Chapter 15

In this chapter Jacobs talks about the problems a slum has to go through to be unslummed. She mentions the mistakes that are made at the time to destroy a slum, and also give examples of successful unslummed cities such as, East Harlem, the North End, or the Back-of-the-Yards in Chicago. According to our present urban renewal laws a slum disappears adding new buildings and inverting money in the city, but in contrast with Jacobs’ ideas, a slum is unslummed increasing diversity and trust in the city. Jacobs talks about all the symptoms of a slum being unslummed such as a decreasing of population, an increasing in popularity and essentially, people willing to stay and live in the city. She also states how dullness, stagnation and racism drive a city to become a slum. One can know a city is becoming a slum when people start to leave the place, or want to, in a very short period of time. This leaves a lot of space which is occupied by immigrants and poor people and makes the place overcrowded. The building starts to deteriorate affecting the appearance of the city. Racism is another factor that affects primarily Negroes and ghettos; people do not pay enough attention to these communities because they consider them a lost case, but they do not realize that they do not like where they live and they are there by necessity.