Taken from the working paper, As we have already emphasized, there were more flexible types of public planning that did take place and that contributed to the long-run success of the block – such as laying out street grids, draining the swamps, the Erie Canal, providing public schools, water, sanitation, fire services, and policing. At the same time, economic and political freedoms allowed the spontaneous forces to operate within this flexible planning, operating through both markets and politics (such as the activism of Jane Jacobs and her allies). The chaotic four-century history of this one city block suggests that such spontaneous forces play a larger role in development than is appreciated when the focus is understandably on intentional actions to produce desirable outcomes. The history of the block dramatizes Kenneth Arrow’s quote that opened this paper on one of the biggest insights of economics –that desirable outcomes can occur even when no one agent intended them (pg. 23).

Modern Day Greene Street: