The Buzz on Jane’s Walk

› About Jane's Walk › The Buzz on Jane's Walk

The Buzz on Jane’s Walk

Jane-Finch tour guides posing with neighbourhood volunteers who cooked up a banquet for all 80 walkers!

Feedback From Jane’s Walk tour guides and walkers:

“Just wonderful in every way and by the end of the walk we were all talking as if old friends although we didn’t know each other at all.” – Toronto

“Merci beaucoup pour la superbe visite du quartier : votre connaissance prodigieuse et histoires diverses m’inspirent et me rendent encore plus heureuse de vivre ici à Pointe-St.-Charles.” – Montreal

“My eyes were opened to accessibility issues (or lack thereof) in a neighbourhood that I had spent my life in.” – Regina

“Helps connect people, places and events, including individual histories, memories, and experiences. And this adds layers which makes a richer urban fabric.” - Mumbai, India

“I love the mix of local history, of people showing off their own areas and hearing about the politics and other trends that have shaped these areas.” – Toronto

“Wonderful to have the opportunity/excuse to walk around the places we usually drive by at great speed.” – Montreal

“I found a few new locally owned shops that I’m definitely going to patronize in the future, and I was amazed at the community spirit and fundraising efforts of the local Chinese-Canadian community.” – Regina

“The feedback on our walk has been really encouraging – people had a good time, met some people, learned some new facts, had some new thoughts and felt more connected to our city, our neighbourhoods and the insights Jane Jacobs offered.” – Calgary

“I work for the city and I have found Jane’s Walks to be extremely valuable in helping me do my job. You sit behind your desk and work all day but you don’t necessarily get the chance to get out and meet the people you’re working for. It’s eye-opening and these walks give us a depth of feeling and understanding that you can’t get any other way.” – Toronto

“I led a tour because people have a very weird impression of downtown Kitchener and I wanted to dispel that negative reaction.” – Kitchener

“Jane’s Walk gets a very wide audience. You don’t have to register. It’s accessible and immediate. People just show up or join along the way, which doesn’t happen with typical tours. It’s important to keep the barriers to entry low.” – Toronto

“We did the walks in French and English, choosing not to provide simultaneous translation which is annoying and time consuming. We found it best to just let people talk in English and/or French as they preferred. If someone needed translation, someone did it for them. When groups were too big, sometimes it was better to divide into two groups, one English, one French.” – Montreal

“I led a tour because I have a vision for a pedestrian- wheel-chair- bicycle- child- friendly corridor in the Danforth area. I wanted to get feedback and build momentum to effect the change.” – Toronto

“The three Dublin walks were a great success. On Saturday, I had a VERY hardy group of seven people, fully clad in rain pants etc., who endured pounding - and I’m not exaggerating - rain, and yes, even hail. My face was stinging from the hail before I even got to the walk!!! So our walk started in a coffee shop ... once we were all suitably caffeinated and inspired, we simultaneously popped open our umbrellas and started walking upriver along the Dodder. We all had a great time - even a dog named Judy. Absolutely amazing. So Jane’s Walk is officially off to a great start in Dublin!” - Dublin

“The informal, participatory model seemed to engage the walkers, with more than half the participants taking the megaphone at some point and everyone engaging in conversation throughout.” – Halifax

“It is always interesting to get the viewpoint of a “local” – Montreal

“I think it’s a fantastic way to way to engage people in their local community. Not only is it an opportunity to learn more about your city or neighbourhood, it’s a great way to meet your neighbours and get the conversation going. Best of all, it’s free!” – Calgary

“I learned lots of hidden stories and history that will animate this particular space forever after.” – Toronto

