The Need for Concentration
In chapter 11, The Need for Concentration, Jacobs contrasts the similar dwelling densities of Chelsea, Harlem and the "badly failed uptown West Side" with the more successful neighborhoods of Yorkville, the midtown East Side and her beloved Greenwich Village. Special mention is made of Riverside Drive, which is dominated by tall buildings and high density but which had long fallen from its late 19th century prominence as an "ultrafashionable" residential destination (Jacobs 1961, 266). She goes on to point out that the problem is generally not the then-common metric of population per acre of land (which unfairly favored low-rise buildings), but overcrowding in terms of persons per room (Jacobs 1961, 269).
80 Riverside Drive
80 Riverside Drive