Yeah, making her ideas systematic are definitely a sticking point. In so much as she suggests anything, the more prominent idea to me was the influential neighb

Yeah, making her ideas systematic are definitely a sticking point. In so much as she suggests anything, the more prominent idea to me was the influential neighborhood association. That wasn't so much a policy as a recommendation to have a standing public opinion "army", if you will. I'm not sure that there is a way to put a system in place to save us from ourselves if we fail to be well informed, but the book definitely points out a lot of ways you can notice things going wrong. Jacobs also does a great job of explaining the mechanism of the many traps that we plan ourselves into. My favorite non-profit, Strong Towns, also frequently mentions how difficult it is to give a formulaic solution to these problems. Furthermore, as the founder likes to put it, what we're often asking for are "ways other people can change what they do so I don't have to change what I'm doing." Until I can figure out a better way to make change, I'm at least determined to be informed and well-versed enough in the lingo so that urban planners can't make their dumb ideas look good in conversation with me just by dressing the ideas up in jargon.