Notes on Reading: “Vital Little Plans” by Jane Jacobs

Reading "Vital Little Plans" by journalist and, as she was called, urbanist, Jane Jacobs and so much resonates here, after watching storefronts being torn down in Aligarh in 2018 because of the World Bank funded “Smart City” project.

One popular paan shop that was literally wedged into a street corner and that had become a landmark in Dodhpur simply because it had been there since the ‘70s was torn down. Jacobs writes, “...stores in city neighborhoods are much more complicated creatures...Although they are mere holes in the wall, they help make an urban neighborhood a community instead of a mere dormitory.”

When the paan shop owner’s son, who ran a snack shop right next to it, told me of its demolition, I imagined people, men usually, huddled around this shop, smoking and gossiping. Jacobs again, “These storefront activities are enormously valuable. They are institutions that people create, themselves...”

And then, I feel she makes one of the most important points supporting the cause of often seemingly shabby (not shiny) local shops and storefronts, “If you are a nobody, and you don’t know anybody who isn’t a nobody, the only way you can make yourself heard in a large city is through certain well defined channels.”

The shopkeeper lost his livelihood overnight and Dodhpur lost one of it’s gathering places that are in fact one if not the most endearing and important features in a democracy.

“Unless and until some solution for them (these enterprises) can be found, the least we can do is to respect

—in the deepest sense—strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own not yet encompassed in our concept of urban order.”

Jacobs, Jane, et al. “The Missing Link in City Redevelopment.” Vital Little Plans, First Edition, Random House, 2016, pp. 70–75.