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Media Release:

On Friday May 5th at 5:30pm join your neighbors for the second annual Jane's Walk TC. It all starts at Jefferson St. & Fulton St.(parking on Fulton & shuttle back from end provided).

You're invited to an informal stroll from the west side to downtown. Meet people & sidewalks you might not know. You can break off anytime from the 1.5 hr. walk. From Jefferson & Fulton the walk will wander by Immaculate Conception Church & School, Sleders Tavern, some recent developments on Randolph, Garland, Pine & State, through the Warehouse District, over the new “Pedestrian Bridge” maybe a little along the Boardman River & end at the Perry Hannah statue at 6th & Union.

For more info on Jane's Walk - janeswalk.org

For TC info - Mark Nixon 231 620 1339 mhnixon@yahoo.com

- Robert Foulkes 231 256 9351

On Saturday, May 6th, at 4pm join the first Jane's Walk Empire. Amble the great streets of Empire. Start at the Sleeping Bear Dunes Headquarters and wander some of the best sidewalks of Leelanau county. See historic architecture, New and Old Neighborhoods and finish at the Empire Museum.

For Empire info - Robert Foulkes 231 256 9351

What is a Jane’s Walk?

Jane’s Walks are free, locally organized walking tours, in which people get together to explore, talk about and celebrate their neighborhoods. Where more traditional tours are a bit like walking lectures, a Jane’s Walk is more of a walking conversation. Leaders share their knowledge, but also encourage discussion and participation among the walkers. A Jane’s Walk can focus on almost any aspect of a neighborhood, and on almost any topic you can think of.Walks can be serious or funny, informative or exploratory; they can look at the history of a place, or at what’s happening there right now. Anyone can lead a walk -- because everyone is an expert on the place where they live!

Some examples: A walk in Colchester, England was led by two brothers, aged 6 and 4, who showed walkers around their favorite park and shared interesting historical facts about the local castle. In Ljubljana, Slovenia, a city councillor came on a walk to discuss the history and potential future of the area around a stalled construction site. In the heart of Toronto, Canada, a Queer Newcomer Youth walk was led by a group of young people who had all arrived in the city recently, but had found a welcoming community there. In Calcutta, India, a group set out to explore the wetlands at the city’s edge.

Our Mission

To develop urban literacy and a community-based approach to city building by encouraging citizen-led walking tours that make space for every person to observe, reflect, share, question and collectively reimagine the places in which they live, work and play. In this way, we honor the legacy of Jane Jacobs whose writings championed the voices of local residents in neighborhood planning.

Why did we start Jane’s Walks?

Jane’s Walks can be educational, and a lot of fun. You can meet your neighbors, make new friends, and exchange business cards with new contacts. You can learn something new, and share what you know. But there are some big ideas behind these walks as well -- and they come from Jane Jacobs, the organization’s namesake.

Jacobs was not a city planner by training; she was just a concerned citizen who spent a lot of time observing city life around her, first in New York City, then in Toronto. From her observations, she developed some theories about what makes a city a great place to live. After she passed away in 2006, Jane’s Walk was founded in Toronto by a group of her friends and colleagues who wanted to honor her ideas and legacy.

In her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs wrote:

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

Jacobs believed in walkable neighborhoods, urban literacy, and cities planned for and by people. That is, for a city to work, the people who live there must be involved in decisions about how the city grows and is run. Staying informed about civic issues, learning the basic concepts of urban planning, and meeting the people who make the decisions are all good ways to do this -- and are all things you can do on Jane’s Walks.

Thanks, Mark

Mark Nixon 231 620 1339 mhnixon@yahoo.com