While these smart growth principles are not exhaustive, they are consistent with the ideas argued by Jacobs in the 1960s. This mindset eventually evolved into what we now call smart growth, with principles that include walkable neighborhoods, creating communities with a strong sense of place, creating a range of housing options, mix land uses, and expanding compact neighborhood design and creating a range of housing choices. Michigan State University Extension and many professional planners believe in these same principles. Like diverse, vibrant streets, parks must also have diverse users and activities that will expand the interactions occurring with the park space. They must have multiple users at different times of the day and for different purposes. She believed that parks must possess the same characteristics as vibrant streets. These were parks that were used only at specific times of the day and by a specific population. Jacobs argued against what she called single use parks. The interactions and constant activity produced a place with a high degree of social contact for residents, children and business owners as well as pedestrians passing through neighborhoods. Jane believed that people on the street walking, talking, playing, sitting, watching and working all made for a viable and safe street. Jacobs discussed the three primary roles that sidewalks played in neighborhoods: safety, contact, and the assimilation of children.

Jacobs opposed large, complex urban renewal projects that destroyed and divided neighborhoods and argued for communities that possessed diversity and a blending of uses. Jacobs was a writer and many of her ideas and observations were based on her experiences in New York City and captured in her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961and reprinted in 2011. She was also a strong critic of suburban development and believed that planners and decision makers who were responsible for urban redevelopment were wrong in their approaches to such issues. While she was not a professional planner, designer or architect, she was an advocate for strong, viable urban places. Jane Jacobs was born in 1916 and died in 2006.

The death of great american cities