“Talking about how things should be”
Jane's walk working to drive community discussion about improving the city they live in
An upcoming Jane’s Walk in Oshawa will see discussion not just about the Oshawa of years past, but also on what can be improved for the future.
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
A worldwide movement is coming to Oshawa is looking to do two things: get you on your feet and get you talking about your community.
The made-in-Canada Jane’s Walk initiative, created in 2007 in honour of the late Jane Jacobs, an author and journalist world-renowned for her work in urban studies, looks to get people talking about what they like, and perhaps what they don’t like, about the communities they live in.
“I find that Jane’s Walks sort of give you a new view of your home neighbourhood or city and they’re really good at encouraging engagement and community involvement and meeting your neighbours and finding out what matters in that location for everybody,” says Jane Clark, the organizer of the events in Durham Region.
Running this weekend (May 5 to 7), walks will be hosted in several Durham communities including Oshawa, Whitby, Bowmanville and Ajax. The last time Durham saw a Jane’s Walk was back in 2012.
Designed as “walking conversations,” Clark says Durham communities have much in common, and similar issues around car-centric urban sprawl and perhaps talking about and finding ways to make the region less car-dependent.
“These are the kinds of things where you get a bunch of people together who would normally just be sitting in separate cars and you get them talking about how things should be. It’s sort of like citizen urban planning,” she says.
“The main thing for these communities in Durham Region, to me, is that they have very poor walkability scores. In fact, they seem to be that Jane’s Walks are sorely needed in a place like this.”
Starting on May 5, a pair of walks will take place first in Whitby (Werden’s Walk, a tour of the neighbourhood around the Lynde House museum) and in Bowmanville at Camp 30, a National Historic Site and abandoned POW camp.
On May 6, the events continue with a cycling tour through Oshawa as well as a “Walking in the Steps of the Bomb Girls” walk in Ajax.
Finally, May 7 will include a walking tour of Oshawa’s historic downtown, and an additional tour of Camp 30 in Bowmanville.
For further details, timing and meet-up places for the events, visit janeswalk.org/canada/durham-region.