Jane Jacobs, The Anti-Planner presents Jacobs as unwittingly “Austrian” (in her economics). It also summarizes her notion of a healthy city:
Jacobs’s detailed description of the functioning of healthy urban neighborhoods is based on her close observation of them. In such places, there are people, interested in the neighborhood, on the street throughout most of the day. Early in the morning, workers head off to their jobs in other neighborhoods as well as entering the neighborhood to work. Soon thereafter, parents transporting their children to school appear on the street. Shops open, and shopkeepers, anxious that the area of their business not frighten away customers due to dangers present in the area, keep a close eye on the sidewalks. Mothers with preschool children head to the parks, workers come out to eat lunch in them, and shoppers come and go from area stores. In the early evening workers again come and go from the neighborhood. As night falls, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs keep the sidewalks lively ? and generally safe. The role of paid law enforcers in providing urban safety is decidedly secondary for Jacobs.All of this is in sharp contrast to the life of the neighborhoods beloved by mid-century urban planners. There, ‘rational’ planning kept uses strictly separate, with offices, factories, shops, and residences segregated into their own areas by strict zoning laws. As a result, neighborhood streets would be deserted for long stretches of time ? and therefore dangerous. The increased danger would serve to further discourage pedestrian use of the streets.