Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs (79 page)

“We have determined at last”
: Robert Kanigel,
On an Irish Island
(New York: Knopf, 2012), p. 223.

CHAPTER 23: WEBS OF TRUST

At one session
: Taped, courtesy Roberta Gratz.

a cozy summertime community
: Interviews, Toshiko Adilman, Jim Jacobs, Caitlin Broms-Jacobs, Alan Littlewood; photos and map provided by Ms. Adilman.

One summer day
: Teleky; interview, Karen Reczuch.

“Thinking about a useful life”
:
Girl
, p. 33.

“enchanting”
: Erik Wensberg to JJ, May 4, 1989, Burns, 6:4.

was scarcely reviewed
: “Not a first choice,” wrote Maryleah Otto in
CM Archive
17, no. 4 (July 1989).

“But the Sasquatch is imaginary”
:
Girl
, p. 48.

Hannover, West Germany
: See
Matter
, p. 87.

“like an international merchant”
:
Matter
, p. 87. See also
Ethics
, pp. 6, 222; Jane Jacobs, “The Responsibilities of Cities,” Queen’s Lecture, Amsterdam, September 1984, Burns, 13:1.

“times of terrible piracy”
:
Matter
, p. 163. See also Warren, p. 6.

in very great time
:
Systems
, p. 218, note for chapter 2. See also Alexander and Weadick; Warren, p. 7.

That’s the guardian at work
: “Eisenhower said, no, no, we never sent any spy planes over Russia,” Jane told Claire Parin in a May 1999 interview [Burns, 22:32], yet there it was, the wreckage of a U2 spy plane the Soviets had shot down, for all the world to see. “And nobody minded because after all that was for National Security…A totally different point of view about the value of honesty in these situations.”

“not one over-riding system”
:
Ethics
, p. 211.

“As Machiavelli understood”
:
Systems
, p. 72.

“My characters”
:
Systems
, p. 13.

“I’ve become disturbed”
:
Systems
, p. 4.

“questions, answers, second thoughts”
:
Matter
, p. 161.

“It went over my head”
: JJ interview with Peter Gzowski, May 18, 1993, Burns, MS1995_029_CS08_REF.

“saved myself a lot of work”
: Warren, p. 9.

imagined as a blend
: JJ to a reader, July 6, 1998, Burns, 1:6.

“like talking to a pillow”
: Interview, Margie Zeidler.

“were happy to seize the argumentative bit”
:
Matter
, p. 161,

“Where the Mafia most resembles”
:
Systems
, p. 94.

Mafia conclave
: Account drawn from
Systems
, pp. 94, 175; JJ interview with Peter Gzowski, May 18, 1993, Burns, MS1995_029_CS08_REF.

“Well, it is all true”
: JJ to mother, February 11, 1970, Burns, 4:9.

“A brilliant exploration”
:
Matter
, p. 162.

“a very cold look”
: Alan Ryan, “Cautionary Tales,” review of
Systems of Survival
,
New York Review of Books
, June 24, 1993.

“I don’t think I was successful”
: Warren, p. 17.

her aunt Hannah’s
: Account drawn from
Alaska
, foreword.

“a great heroine”
: Radio interview with Desmond Glynn, January 10, 1996, Burns, MS1995_029_CS09.

birch-bark basket
: JJ to John Branson, August 18, 1994, Burns, 1:7.

“had hooked me”
:
Alaska
, p. xv.

“got such a bang out of it”
: Robin Roger, p. 6.

“overcome ignorance”
:
Alaska
, p. 5.

“improved organization”
:
Alaska
, p. xviii.

They’d gathered brochures
: Details of the family’s trip to Alaska, maps, brochures, plans, and the like, can be found at Burns, mostly Boxes 1, 14–18.

“along a crooked airpath”
:
Alaska
, p. 260.

“I had lived in the Rocky Mountains”
:
Alaska
, p. 63.

“treasure trove”
: JJ to John and Pete Butzner, July 26, 1994, Burns, 1:7.

“demolished by the tidal wave”
: “Epilogue,” early manuscript draft, Burns, 16:7. Compare with
Alaska
, p. 262.

“the three happiest months”
: Robin Roger, p. 6. Jane “ignored the aborted draft” she had worked on half a century before, she wrote Jason Epstein on July 25, 1996, choosing to start anew from Hannah’s original manuscript instead.

