More Jane Jacobs’ Philadelphia

The great Jane Jacobs, as we saw in our last post, had a lot to say about cities in general and Philadelphia in particular. We couldn’t resist sharing more:

On demolishing City Hall: “I’m glad they didn’t!” declared Jacobs in 1962. “That courtyard space is one of the most attractive things of its kind in any city I ever saw. More should be done with it, of course, though you don’t want anything chic or flossy or cutesy.”

“Philadelphia’s embrace of the new, after long years of apathy, has by some miracle not meant the usual rejection of whatever is old. When a city can carry on a love affair with its old and its new at once, it has terrific vitality.”

Jane Jacobs wrote that the new Independence mall was “embalming Independence Hall in its grand distances like a fly in amber” admitted that “the Hall is a fly in amber – whole, stimulating to the sense of wonder, but infinitely, infinitely remote.” And, she added, “the quaintsy lamps, urns and pedestals that irritate the mall’s edges are a pathetic try and concealing the joints between then-and-now, but the design that counts is the long, tree-lined vista which acknowledges the Hall is an exhibit that most people first view at 35 mph.” **Independence Mall, June 6, 1966 (PhillyHistory.org)**

“Mrs. Jacobs shook her head disapprovingly,” wrote Frederick Pillsbury of Jacobs’ reaction to Penn Center. Planners and urban renewal experts “have this notion of taking a superblock and spotting buildings on it” believing “that a development like this helps what’s around it.” But, she added, “it’s done nothing for the other side of the street. It’s an island instead of part of the continuing fabric.” **Penn Center Ice Skating, October 1963 (PhillyHistory.org)**

“I was sure she would pan the new, flying-saucer tourist center on the north side of the hall,” wrote *Bulletin* reporter Frederick Pillsbury, “but she surprised me. I like that,” she commented. “A little flashy, perhaps, but appropriate, and fun.”**Hospitality Center – 16th and Parkway. September 23, 1960 (PhillyHistory.org)**

“Mrs. Jacobs frowned,” wrote Pillsbury. “‘This is what happens when you start arranging cultural things,’” she said. “‘The library has no business being out here and neither do the Art Museum or the Franklin Institute. They belong right at the center of things. Thank God they didn’t move the Academy of Music out here! But I do like the fountains. Philadelphia should have more fountains like those.’” **Fountain, Logan Circle, April 13, 1949 (PhillyHistory.org)**

“We drove around Rittenhouse Square,” wrote Pilsbury. “This is nifty,” [Jacobs] said. “I’ve never seen it looking prettier. See how much more interesting it is than those big projects set off by themselves. But if it gets too popular and expensive it will be doomed. To keep it healthy you should have a variety of buildings and uses, as you have now, and a variety of people and ages.” **Rittenhouse Square – 18th and Walnut Streets, January 13, 1935 (PhillyHistory.org)**

“Downtown Philadelphia has dozens upon dozens of reborn blocks. This is an immensely healthy development, worth far more than the street widening and highway bisection which – in ignorance or in ruthlessness – help thwart such upgrading in many cities.”

“Hundreds of thousands of people with hundreds of thousands of plans and purposes built the city and only they will rebuild the city. All else can only be oases in the desert.”

“And still the deserts of the city have grown and still they are growing, the awful endless blocks, the endless miles of drabness and chaos.”

“Little good can happen to people or to buildings when a sense of neighborhood is missing.”

“The street works harder than any other part of downtown. It is the nervous system; it communicates the flavor, the feel, the sights. … Users of downtown know that downtown needs not fewer streets, but more, especially for pedestrians.”

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

Near 3rd and Spruce Streets Jacobs “looked over the first buildings of the Society Hill project. ‘I don’t ‘like them,’” she said of some new buildings in Society Hill, “They’re pretending to be something they’re not.”

Visiting 10th and Tasker Streets in South Philadelphia, Jacobs observed: “There were people sitting on front steps, talking out windows. Children played on the sidewalks under the eyes of neighbors and parents. There were corner stores. … ‘This looks healthy to me… This is much better than Society Hill will ever be. It’s the kind of area a city ought to cherish and respect. These people live here. The people who set policy for the city ought to listen to these people down here.’”

“Now this is nice!” [Jacobs] said at [Fitler Square] 23rd and Pine Streets. . . She settled back on the seat and lit a cigarette. ‘City zoning needs a complete overhaul,’ she said presently. ‘Look at this: stores and gardens spotted everywhere. They’re not standing in the way of rehabilitation, are they? There’s a whole fiction about what’s blighting. The planners haven’t looked and seen what city life is all about.'” **Fitler Park – 23rd and Pine Streets. January 21, 1947 (PhillyHistory.org)**

McKee's Alley, east of 1320 Lombard Street, February 27, 1930 (PhillyHistory.org) — “We cut down to Lombard Street and inspected its old, small houses, many recently fixed up, many, undergoing face-liftings. ‘Now this is important,’ Mrs. Jacobs said. ‘It’s not broken up with a lot of woozy open space.’ We had a glimpse of an inner courtyard through an open doorway. ‘That’s one of the wonderful things about Philadelphia,’ she said, ‘those little courtyards behind houses. Yet they flout every regulation about urban renewal.'” **McKee’s Alley, east of 1320 Lombard Street, February 27, 1930 (PhillyHistory.org)**

“We saw two of the city’s recent examples of urban renewal- simple two-story apartment houses with strips of green around them. Mrs. Jacobs said they showed ‘a great vacuum of thought.’ It was wrong, she said, to herd people of one income together, because you got too many similar problems in one place and too little variety.” **Tenth Street, Brown to Parrish Streets, December 4, 1959 (PhillyHistory.org)**

[Sources: [Jane Jacobs], “A Lesson in Urban Redevelopment: Philadelphia’s Redevelopment, A Progress Report,” Architectural Forum 103 (July 1955); Frederick Pillsbury, ”’I Like Philadelphia with some big IFs and BUTs.” An Interview with Jane Jacobs,” The Sunday Bulletin Magazine, June 24, 1962.]

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