Respond of Jane Jacobs’ Book Essay

Today, the urban development is characterized by the growing extension of cities and efforts of city architectures and developers to introduce clear and effective system, which help to expand cities and organize the city life effectively. However, this planning often leads to the disorganization of local communities and Jane Jacobs is very critical in regard to the contemporary city development arguing that it has a negative impact on the community development and normal social relationships.
In fact, Jane Jacobs raises a very important problem – the problem of the negative impact of the contemporary urban development on communities and the life of people. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that Jane Jacobs’ criticism is justified because the contemporary city development and city life makes community disintegrated, while each individual lives his or her own life. In spite of living within a city along with millions other people, individuals often feel lonely and isolated, moving through the city as a sort of machines from home to their work and back from their work to home. In such a context, changing the contemporary city development, it is possible to refer to the experience of the past. In this regard, the study conducted by D.M. Reynolds may be very helpful because it helps to learn the past experience of city development, when the community was more integrated than today. Reynolds stands on the ground that the past experience of the US cities may be helpful for the development of contemporary cities. The development of cities oriented on the traditional community life may contribute to the improvement of social life.