“This is an old, low-rent area merging into the heavy industry of the waterfront, and it is officially considered Boston’s worst slum and civic shame,” Jane wrote in 1961 about the North End of Boston. “It embodies attributes which all enlightened people know are evil because so many wise men have said they are evil.”
The collective “wisdom” of the time was to tear it all down and wipe the slate clean. “It’s a slum,” said the “wise” men.
“You should have more slums like this,” Jane told them.
-Jane Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961
