who wants to live in monotony?

I have been meaning to for some time write about how ridiculous our city planning is and gentrification.  How we can't seem to understand what makes the communities we love so much special.  But I procrastinated as I was intending on going back through and re-reading "the death and life of great American cities" by Jane Jacobs.  Then today I was reading a blog on some local issues around the Corydon redevelopment and the blogger shared this passage from Jane Jacobs so I figured I would share it too

the self-destruction of diversity… is a force that creates has-been districts, and is responsible for much inner-city stagnation and decay… it can happen in streets, at small nodes of vitality, in groupings of streets, or in whole districts. The last case is the most serious.

Whichever form the self-destruction of diversity takes, this, in broad strokes, is what happens: A diversified mixture of [land] uses at some place in the city becomes outstandingly popular and successful as a whole. Because of the location’s success, which is invariably based on flourishing and magnetic diversity, ardent competition for space in this location develops. It is taken up in what amounts to the economic equivalent of a fad.

The winners in the competition for space will represent only a narrow segment of the many uses that together created success. Whichever one or few uses have emerged as the most profitable in the locality will be repeated and repeated, crowding out and overwhelming less profitable forms of use.

If tremendous numbers of people, attracted by convenience and interest, or charmed by vigour and excitement, choose to live or work in the area, again the winners of the competition will form a narrow segment of the population of users. Since so many want to get in, those who get in or stay in will be self-sorted by the expense…

Thus, from this process, one or a few dominating uses emerge triumphant. But the triumph is hollow. A most intricate and successful organism of mutual economic support and social mutual support has been destroyed by the process. From this point on the locality will be deserted by people using it for purposes other than those that emerged triumphant from the competition — because the other purposes are no longer there. Both visually and functionally the place becomes more monotonous.

And if you have ever wondered why Winnipeg is not the city it should be?  There is a cool meeting happening on Monday July 16th where we can talk about things just like this.  check it out
click here for facebook event page