>> "Despite beautiful parks adjacent..." A big chunk of Jacobs' work is concerned with why parks are a necessary but insufficient condition for vibrant cities,

>> "Despite beautiful parks adjacent..." A big chunk of Jacobs' work is concerned with why parks are a necessary but insufficient condition for vibrant cities, especially in the book mentioned in the GP (Death and Life of Great American Cities). IMHO it's eye-opening and pleasantly brief (particularly by the ponderous standards of city-planning literature).