It was in the midst of this urban renewal maelstrom that Jane Jacobs
wrote Death and Life in 1960, and it is unsurprising that she
would view the intermediate results of such a disruptive transformation
with horror.
Jacobs first salvo occurs in her introductory chapter and is aimed just
to the north of the UWS in Morningside Heights at Morningside Gardens, a
six-building middle-class cooperative project that was spearheaded by David Rockefeller
and Robert Moses and built along with the low-income General Grant Houses:
...the planning arms of the city government got together, applied more planning
theory, wiped out the most run-down part of the area and built in its stead a middle-income
cooperative project complete with shopping center, and a public housing project, all
interspersed with air, light, sunshine and landscaping. This was hailed as a great
demonstration in city saving. After that, Morningside Heights went downhill even
faster. (Jacobs 1961, pp 8)