“Halifax is undergoing a lot of change at the moment — buildings going down and others going up. Many of the storefronts on Barrington Street are unoccupied with papered up windows. Because Halifax urban history can seem fleeting at times — disappearing around us — it was really powerful to have an older woman join the walk who has had experience with homeless people, shelters, and the gay community. She had the inside scoop on what had happened in various places — an underground knowledge of the city streets that is hard to pass on without a personal connection. Some of her stories included that of a homeless man who lived in a cemetery for several years, a gay bar that used to reside in the Khyber building, and an old tradition where street people would gather to drink tea with the nuns in the building on the corner of Barrington and Spring Garden Road.” – Halifax

“Jane’s Walk is what a wiki or Facebook page would look like in person. You’ve got all the information and stories, like a wiki, and all the social networks coming together like Facebook. It’s completely brilliant.”- Toronto

“The walk brought together people from far and wide, young and old, and helped empower us to work together to keep our communities strong. For instance, as we were walking by the old school (closed in 1992), a teenage boy asked what the government was going to do with the building. No one seemed to know. After silence and murmurs, the boy said out loud ‘well, WE should do something then.’ And it was really a moment when I saw the magic of Jane Jacobs. All the members in the crowd seemed to agree that we had to do something before the school was just allowed to be torn down or get dilapidated. This was where a lot of people chose to stop to talk or go for a coffee nearby. We promised eachother that we would somehow, as a group, find out what our options are for the school. Thank you for bringing Jane’s great ideas to people far and wide.” - Coboconk

“It was hands down one of the best examples of community development that I have seen. We had a very large, very respectful, and insightful crowd. It was an awesome day.” - Toronto

“About 20 people came out to walk around Neukolln (Berlin) and look at the history of typography and building names. We walked for about four hours. Lots of people contributed interesting observations about the neighbourhood, the empty buildings, design issues and the disappearance of certain kinds of typography in the city. Several people were interested in going on more walks and one person took up an idea of mine to start a mapping project on typography in the city of Berlin.” - Berlin
“One of our Calgary walks may be reprised as a way to introduce new community association volunteers from across the city to the work of community associations. The walk was such a powerful and visceral way to share the significance of the work.” – Calgary

“Follow up activities include the group deciding to approach the Public Works department to figure out a shared community approach to clearing the park pond for shinny hockey in the winter with people saying ‘Let’s make better use of this park in all the seasons.’” – Peterborough

“Energy was high, enthusiasm and conversation extended beyond the day of the walk, and many people mentioned that they had learned something new about the city. It was surprisingly beneficial in building cohesion among our extended community networks. People who had only ever met online final met in person. Further, a couple of community groups and organizations in attendance were able to talk about the work they’re doing, including a brand new initiative focused renewing vitality in the downtown.” – Halifax

“One walk visited an old sandstone school that sits empty. The City, neighbourhood activists, arts organizations, developers and many other players have been jockeying for years on what to do with it. Some of these interested parties met for the first time on this walk and have exchanged contact info to meet and talk further.” – Calgary

“The event is growing and diversifying as more people learn about it and as people gain a deeper appreciation for what a Jane’s Walk can do and be. We are expanding our reach into the suburbs – particularly those that are transitioning into inner-city neighbourhoods – and into geographically isolated neighbourhoods that tend to be stigmatized by the rest of the city but are demonstrably a source of pride to their residents.” - Calgary

“I discovered one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Montreal, which I had never visited before. I also found out more about mega-projects and important proposals being planned in the McGill Hospital area, information I feel I needed to have to be able to make up my mind about the urban impacts of those projects.” – Montreal

“These walks have changed the way I do my work, as a planner and city worker. The wisdom in the community is amazing and this is a great way to bring community knowledge back to the city.” - Toronto

“...that the sight of people attracts still other people, is something that city planners and city architectural designers seem to find incomprehensible. They operate on the premise that city people seek the sight of emptiness, obvious order and quiet. Nothing could be less true. The presences of great numbers of people gathered together in cities should not only be frankly accepted as a physical fact… they should also be enjoyed as an asset and their presence celebrated…”
- Jane Jacobs, ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities