Free City Tours Cater to Jane Jacobs Fans
Jane’s Walk Celebrates the Walkable City and Urban Neighborhoods
In homage to celebrated urban planner Jane Jacobs, the third annual edition of Jane’s Walks is being held in North America. Organized by the Centre for City Ecology in Canada and the Center for the Living City in the USA, the walks are meant to be fun, engaging and an opportunity for participants to share stories and experiences of living in cities.
Jacobs, the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, believed that local residents knew best how their neighborhoods worked. She championed their cause against a form of urban planning that tried to put freeways through the heart of cities and levelled existing neighborhoods in the name of progress.
Each of the participating cities in Jane’s Walk finds its own volunteer tour guides to conduct walking tours. Some tours focus on heritage sites, while others explore the nooks and crannies of the city. From great hangouts for kids to ethnic business and residential enclaves, the tours and their leaders are diverse like cities themselves.
Appreciating the Fine Grain and Diversity of Walkable Cities
In her writing, Jacobs was a passionate advocate of cities in all their messiness. She loathed the tidy plans of mid-20th century planners who regarded inner city neighborhoods as dirty and crowded. She believed that the fine grain of walkable cities with high densities was the perfect antidote to crime, the ever-present automobile and suburban sprawl.
Walking the urban landscape was, according to Jacobs, the best way for residents and planners alike to appreciate it and also identify its failings. The tours in Jane’s Walks are meant to get residents out perambulating in their own communities. Through personal observation and sharing of local lore, participants discover what they have in common when it comes to values for development of their neighborhood and city.
One of Jacobs’ most enduring contributions to city planning was her focus on the necessity of diversity: diversity of building types, densities and socio-economic circumstances in any one geographic area. The walking tours being conducted as part of Jane’s Walks recognize this diversity by inviting citizens to become volunteer guides. There is no one in a central planning office orchestrating what constitutes good versus bad tour options.
Self-Organizing and Locally Delivered City Tours
In some cities, tours are conducted by more than one guide per tour, making for lively exchanges and alternate understandings of the area being toured. In Toronto in 2008, a group of young people put together a tour of the Jane and Finch neighborhood. Their hot spots included a drop-in center for youth in a mall, an apartment tower that houses a recording studio, and where the best little league soccer fields are.
One of Calgary’s tours for 2009 is being led by a guide who is visually impaired. The walking tour of Stephen Avenue Mall is entitled “Jane’s ‘Yes I See What You Mean’ Walk,” and will raise awareness among participants about what the city’s downtown is like for people with disabilities.
All sorts of people, from all ages and levels of interest participate in the walks. It is simple, fun and an excellent way to help people find their voices about what matters to them when it comes to urban development.
Jane's Walk Participants in the Calgary Tower 2008
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