Jane Jacobs

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

There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.

Cities are full of friction and hassle, pressure and demands. What cities also contain, though, is opportunity and that is what makes the city exciting.

Cities are an immense laboratory of trial and error, failure and success, in city building and city design.

The trust of a city street is formed over time from many, many little public sidewalk contacts.

Lowly, unpurposeful, and random as they appear, sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a city's wealth of public life may grow.

Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.

A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe.

Under the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city.

The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.

Nobody can find the reason for this curious fact: the better the place, the less the need for a policeman.

No one can explain how a few people, walking from place to place, and passing time together, can transform a street. It's a mystery.