The Conditions for JacobsÍ€™ City Diversity: A Test in Three Brazilian Cities

Abstract

Despite the undeniable importance of Jane JacobsÍ€™ work, relatively few studies have empirically tested her claims. In this work, we investigate the relationship between criminal occurrences, to measure the degree in which an area can be considered successful or not, and the main conditions for successful neighborhoods put forth by Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great American Cities: land use diversity, block sizes and population density. Adopting census tracts as territorial units, we investigated the urban areas of the three largest municipalities of Santa Catarina, Brazil - Joinville, Florianópolis (state capital) and Blumenau, through visual and statistical analyzes. The results show that the most central and most peripheral areas have the highest rates of criminal occurrence, which is also true for those with higher percentages of non-residential uses. High population density, on the other hand, was associated with greater safety, and block sizes was not a relevant factor for crime rates.