It’s always a good day when the beloved Jane Jacobs gets mentioned in the news. The writer and urban observer has been getting her much deserved revival recently via a lush graphic novel and even an opera chronicling her legendary toppling of development dictator Robert Moses. With all this hype around Jacobs, it’s hard not to notice how much co-opting… Continue reading The Neoliberal Marginalization of Jane Jacobs
Tag: Jane Jacobs
Urbanicide: the Murder of Cities
“We wouldn’t have any American economy without the automobile business. That’s literally true. This is a great industry that has to go on and keep turning out more cars and trucks, and there have to be places for them to run – they’ll need more roads, and in order to get that done people are… Continue reading Urbanicide: the Murder of Cities
Would Space Aliens Think Cars Are the Dominant Species?
A colleague of mine recently asked me who came up with the line, “If aliens came to Earth, they’d probably think cars were the dominant life form.” I’d heard this line before, but had no clue who coined it. After about ten seconds of digging, I found this little gem of a remastered film from the… Continue reading Would Space Aliens Think Cars Are the Dominant Species?
‘Scorched Earth Urbanism’ and other Quasi-Satirical Street Vocabularies
When defining a new term, or redefining a marginalized term, it helps to define its converse. The word ‘sustainable’ has become such a meaningless marketing brand. If we’re going to take this one back from the PR firms we’ll need to draw a few lines. The opposite of ‘sustainable’ should be understood to be ‘terminal’.… Continue reading ‘Scorched Earth Urbanism’ and other Quasi-Satirical Street Vocabularies