Celebrate Jane Jacob's Legacy by Walking In Her Shoes
JANE’S WALK USA 2009
The Center for the Living City in collaboration with the Centre for City Ecology in Toronto announces Jane’s Walk USA on May 2 and 3, 2009. The Jane’s Walk is an event to commemorate the birthday of Jane Jacobs and to celebrate our cities by organizing small groups to explore the areas of cities they love. This is the third consecutive year for Jane’s Walks in North America.
Jane Jacobs was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building. She had no formal training as a planner, and yet her 1961 treatise, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, introduced groundbreaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail that are now common sense to generations of architects, planners, politicians and activists. Jane’s Walk honors her legacy and ideas as she supported the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centered approach to planning.
Jane’s Walk is a series of free neighborhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves. Jane’s Walk helps knit people together into a strong and resourceful community, instilling belonging and encouraging civic leadership. Jane’s Walk raises urban literacy by combining the simple act of walking with personal observations, urban history, planning, design and civic engagement.
It is an opportunity to discuss the conditions within our communities that function well and those that do not function at all; to discuss ways in which to improve our cities for our mutually agreed upon collective futures and the means by which to execute these changes through bottom-up approaches and community involvement. It is a way to look critically at our cities through the lens of Jane Jacobs and to discuss change.
Jane’s Walk is open to all for participation. As well as being a walk, it may also be a roll; wheelchairs and bikes are encouraged to participate. While a biking tour may go further than a walking tour, the same idea of exploring communities is still at work and will be an enjoyable way for people to come together and feel a sense of community involvement, and highlight the need for first class mobility no matter what a person’s ability may be. Whatever your preference, the Jane’s Walk provides a multi-faceted approach to city exploration and celebration. Whether you’re a local activist, a community gardener, politician, preservationist or a simply a citizen who loves your community, participating in a Jane’s Walk is a great way to celebrate places and the legacy of Jane Jacobs.
The walking routes chosen are usually wheelchair accessible and generally about an hour and a half in length. If a Jane’s Walk is not scheduled in a particular place, communities are encouraged to find a tour guide for their area and create their own meaningful walks. In order to do this, the tour guide must go to http://www.janeswalkusa.org and fill out a simple form to register their tour. This central website will promote Jane’s Walks throughout the United States, and will help generate interest among community stakeholders anywhere. Tour guides are generally those who are familiar with the area, can share their personal stories and serve as a catalyst for conversation among the participants.
Jane’s Walk USA is being managed by the Center for the Living City, a non-profit organization operating out of The University of Utah’s Department of City & Metropolitan Planning. The Center for the Living City is linked in spirit and purpose with our sister organization, The Centre for City Ecology in Toronto. So far, Jane’s Walks have occurred in Toronto and New York in 2007 and in Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Salt Lake City in 2008.
If you would like to be involved, receive more information or schedule an interview please email [email protected] or visit janeswalkusa.org
Contact: Stephen Goldsmith
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 801.633.0936