Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs (75 page)

“cut off our sidewalks”
:
Matter
, pp. 67, 71. KentVillage, pp. 16–18, 23–24; see also Vicki Weiner, “Anthony Dapolito,” oral history interview, New York Preservation Archive Project, October 5, 1997.

“this brave, inquiring little boy”
: KentVillage, p. 23.

the plan
:
Matter
, p. 67.

“any demand of incidental play”
:
D&L
, p. 114.

“a mindless, routinized”
:
D&L
, p. 162.

“That’ll be too late”
:
Matter
, pp. 67, 71.

before they went in to see him
: Vicki Weiner, “Anthony Dapolito,” oral history interview, New York Preservation Archive Project, October 5, 1997.

“I knew at once”
: KentVillage, p. 18.

fourteen-block stretch
: John Sibley, “Two Blighted Downtown Areas Are Chosen for Urban Renewal,”
New York Times
, February 21, 1961.

$300,000
: Interview, Pierre Tonachel, who furnished me with “The City’s Request for a Survey: What It Means to All of Us,” by the Committee to Save the West Village, no date, as well as many other documents bearing on the West Village urban renewal struggle, including official documents, legal correspondence, clippings, neighborhood newsletters, and other materials related to the West Village and dating to 1961—hereafter “Tonachel papers.”

Elizabeth Squire
: Robert de Vaughan to John & Elizabeth Squire, February 15 and 26, 1961; deposition by Elizabeth Squire, April 26, 1961; Tonachel papers.

“disconnected the doorbell”
:
Dallas Morning News
, May 9, 1962.

The battle for the West Village
: Account built up from Tonachel papers; Flint, chapter 4;
Projects
, pp. 366–68;
Transatlantic
, pp. 146–60; Stern, Mellins, and Fishman,
New York
1960
, pp. 247–49; Frigand; Moser; Hock; KentVillage, pp. 18–21, 25–31; interviews, Ned and Jim Jacobs; see also Ned Jacobs, “Changing the World by Saving Place,”
Alternatives Journal
(summer 2002).

“kill this project entirely”
: Sam Pope Brewer, “Angry ‘Villagers’ to Fight Project,”
New York Times
, February 27, 1961.

“We are 100% for improvement”
:
West Village Newsletter
, no date, but before March 23, 1961, Tonachel papers.

“blighting influence”
:
Newsletter
, Department of City Planning, May 1961.

“less-than-desirable area”
: Patricia Fieldsteel, “Remembering a Time When the Village Was Affordable,”
Villager
, October 19–22, 2005.

“Who Says What Is a Slum?”
: John Crosby,
New York Herald Tribune
, March 13, 1961.

“generally high standards”
: Sam Pope Brewer, “Dudley Inspects Area in ‘Village,’ ”
New York Times
, March 21, 1961.

surveyed all fourteen blocks
: “Residential and Business Survey of the West Village,” March 1961, and “Housing Characteristics and Business Survey of the West Greenwich Village Area,” March 1961, Committee to Save the West Village, Tonachel papers.

“fundamentally as attractive”
: Daniel M. C. Hopping and Henry Hope Reed Jr. to James Felt, April 18, 1961, Tonachel papers.

“no romantic attitude”
: Bruno Zevi to Committee to Save the West Village, May 3, 1961, Tonachel papers.

This tack
: Amateau, “Jane Jacobs Comes Back”; Gratz,
The Battle for Gotham
, p. 87; KentVillage, pp. 26–27.

record sound levels
: KentVillage, pp. 10, 14. See also undated internal memo,
Architectural Forum
, noting that Jane “went so far as to produce an acoustical engineer who proved the West Village was quieter than Sutton Place,” HaskellPap, 80:5.

“nibbled to death by ducks”
: Interview, Pierre Tonachel.

“an action-packed montage”
: Nathan Silver, “Jane Jacobs for Example,”
Columbia Forum
(summer 1972): 47–49.

“unreal and almost dreamlike”
: “Report of the City Planning Commission on the Designation of the West Village Area,” October 18, 1961, p. 7.

“leaped from their seats”
: Edith Evans Asbury, “Plan Board Votes ‘Village’ Project; Crowd in Uproar,”
New York Times
, October 19, 1961.

“We were not violent”
: Edith Evans Asbury, “Deceit Charged in ‘Village’ Plan,”
New York Times
, October 20, 1961.

“a weary father”
:
Housing and Planning News
, February 1962, p. 1; see also Edith Evans Asbury, “Board Ends Plan for West Village,”
New York Times
, October 25, 1961; Martin Arnold, “Felt Set to Yield in ‘Village’ Fight,”
New York Times
, January 17, 1962.

“eleven months and ten days”
: Jane Jacobs, “The Citizen in Urban Renewal: Participation or Manipulation,” February 21, 1962, typescript, Burns.