“Every generation”
: Robin Roger, p. 5.

“tended to fall prey”
: Paul Goldberger, “Jane Jacobs: Still a Pioneer,”
New York Times Book Review
, April 28, 1996.

“I have my doubts”
: Branson letter at Burns, 1:7.

“the infirmities of age”
: JJ to Simon Doyon, August 3, 1999, Burns, 3:4.

“one hell of an operation”
: JJ to Jason Epstein, November 21 [1973], Random House Papers, Box 1365, ColumbiaRare.

“stupid, stupid lady”
: JJ to Roberta Brandes Gratz, January 15, 1982, Gratz papers.

“such a stupid careless thing”
: JJ to Roberta Brandes Gratz, November 18, 1985, Gratz papers.

“white hair and a marked stoop”
:
Matter
, p. 13.

“aware we’re aging”
: JJ to Lukas van Spengler, January 20, 1994, Burns, 3:6.

“lost the sight”
: JJ to Ellen Perry, January 31, 1996, Burns, 1.

Someone snapped a picture
:
Matter
, p. 153.

“Our news is not so great”
: JJ to John Branson, July 26, 1996, Burns, 1:9.

“liked going for the treatments”
: Robert Fulford, “Lives Lived: Robert Hyde Jacobs,”
Globe and Mail
, September 24, 1996.

“a happy month”
: JJ to John Branson, October 11, 1996, Burns, 1:15.

“An interesting, loveable”
: Obituary notice,
Globe and Mail
, September 18, 1996. Jane gave $3,000 to Princess Margaret Hospital for its radiation treatment program. “We all remember…the kindness and sensitivity” with which Bob was treated there; JJ to David G. Payne, November 12, 1996, Burns, 7:5.

“am kind of useless”
: JJ to Ellen Perry Berkeley, October 9, 1996, Burns, 1.

CHAPTER 24: IDEAS THAT MATTER

“firmly ensconced”
: Jefferson Medal details, Burns, 21:5.

“I still cannot walk down”
: Simon Jenkins, on five best books about cities,
Wall Street Journal
, December 24, 2011. Jenkins apparently draws from Immanuel Kant: “From the crooked timber of mankind nothing entirely straight can be built.”

“vernacular utopia”
: Montgomery.

“connected with a generation”
: Sandra Martin, “Jane Jacobs, Writer, Urban Planner, Activist.”

“car people” and “foot people”
:
D&L
, p. xxii.

“a nauseating name for an old ideal”
:
D&L
, p. 81.

“
interconnected
, not
interrelated
”
: Jamin Creed Rowan, “The New York School,” p. 591.

sides of city life unrelated to physical form
: Bramwell, in 2011, writes, “The Bedford-Stuyvesant district in Brooklyn, with its rows of pre-war brownstones, front stoops, and mixed uses, adheres almost perfectly to Jacobite principles. In movies such as ‘Do the Right Thing,’ Bed-Stuy native Spike Lee recreates its street life, replete with old men lounging on curbsides, children playing in the streets, mothers watching from windows, and local characters exchanging gossip. Nevertheless, for decades, strangers have not felt safe within it…Human capital overwhelms the influence of neighborhood design every time. On the other hand, Bed-Stuy is physically so attractive that it is now rapidly un-slumming, thus proving Jacobs’s points all over again.”

“So thoroughly internalized”
: Campanella, p. 144.

“compared to developers”
: Zukin, “Jane Jacobs,”
Architectural Review.

“we stopped building places worth gentrifying”
: Stephen Wickens, “Jane Jacobs: Honoured in the Breach,”
Globe and Mail
, May 6, 2011. See also interview of Jane by Claire Perrin, May 1999, Burns, 22:32.

“I hope any reader”
:
D&L
, p. 22.

older, smaller buildings
: “Older, Smaller, Better: Measuring How the Character of Buildings and Blocks Influences Urban Vitality,” National Trust for Historic Preservation report, May 2014.

Did “eyes on the street” reduce crime?
: Matt Bevilacqua, “Researchers Challenge Jane Jacobsian Notion That ‘Eyes on the Street’ Reduce Crime,”
NextCity
, February 22, 2013.

Was gradual and piecemeal development
: Eric Jaffe, “Jane Jacobs Was Right: Gradual Redevelopment Does Promote Community,”
Atlantic Cities
, March 8, 2013.