What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs (New Villiage Press, 2010) Jane Jacobs was one of the few voices in the wilderness of city planning against 1960s urban renewal and relentless freeway expansion. Her classic book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) is still the bible for progressive Urban Planners. Like many of her contemporaries she elevated public participation –but often without a strong enough reckoning of role the market economy. This allows her readers to find many details to support their own pre-conceived notions of what the good city would look like. This aside, Jacob was a wise and inspiring canary in the coalmine to the arrogance and abuse of the Redevelopment Agencies. Is she relevant today? In What We See, twenty-five writers say yes, then advance her observations in the realms of the environment, sustainability and the just metropolis. Some of the pieces are a little esoteric but most hit the mark, especially those from Deanne Taylor, Ray Suarez, and Hillary Brown and Chester Hartmann. The city of today is is constant flux as newer forms of redevelopment reinvent the built environment almost annually. This makes What We See an important collection for anyone who hasn’t given up on cities yet.
