Moreover, Jacobs believed that density was part of how cities remained safe spaces. In dense neighbourhoods with relatively short buildings, she argued, everyone knows everyone and they know what is and isn’t normal (this knowledge is a form of what she called ‘social capital’). As a result, the neighbourhood has what Jacobs termed ‘eyes on the street’, an innate communal awareness and safety mechanism. In a city with giant skyscrapers, Jacobs wrote, ‘nobody … was going to have to be his brother’s keeper anymore.’ Such urban designs destroy the very nature of cities, their lifeblood of
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Jane Jacobs