“highly sophisticated and articulate”
: “Report of the City Planning Commission on the Designation of the West Village Area,” October 18, 1961, p. 8.

“discovered beauty”
: Abe [Abraham E. Kazan], of United Housing Foundation, to James Felt, December 18, 1961, Goldstone Papers, New York Municipal Archives.

“whipped up this book”
: Books and Authors Luncheon.

“As long as it couldn’t be avoided”
: Wachtel, p. 53. See also
Matter
, p. 82: “Fights like these are an outrageous imposition on the time and resources of citizens,” eased only by having “a bang-up good time in the process, and a satisfying vengeance against the rascals at the end.”

West Village Houses
: The brochure was titled “The West Village Plan for Housing”; see also
Transatlantic
, pp. 187–91, 208–12; Stern, pp. 249–51; interviews, Pearl Broder, Katy Bordonaro.

“This will show”
: Jerome Zakowsky, “Villagers Want 5-Tier Walkups to ‘Save’ Area,”
New York Herald Tribune
, May 6, 1963.

“Revolutionary in its modesty”
: Nichols.

Jane and Betty had inhabited
: But in a letter to Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, July 12, 2000, Burns, 1, Jane writes, “There was nothing wrong with the building on Orange St. that couldn’t have been fixed with installation of a small elevator,” as her next apartment, on Morton Street, had been.

“well-publicized ‘victory’ ”
: “Analysis and Comments on the West Village Plan for Housing,” anonymous report, n.d., City Planning Commission Papers, New York City Municipal Archives.

Jane’s “in fill”
: JJ to Ned [Jacobs], February 11, 2002, Burns: “An unwritten basic point…was that we hoped this infill method would teach the city a new and better way to build housing—but its Dreadful Big Thinkers were too dumb or bloody-minded or both to learn.”

were a going industry
: Intradepartmental memorandum from Theodore Berlin to Samuel Joroff, “Survey of West Village Housing Proposal Area,” November 18, 1964, Ballard Papers, City Planning Commission, New York City Municipal Archives.

“conceived in utmost secrecy”
: “Analysis and Comments on the West Village Plan for Housing,” anonymous report, n.d., City Planning Commission Papers, New York City Municipal Archives.

“startling and frightening”
: Jeanne Godwin, “Tenement House Revival,”
Co-op Contact
, newsletter, ca. 1963, Commissioner Goldstone Papers, New York Municipal Archives.

“the most incredible proposal”
: Frank S. Kristof, Intradepartmental Memorandum, “The West Village Plan for Housing—Some Questions,” June 25, 1963, Housing and Redevelopment Board, New York City Municipal Archives.

“classic example of conflict”
: Philip Will Jr. to William Ballard, November 9, 1964, Commissioner Goldstone Papers, New York Municipal Archives.

“a determined lot”
: William F. R. Ballard to Philip Will, November 16, 1964, Commissioner Goldstone Papers, New York Municipal Archives.

“plain brick buildings”
: West Village Houses, writes Michael Sorkin in “Two Critics,” “fits unobtrusively within the intimate weave of its surroundings. It’s a model piece of urbanism because of this careful integration.”

CHAPTER 16: LUNCHEON AT THE WHITE HOUSE

“their patience”
: JJ to Jason Epstein, January 9, 1961, Random House Papers, ColumbiaRare.

“so clear even for us”
: Noriaki Kurokawa to JJ, July 10, 1963, and JJ reply, July 30, 1963, Burns, 1:14.

The street crime Americans
: Interview, Toshiko Adilman.

“ ‘Plans Agley’ ”
: JJ to Tom Maschler, March 29, 1962, Burns, 1:14.

Harvard Graduate School of Design
: Laurence, “Contradictions and Complexities,” p. 59.

“some real news for you”
: JJ to Mrs. Butzner, postmarked June 7, 1964, Burns, 23:6. Jane also wrote brother John with the news of what she called her “mysterious errand—the first meeting of President Johnson’s task force on the Preservation of Beauty! I do not like to take the time, but I am curious about it [and] it is hard to refuse without being churlish,” JJ to John and Pete, July 28, 1964, Decker Butzner papers.

“really appreciate, honey”
:
Matter
, p. 22.

“amenity”
:
Matter
, p. 59.

“I wanted to talk sense”
:
Matter
, p. 22.

forty-one-year-old Diane Arbus
: Richard Soren, “Jane Jacobs on Diane Arbus,” Q&A interview edited for unknown publication, Burns, 43:6. The photo appeared in the July 1965
Esquire.

“As you know”
: JJ to Peter Blake memo, March 29, 1962, HaskellPap.

“all of her best energies”
: Chadbourne Gilpatric memo, February 8, 1962, Rockefeller.

“It became evident to me”
: “Jacobs Tape,” Burns, 22:5.