By Michael Astor
With massive glass towers rising to crowd Manhattan’s skyline and chain stores and bank branches littering every corner below, Greenwich Village stands out as an oasis in a sea of uniformity. But a slew of development projects nibbling at the Village’s edges are threatening the neighborhood’s special character.
Rezoning plans are going ahead in Soho, Noho and Chinatown. Developers are demolishing sections of nine landmarked buildings on Ninth Avenue and 14th Street to make way for a luxury tower. The Landmarks Preservation Commission recently approved plans to destroy a pair of 170-year-old buildings within the Greenwich Village Historic District. And it’s not likely to end there.
That’s why it’s a good time to look back at the last time Greenwich Village faced such an existential threat. It’s also an excellent time to remember Jane Jacobs (1916-1996) and the lessons outlined in her 1961 book, The Death and Life of American Cities—a seminal work that transformed the way people thought about cities.
Her vision looked a lot like the view from her second-story window just upstairs from a candy shop on 555 Hudson Street where she lived for over 20 years. She saw the easy socializing happening on the stoops and street corners around her as the key to the city’s success.
Jacobs’ views put her in direct opposition to the dominant urban planning philosophy of the day with its enthusiasm for Le Corbusier-style high rises and central planning. Her views also earned her the enmity of Robert Moses who wanted to run a road through Washington Square Park.
Jacobs seemed an unlikely firebrand, with her sneakers, thick-rimmed glasses and common sense bangs. Still, in 1961, Jacobs was part of a group of protesters who were removed from a City Planning Commission hearing by police. In 1968, she spearheaded opposition to Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway that designated much of the West Village as a slum, slating it for demolition. This time her protest got her arrested.
Jacobs argued that areas that were, in the 1950s and 1960s, being called slums were actually complex human ecosystems teeming with life. The sheer number of people on the street and the apartment’s proximity to the ground helped keep the area safe. By contrast, the playgrounds and parks around the high-rise tower blocks put up to replace the slums were mostly deserted. People felt isolated by the large impersonal buildings. With little sense of ownership, they were often vandalized and quickly fell into disrepair.
Jacobs believed economic diversity, a mix of buildings serving different functions, low rises that let people interact with life on the street and shorter blocks all lead to better cities. It is a testament to Jacobs’ vision that even as Greenwich Village has evolved into one of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods, it has managed to remain a vibrant community. Let’s learn from Jacobs’ vision and keep it this way.
Michael Astor is a documentary filmmaker and member of the Jane Jacobs Statue Campaign.
