ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Zukin's designation of Jacobs as a significant member of the first wave of gentrification practices in New York City and Zukin aims. Zukin's argument with Jacobs is a testament to the power of Jacobs's legacy; Zukin describes her frustration with the enshrinement of Jacobs's ideas in planning and design spheres, fearing that what Jacobs overlooked in her work- strategies for breaking the hold of large-scale developers- has given her followers an excuse to neglect too. Zukin's book, an exploration of the processes of gentrification in New York under the influence of the contemporary search for authenticity, is blatant in its desire to engage with the legacy of urban theory attributed to Jane Jacobs. For Zukin, gentrification is a process which threatens authentic city life, which invades neighborhoods and reduces them, over time, to overpriced, overhyped and crucially homogenized environments.
