Published in 1961 to argue against almost everything planners believed at the time. Slum clearance. Superblocks. Expressways driven through working neighbourhoods.
She was a journalist, not a planner, and the book is built on what she could see from her own street in Greenwich Village. Busy sidewalks are the thing holding a neighbourhood together, and safety comes from people having a reason to be outside.
I live in an 1886 semi on a street that works for exactly the reasons she describes, so I am a biased reader.
What struck me is how little of it is settled. Short blocks. Mixed uses. Buildings of different ages. Enough density to keep a corner store alive. Toronto is still arguing about every one of those, sixty-five years later.
I think it lasts because she was writing down what she saw rather than what she believed. Theory ages badly. Looking out the window does not.