Jane Jacobs and Urban Planning

Well, since I'm in Paris, one of the big urban centers of the world, I don't think I could really pass up at least noting the passing of Jane Jacobs, who died on Tuesday. I'll admit that I'd only heard about her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, before. It's been on my mental must-read list for the last year, but you know how those lists go, or don't go. I've mentioned before, I'm a big reader of Kottke.org, because Jason Kottke posts on stuff he finds interesting, and the stuff he finds interesting is in general interesting, so it all works out. Anyways, he's been doing a bit on Jane Jacobs since she passed away, putting up some links to articles, etc, and I've gotten more and more into what she was all about. I think a good start is this article here from Slate.com, which is a consistently interesting and relevant site. Here's an excerpt:
Jacobs' own prescription, inasmuch as she had one, was based on an appreciation of the vitality of traditional urban neighborhoods, in particular Greenwich Village in New York, where she lived. Lively and interesting street life, a diversity of uses, residential areas intensified by parks and squares and public buildings, a mixture of old and new buildings, and the importance of what she called districts—areas with a functional and recognizable identity—these were the ingredients of successful urban neighborhoods. Compared with the ambitious and innovative ideas of architects and planners, it sounded ridiculously simple, not to say simplistic.

And here's the last paragraph:

That vision of the urban good life had wide appeal, but the supply of old cities that offered the requisite mix of street life, architecture, and diversity was limited. The lively city districts that Jacobs championed, including her beloved Village, have become exclusive enclaves, closed to all but the extremely wealthy. She always considered the amenities of city life to be everyday and widely available goods. Little could she have imagined then that they would become luxuries instead.

This is the part that I found the most interesting and unfortunate, because it's a truth I can see here, in Paris, but also easily in Washington DC or in Minneapolis. Types of areas such as the Marais in Paris, Dupont Circle or Adams Morgan in DC, or Uptown in Minneapolis all have a lot of the ingredients that Jane Jacobs was talking about, but less and less of the access. Living in any of these areas (or increasingly, a city in general), has become an expensive proposition - which nullifies a lot of the vibrancy that creates that initial demand. I wonder where some sort of equilibrium can be found between money, security, vibrancy, and individuality in urban space. Is it even possible?