City Block Sizes | Jane Jacobs in Death and Life of Great American Cities (2/4)

Why are smaller blocks better? This video is Part 2/4 exploring Jane Jacobs' principles for a Diverse City as found in the Death and Life of Great American Cities. Here we look at the topic of city block sizes and the need for frequent streets.
Music: Cinematic Documentary by Aleksey Chistilin

[@optimicities]

Apologies, NYC block size should say 200' x 900' at 2:04

[@lopoa126]

Small blocks mean more intersections where pedestrians and bikes have to interact with vehicles and sometimes signals. I hate traveling on the streets in Portland for that reason. Even with our bike infrastructure you still end up seeing a lot of crashes or near misses. Non-car paths cutting through big blocks are better. Small blocks are also pretty lame for the MAX train in Portland as they really limit the lengthy/capacity, although we could just build a subway if NIMBYs would stop being idiots.

[@taxevader4095]

this is probably perfect for alleys, shame that alot of alleys are neglected to a state where you would be uncomfortable using it as a shortcut

[@shumoon1]

IMO, blocks in Portland, Oregon are too small, and Salt Lake City blocks are too big.

[@AzArizone]

I believe this is a very good video, with great voice narration as well, I plan on attending city council meetings in the future as where I live is very car-centric and I want it to be a more urban mix-use city as you said with a mix with suburbs and density. I also agree with you about Portland, I visited there with my mission youth group in 2018, and honestly, I quite loved it and walking around there too, as well as the streets, it is one of my favorite green vision cities to take inspiration from and would like to visit again in the future. Another thing is I recently went to San Francisco too and I loved it, especially if you go in the wintertime, very peaceful. Yes I do know about the homeless but i have been checking it on recently and the mayor making steps to decrease the homeless population which I am happy for as well as trying to build more affordable housing, still has a long way to go but I believe it can revive itself in the coming years, regardless of the issues I still love the city no matter what and if the rent was lower I would move there myself, as such no city is perfect and home that gets people's thick skulls as they like the bash on the city then other cities.

[@map07]

I second this I live in SF Pacific Heights and it's beautiful and very walkable. All cities have shady / dangerous areas but that doesn't define the living conditions of the majority of the inhabitants.

[@AzArizone]

well said.

[@peterslegers6121]

Instead of the width of blocks, we call it the mesh width (and breadth). Mesh width is the distance between two paths, streets, roads, and is related to the type of transportation. A person on foot should have an equal or preferably smaller mesh width than a person who hops into a car. The mesh breadth shows how wide or narrow the path / street / road is. Urban design is not about blocks, Architecture is not about walls, they are about the space in between, and seducing the people who live in that space, to live a healthy, happy, efficient, productive, ...* life.

[@derikjbrandt]

I liked the video, and I'll be watching the rest. But I also wanted to mention you have a great voice for narration.

[@optimicities]

Thanks for watching! That's very nice of you to say. 🙂

[@pacerdanny]

Great video, and a topic I've been thinking about lately. My take on Barcelona was similar to yours. I liked what was happening inside the superblocks, but not so much the main roads, which felt pretty imposing and almost stroad-like. I look forward to your thoughts on SF, where I live. With a Walk Score of 100, the Tenderloin might be called one of the "most walkable" areas of the city, yet sadly, it is actually the least walkable due to conditions on the street. It's also hard to overlook, being adjacent to so many hotels, civic buildings, and shopping areas.

[@Trohnald]

Reading the book right now, great explanation! You should mess around with the usage of music in your videos, it feels like your editing skills have great potential!!!

[@9967sss]

Informative video, thanks for making it 😊

[@PortMoody1]

My block size in Edmonton, Canada is 166m (545ft) long and 47m (155ft wide). I find walking in my area easy to do.

[@khuloodahli4130]

Can you tell us what are the criteria that makes a city walkable

[@peterslegers6121]

One could write a book about that... kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZLMZaiYbpWmqrM Jeff Speck: The walkable city Or two: Jeff Speck: Walkable city rules: 101 steps to making better places

[@bjornnordling269]

🌷

[@brian5154]

It is very important to understand that outside North America, blocks do not exist. Blocks are what makes American cities somewhat bland and uninterestinhg.

[@beckaddison5827]

It is neither true that blocks don't exist outside America nor that they themselves make cities uninteresting. Barcelona is a famous example of a grid style city outside of the US that has been praised for its layout, for just one example. In fact, parts of classical Rome were grid planned. What makes a city uninteresting is not that it's laid out in a grid but that the city was not made to interest people - most uninteresting cities are uninteresting because their primary goal is catering to car traffic moving through and into the city rather than catering to the people who live and work in the city.

[@singpizza8547]

I love spreading misinformation on the Internet.