. But I do not think this is so.
Jane JacobsRead
Streets and their sidewalks-the main public places of a city-are its most vital organs.
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Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel together. The combination is not coincidental.
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This is what a city is, bits and pieces that supplement each other and support each other.
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This is something everyone knows: A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe.
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