jsburbidge | Jane Jacobs and the New Urbanism (Reply)

I have been reading Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities and in conjunction have been bemused by the regular factoid which I run into of Jacobs being an influence on the New Urbanism.

I can't see it.

I've lived in a New Urbanist development, Cornell (in Markham, outside Toronto, since 2000 (not entirely by my own choice)). And I have seen none of the factors which Jacobs would identify in a lively and functioning city:

The density is not high enough. Not nearly. There are a reasonable number of duplexes and some townhomes, but the average density of the community, when you factor in zoned "green space", is not much higher than a typical suburb.
There is insufficient mingling of uses -- the little bit of commercial is separate from the majority of the residential area; and because of the low density, it basically supports a couple of convenience stores and some doctors' offices. There was a café for a while, but it closed for lack of business; as did the video rental store nearby. They are, I gather, talking of putting in new commercial use nearby -- in the form of a large-scale shopping mall; similarly, a community centre along thoroughly suburban lines.
The sidewalks are relatively little used, except for walking dogs -- a typically suburban use, not a particularly urban one. I used to walk to the commuter train -- not a very long walk, just over half an hour, and it gave me my exercise for the day -- and I never saw anyone else doing the same thing, over several years. Even on weekends, the sidewalks and parks were largely deserted.
The scattering of unfocussed parks echoes Jacobs' bad examples, not her good ones.

A few years ago I attended a focus group of current and ex-residents held by some of the builders. The builders wanted to build higher-density living: most of the people in the group (although they wanted the sort of amenities which go with higher-density life, like a bakery) were opposed to it, basically on the grounds that cheaper (= higher-density) housing would bring in the riff-raff. I was not amused; it's precisely the raising of density and the mix of types which makes an "urban" or "urbanist" (not "Urbanist", which would be a papal reference, I think) area work.