History

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Portrait of Jane Jacobs by John Scott, hanging in the stairway of 401 Richmond Street, a thriving multi-use building re-adapted and re-purposed by Margie Zeidler, that lends credence to the Jacobsian premise that “Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.” (Credit: Yvonne Bambrick)

Jane’s Walk Vision
Walkable neighbourhoods, urban literacy, cities planned for and by people.

Our History
Jane’s Walk was inaugurated on May 5, 2007 in Toronto by a group of Jane’s friends and colleagues who wanted to honour her ideas and legacy, Mary Rowe, Margie Zeidler, Chris Winter, Alan Broadbent and Ann Peters. The first Jane’s Walk began with Mayor David Miller proclaiming it Jane Jacobs Day. 27 tours were offered by volunteer local guides who got hundreds of people out exploring their neighbourhoods.

Attendance and buzz exceeded all expectations - Jane’s Walk was an instant hit. CBC broadcaster Jane Farrow was one of the inaugural tour guides that year, she co-led a queer-history walk called “Yonge Street is Flaming” and found the whole experience thrilling, took a part-time leave from CBC and came on board as the Executive Director in the summer of 2007. She quickly organized the event in New York for that fall - eleven tours were offered around Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, thus proving that Jane’s Walk was highly adaptable and exportable to other cities.

An advisory board formed (Mary Rowe, Margie Zeidler, Max Allen, Ann Peters, Hannah Evans, Alan Broadbent and Linda Weichel), some monies were raised, and Jane Farrow became the full time Jane’s Walk Executive Director, leaving her job at CBC Radio. The event quickly grew in Canada in 2008, going from one city to eleven with 141 tours on offer. In Toronto, there were 69 walking tours, including six student-led tours developed through the Jane’s Walk School Edition initiative.

In 2009, Jane’s Walk expanded by 130%, adding many new partner cities in Canada including Regina, Sudbury, and Montreal. Smaller towns like Guelph took on the organizing of an impressive 25 walks, Regina with 13 and bigger centres like Vancouver and Ottawa jumped in with both feet, organizing dozens of walks (including French and bilingual tours) and putting together their own websites. Efforts to take the walks international that year got a boost when we partnered with the Center for the Living City in the US who got Jane’s Walk started in a dozen American cities including New Orleans, Boston and Phoenix. They were also critical in making the connection to organizers in Mumbai, India who led a walk through an ancient neighbourhood that had seen centuries of development, decline and renewal. In 2009 315 walks were offered, in 46 cities involving more than 10,000 walkers.

In 2010, our fourth year, Jane’s Walk expanded again. 454 neighbourhoods were explored by thousands of people in 68 cities worldwide. In Canada, the walks were held in 28 cities with new events in Saskatoon, Kamloops, Sault Ste Marie, London, Coboconk, Edmonton, Peterborough and Victoria. Toronto is the birthplace and headquarters of Jane’s Walk and the event here is quite spectacular. Local tour guides offer up the inside scoop on more than a hundred tours a year (120+ in 2010) and create a valued and magical space for the city to discover itself. A total of 343 Jane’s Walks were offered in Canada in 2010.

For our fifth year, 2011, Jane’s Walk grew again. This year we had 511 walks in 75 cities and 15 countries across the world. 36 Canadian cities hosted 401 walks - with 178 in Toronto!

Internationally, things are getting very exciting with Jane’s Walks being done around the world in 2011, including:
Brazil - São Paulo
China - Wuhan
England - Colchester and Hereford
Germany - Berlin
Israel - Tel Aviv & Yaffo
Mexico - Guadalajara, Jalisco
The Netherlands - Amsterdam
The Philippines - Carcar, Cebu Province
Slovenia - Ljubljana
Spain - Barcelona, Madrid

In the US, Jane’s Walks has really taken off this year with 25 cities in 2011 and a roster of 64 walks in such places as Anchorage, Austin, Baton Rouge, Brunswick, Boston, Chattanooga, Heber Valley, Utah, Houston, Jackson, Kansas City, Mesa, New York City, New Orleans, Oakland, Orange, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Scranton, Syracuse, Tempe, Arizona, and Waterbury, Connecticut. 2012 promises to be even bigger.

Jane’s Walk is bringing people to their feet and celebrating neighbourhoods a wide variety of cities and towns, proving that people want and need opportunities to reach out and get to know the places they live and work, and find common cause in city building with the people with whom they share space.

Jane’s Walk USA
For further details about Jane’s Walks in the US, please visit their site at www.janeswalkusa.org

Our Structure
Jane’s Walk is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives, a foundation based in Vancouver. Jane’s Walk has a full time staff of one, Executive Director Jane Farrow, and a nine member advisory board currently consisting of Linda Weichel (Chair), Max Allen, Alan Broadbent, Eli Malinksky, Michael Murray, Chi Nguyen, Ann Peters, Netami Stuart and Margie Zeidler. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the part-time Operations Director and Community & International Walks Coordinator, her work focuses on walk coordinating, community outreach, website management and logistics. Several walking tour facilitators are brought on closer to the May event to help community groups develop their walks and raise awareness around walking environments.

Our Office
Jane’s Walk is a small operation housed within the thriving Centre for Social Innovation, a shared space organization for social enterpreneurs located in downtown Toronto.

Accolades
Jane’s Walk was recognized as a Vital Idea by the Toronto Community Foundation in 2008.
Jane’s Walk was awarded the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation’s ‘Active Transportation Champion’ award in 2008.
Jane Farrow, the Executive Director of Jane’s Walk, was recognized as a Vital Person by the Toronto Community Foundation in 2010.

For more information about Jane’s Walk, it’s objectives and initiatives, click here.