ABSTRACT
Jane Jacobs's criticism of the American city, in particular as expressed in her book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", is today an important reference point for the critical view of modern American city planning. The first Spanish edition of Jacob's book represented a break in the mainstream of thinking about cities. It stressed the value of public space, especially in the traditional city, favoring social contacts, lively streets, neighborhood relationships as well as the importance of density, complexity, and diversity. One of her main contributions is, without doubt, street value. First of all, she criticizes the dominant theories at the time and, in particular, focuses on the demonization of the street, setting out the main ideas of orthodox planning, and summarizing the thinking of the great theoreticians of modern planning in the phrase: "The street is bad as an environment for humans".
