This is a book I spent a long time to read, partially because it’s a little bit dry. But considering the historical importance and its influence on modern urban planning, I still finished it.

I got interested in urban planning when I started to play City Skylines. Trying to resolve the traffic problem in my simulated city, I started to fall into a rabbit hole of urban planning. I started to research more on the topic, from Youtube videos to books. And actually started to observe the city planning in real life. Even though I could feel something about a city unconscious before, I know more about why after I knew more on the topic. For example, when I first went to Beijing as a student and lived in my uncle’s place, I just didn’t like the neighbourhood but I didn’t know why. I just felt like there was no people walking outside after dinner like what I was used to. But now I know why: there was a highway just beyond the neighbourhood, there was no commercial, nothing interesting on the sidewalk, the road design was not human scale and so on.

Given the importance of this book on urban planning history, it’s no wonder that I discovered it. I decide to read it not only because of that, but also the impact the author, Jane Jacobs, had on the city of Toronto, especially on the neighbourhood I’m current living in. Jane Jacobs moved to Toronto in early 70s. She quickly became a leader to protest the proposed Spadina Expressway. For the ones who are not familiar with Toronto, Spadina Road is a road run through the core of downtown. It’s one of the main street of Toronto’s Chinatown, and is a boundary of one of the most unique neighbourhood – Kensington Market. It’s vibrant, pedestrian friendly, hosts lots of shops and restaurants, including lots of Chinese ones. And I happen to live nearby. If the proposal of Spadina Expressway went through, all of these would be gone. The Chinatown would be demolished again, after it was demolished in the Ward neighbourhood which hosts the current Toronto’s city hall. I cannot imagine how bad it will be to have a highway cut right through the city core, and I surely wouldn’t live where I live now. With enough bad city plannings in Toronto, at least the people of Toronto won this one.

So I’m really grateful to Jane Jacobs. I paid a visit to the house where she used to live. It was in a lovely neighbourhood. I have lots of rants about Toronto’s city planning and most likely I will write a blog about it, but hopefully Toronto can learn its lesson from her and minds alike, and become a better city going forward.