Vancouver is one of upwards of 250 cities partaking in Jane’s Walk – an annual community-led series of walks aimed to get people talking about their cities, held in honour of urban activist Jane Jacobs.
Westender sat down with architect and Jane’s Walk Vancouver leader Elizabeth MacKenzie ahead of the May 5-7 event.
“Jacobs was an urbanist and an author,” explains MacKenzie. “Her most notable book was written in 1961, [called] Death and Life of Great American Cities.” (Citizen Jane, a film about Jacobs, recently screened at Vancity Theatre.) “After Jane died,” she continues, “a group of her friends got together to go on walks on her birthday. The following year a group of other citizens joined, from there it became an unofficial, unsanctioned organisation that regroups every year.
“Jane would have been 101 this year,” MacKenzie adds.
If you are expecting a biography lesson on each walk, though, think again; Jane’s Walks are not about Jane. “When I first got involved, I assumed that it was all about Jane Jacobs,” says MacKenzie. “Jane’s Walk is not so much a lecture on what you are seeing, but is more of observation or [an organic] discourse.
“Jane would call them walking conversations.”
This year Jane’s Walk has about 25-30 walks all over the city. There is a schedule online and it is free of charge, with the goal that you just “show up and walk.”
Walks include tours of North False Creek, Vancouver’s public art, and the Arbutus Corridor. Many more will be led across the Lower Mainland.
