Jane’s Walk — Learn About Your City

The second Regina Jane’s Walk will be held on May 1 and 2, 2010 all over Regina. Last year over 400 people came out to participate in 12 community walks and learn more about the history of Regina neigbourhoods.

This year, there are two ways to participate:

– Come for a walk on May 1 and 2. This is easy, fun, and you’ll learn a lot.

– Volunteer to lead a Jane’s Walk. This could be the most rewarding part of all. Plan a route, think through the stories you could tell along the route, then walk a group through the route in May.

Communities thrive when people know each other and have a sense of connectedness. Jane’s Walk is a great way to get connected to the place where you live. We hope you get involved in this and strengthen your community roots!

Getting involved is easy. Just email janeswalkregina@gmail.com or call 737-7185 to get involved in the Regina walk. Or head over to www.janeswalk.net to learn more about the walks taking place in neighbourhoods across Canada.

Or… read on! Here’s more information from the Regina Jane’s walk folk:

Good afternoon!

As many of you know, last year Regina hosted its first Jane’s Walk event and it was a huge success – over 400 people came out to participate in 12 inspiring community walks over the course of one weekend.

We are starting to plan for this year’s event, which will take place May 1 and 2, 2010 and are looking for volunteers to help the walks run smoothly (as marshalls, photographers, question-answerers, etc.). Please contact me directly if you have questions or would like to put your name on the list.

We are also looking for people to lead walking tours – remember, the walks can be about anything you are interested in: architecture, history, your personal stories and experiences, questions you have about certain neighbourhoods, art, culture, sport, you name it!

Please help to spread the message about this event to your contacts, the more the merrier!

The official invitation to be involved in this inspiring community event follows:

LEAD A JANE JACOBS WALKING TOUR

“No one can find what will work for our cities by looking at …suburban garden cities, manipulating scale models, or inventing dream cities. You’ve got to get out and walk”
– Jane Jacobs

ANNUAL JANE’S WALK MAY 1 & 2 2010

Jane’s Walk is the street-level celebration of Jane Jacobs’ legacy that combines the simple act of walking with personal observations, urban history and local lore as a means of knitting people together into strong and resourceful communities. Over 10,000 people explored over 315 neighbourhoods across Canada and the United States last year – and it went global with one tour in Mumbai, India!

We are inviting you to lead a tour in an area where you live, work or play. It simply involves
planning a route, thinking through the stories, places and people you want to hear about and discuss, then walking participants through it – you decide what’s important. If you like, you could share the guiding duties with a few other resourceful friends or colleagues.

Jane’s Walk aids in the socially desirable goal of getting people out of their cars and onto the sidewalks for the basic tasks of daily life, shopping, schools and work. Jane’s Walks are meant to be fun and participatory – everyone’s got a story and they’re usually keen to share it. All tours are given, and taken, for free. We help with the publicity, logistics and website management – you need to get the word out with your local networks and friends. We also have useful resources and ‘tips for tour guides’ available through our on-line forum that connects you with Jane’s Walks guides from around the world (will be launched on Jane’s Walk website by March 2010).

You don’t have to be familiar with Jane Jacobs’ work to lead a tour, but this is a great way to get familiarized with some basic ideas. In books such as “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” (1961) she championed the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centered approach to planning, made the case for refurbishing old buildings instead of tearing them down and building new ones, and demonstrated the desirability of increasing the density of cities instead of sprawling endlessly outward.

Jane’s Walk first happened in Toronto in 2007, and has since spread to a dozen other cities including New York, Ottawa, Calgary, Halifax, Guelph, Salt Lake City, Regina, Winnipeg, New Orleans, Montreal and Vancouver. For details of what Jane’s Walk has been like in the past visit our website at www.janeswalk.net.

We hope you’ll join us in offering an insider’s take on your city’s vibrant and fascinating neighbourhoods. Please get in touch at janeswalkregina@gmail.com or call 737-7185 for more info.

Photo by: jbcurio of a Jane’s Walk in Toronto in 2008