this book explains so much!

[glass_icarus]

A reporter for the New Yorker, observing that people try to find an extra north-south passage in the too-long blocks between Fifth and Sixth avenues, once attempted to see if he could amalgamate a makeshift mid-block trail from Thirty-third Street to Rockefeller Center. He discovered reasonable, if erratic, means for short-cutting through nine of the blocks, owing to block-through stores and lobbies and Bryant Park behind the Forty-second Street Library. But he was reduced to wiggling under fences or clambering through windows or coaxing superintendents, to get through four of the blocks, and had to evade the issue by going into subway passage for two.

- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Chapter 9: The need for small blocks).

You guys, this book was originally published in 1961! It's amazing how many of her observations re: patterns of use of space are still valid 50 years later. LONG CROSSTOWN BLOCKS, BANE OF EVERYONE'S EXISTENCE!

Adding the reclist-of-doom tag because while the use of urban space is not a topic of interest to everyone, this book is extremely down to earth and uses very simple observations to tear down common notions of urban planning. Also, it explains the DULL AS DIRT problem of many housing projects and civic centers built for that specific purpose, requirements for vibrant neighborhoods, actual and not presumed street safety, and other everyday issues in plain and (to me, at least) entertaining words. Even if none of these topics interest you, if you are or have ever been a New Yorker, you may still want to pick it up and see how her observations match up with your own. *g*