The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, in his Republic, established a close connection between the city and the soul. This principle still stands as true as it did in the days of antiquity. Jane Jacobs explained that diversity was the soul of the city and the force that makes cities “healthy.” This concept is readily sensed by anyone who spends time in an urban environment, but harder to articulate. What, then, comprises the urban “soul” of diversity? The answer focuses on heterogeneity. The heterogeneity of details within the urban landscape attracts pedestrians; once pedestrians are successfully attracted and retained, they may exchange and combine a plurality of ideas. The ultimate beauty of the city lies in its ability to synthesize and combine opposite and varied ideas.
To begin, consider two streetscapes. First, imagine MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of Allentown. It is a typical Saturday afternoon in early spring, and a solid wall of cars lines six lanes of pavement. This day happens to be one of the first warm days of the season; the temperature is around 70°, but the languid feel suggests a scorching mid-Atlantic August day. Big-box stores, national chains, strip malls, and a major mall
Wouldn't you enjoy walking around here for awhile? Why? (Credit: JasonB3, Flickr)
lend it uniformity. Best Buy, Staples, Boston Market – all the “usual suspects” are here. No clear sign of “Whitehall” exists; this space could exist just as readily on the edge of any medium-sized service city in America. Pedestrians are nowhere in sight – who, in their right mind, would want to breathe the noxious air and risk getting run over?
Contrast this scene to the one that unfolds in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. This urban oasis appears shortly after passing through a district of narrow streets, lively shops and local coffee houses, and people fitting every descriptor and category imaginable. Within Rittenhouse Square, history appears well-preserved; the space hearkens back to the era of the well-tended, “proper” Victorian garden. No cars are in sight, and concrete walking paths are lined by shrubberies. People relax on benches while children frolic in a fountain, empty for the winter season. Shortly after leaving this space, the hypothetical pedestrian walks down tree-lined colonial streets with wide brick sidewalks, hitching posts, and stately Colonial houses. The quiet, calm, and lack of traffic is wondrous for the central district of a city. Looking down one of these streets, Quince Street, is like standing in 2009 and gazing back to 1776. A pedestrian is engaged, satisfied, and encouraged to press onward to seek new “discoveries.” It takes little consideration to determine that MacArthur Road is “unhealthy,” while the Rittenhouse Square area is “healthy.” How come? MacArthur Road represents a static, homogenous space, while Rittenhouse Square serves as a dynamic, heterogeneous space. MacArthur Road features a uniformity and a sameness – strip malls, asphalt, and traffic. Rittenhouse Square features a hodgepodge of details that engage the user in a “scavenger hunt” of sorts – hitching posts, shrubberies, and the like. It serves as an example of what photographer Walker Evans referred to as
Would you take a Sunday walk here? Maybe it's a bit too homogeneous?
“a beautiful mess;” University of Michigan urbanist Kirk Westphal refers to this “mess” as the opposite of strip-mall blandness, such as that of MacArthur Road. Users of each space take cues from their environment about the best way to facilitate their interaction with it – directly on foot to notice the details, or behind the wheel to quickly bypass uniformity.
Heterogeneity in action...who would expect a pinball machine in a Northampton Street storefront?
Westphal, in his case study of his downtown of Ann Arbor, identifies pedestrian activity as one of the keys to a “healthy” city. He specifically mentions “variety and concentration” of establishments; decorations or people in store windows; and a mixture of narrow, interesting, and historic buildings as positive elements of a city center. He also stresses the importance of “friendly objects,” such as tree planters, recessed doorways, and spots to lean, to street users. All the above details are found on the streets of the Rittenhouse Square area, but not along MacArthur Road. As a result, Rittenhouse Square attracts pedestrians much more successfully. The sense of heterogeneity created by the details naturally attracts pedestrians, who correctly determine that walking is the most useful method of joining in the “scavenger hunt” the city offers. The homogeneity along major arterials such as MacArthur Road successfully keeps drivers focused, but also fails to motivate the space’s users to participate in the “ballet of the good city sidewalk.”
What encourages these patterns of pedestrianism versus driving? As social creatures, people are inclined to conform to norms and engage in the activities in which they see others participating; once people observe the vanguard pedestrians in a space, they are more likely to take to the streets themselves. Along the streets of Rittenhouse Square, many people can be seen walking, but along MacArthur Road, pedestrians are perceived as unexpected and deviating from norms. Rittenhouse Square manages to create what Westphal refers to as a “cycle of people attracting people,” but MacArthur Road does not.
