Allan B. Jacobs

Allan Jacobs, former director of the San Francisco Planning Department and a University of California, Berkeley professor emeritus, effectively covers a lot of ground in this book comprised of essays and short stories. Beginning with a description of two years he spent in India as an urban planner working under the auspices of the Ford Foundation, he leads us through a series of vignettes that ultimately are connected through the theme of how community and collaboration does or does not develop in a variety of settings including Cleveland, Curitiba, Pudong, Rome, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver, and, in the final sections of the book, San Francisco. When he turns his attention to San Francisco, he obviously delights in exploring the themes of opportunity, imagination, and joy. He shares memories of how he and his City Planning colleagues engaged community at a grass-roots level; notes the dramatic results achieved through various partnerships; and weaves the various and varied themes together as he nears the end of "The Good City" when he describes what that city would include: "there would be opportunities to learn and to work, to earn one's livelihood; and places to get to with ease, places for social interaction or just to see other people, or places to be alone; and opportunities to participate in local decisions; and places for fun" (p. 176)...."People should feel that some part of the urban environment belongs to them, individually and collectively, some part for which they care and are responsible, irrespective of whether they own it. The city environment should be one that encourages participation....The public environment, by definition, should be open to all members of the community. It is where people of different kinds meet. No one should be excluded unless they threaten the balance of that life" (p. 178).… (mais)