Foot traffic along city streets also leads to a sense of safety and security necessary for future foot traffic, in another example of the “cycle of people attracting people.” According to Jane Jacobs, the mundane actions of street dwellers, such as sweeping up trash, provided “a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city.” Shifting the focus to Easton, this trend is largely noticeable on College Hill; as Lafayette students see other students running errands on foot and see local residents taking walks, they feel a sense of security. In the West Ward, though, Lafayette students do not see as many people with whom they identify using the streets; therefore, they are less inclined to walk in those areas. A healthy and visible street life has a tremendous welcoming impact on pedestrians.
Why are pedestrians so important, and why consider providing the landscape and security needed to attract them in such detail? In pedestrianism lies the key to realizing urban diversity. Jane Jacobs maintained that diversity was essential to a great, “healthy” city. A high concentration of people in a tight space, lacking barriers that insulate them from their environment, turns city streets into public forums. Every pedestrian represents a different background, a new idea, or a fresh perspective seeking to join with a complement. Diversity of people, combined with diversity of details, promotes the free flow of ideas and lends the city a sort of intellectual energy. Jane Jacobs felt a “healthy” city encouraged participants to “listen, linger, and think about what you see;” this concept can be applied to ideas as well as the urban landscape itself. The Rittenhouse Square and University City sections of Philadelphia provide such an atmosphere; they strike the visitor as abuzz with a plurality of ideas and potential revelations. Heterogeneity of spaces leads to heterogeneity of users, which leads to heterogeneity of ideas.In this spirit of free thinking lies the ultimate “health” of any city.
Spaces that could otherwise promote this free thinking and exchange of ideas will fall short of their potential, though, if not properly guarded from traffic
...to reach this?
Would you enjoy walking through this...
“barriers.” According to the New York City Streets Renaissance, “Streets are more than just car corridors; they are valuable civic spaces. Pedestrians will not enter even the most positive space if they feel threatened by traffic to reach it; instead, they will avoid the space altogether. The crossing under Route 22 in downtown Easton serves as a prime example of a “barrier” created by traffic. “Millionaire’s Row” and the unique shops lining it possess the heterogeneity of a “healthy” downtown, and could serve as an excellent “civic space” to facilitate the exchange between the Lafayette and Easton communities; instead, the “car corridor” under route 22 prevents some Lafayette students from ever making it to “Millionaire’s Row.” In order for an otherwise healthy urban space to function healthy, easy pedestrian access must be ensured.
Within the urban atmosphere, the heterogeneous world of the pedestrian comes to symbolize the profound and the unique, while the homogenous world of the automobile comes to represent the mundane and the utilitarian. These concepts – pedestrian and automobile, profound and mundane – may seem completely opposite by this point, but they can actually be successfully balanced. Intersection Repair, a grassroots, locally-oriented effort to “[convert] an urban street intersection into [a] public square,” serves as a possibility for this balance. It also functions as a symbol for the ways in which cities promote the synthesis of new ideas from separate parts. Through the process, an “intersection of pathways becomes a place for people to come together,” and it also becomes “a Place – a public square.” Specific Intersection
Wishful thinking and whimsy is always fun, isn't it?
Repair efforts represent the will of the neighborhood involved; they can range from simple painted streets to murals to the opening of businesses at the intersection.
Couldn't this intersection use a little repair to break the homogeneity?
On a surface level, Intersection Repair calms traffic, conditions drivers to expect pedestrians, and therefore promotes a sharing of the space between traffic and pedestrians. The concept, on a deeper level, allows for the transformation of an “intersection of [physical] pathways” governed by utilitarianism to an “intersection of [intellectual] pathways” governed by a sense of reflection. Intersection Repair additionally receives its appeal from introducing a measure of heterogeneity into an otherwise homogenous space and reconciling the two opposite concepts in a novel fashion. The mundane and the profound both have their places, their spaces, and their purposes; Intersection Repair allows them to peacefully coexist. MacArthur Road does, believe it or not, serve a purpose; it is efficient, convenient, and familiar. Intersection Repair keeps these virtues intact, but manages to introduce a little of Rittenhouse Square into MacArthur Road. Intersection Repair comes to exemplify the ultimate beauty and the true diversity of the “healthy” city – the ability to reconcile seemingly disparate perspectives and combine them in a unique fusion through creative free thinking. The heterogeneous “healthy” city, in this example, is even capable of reconciling its opposite (homogeneity) with itself. This ability to artfully combine different ideas, though, is only realized if the literal actions of encouraging pedestrianism and balancing it with traffic flow can be achieved. The healthy city begins and ends with heterogeneity – heterogeneity of details encourages pedestrian activity, which must be nourished to promote the heterogeneity of ideas leading to original thought.
