See Bayview like you've never seen it before

NEWS RELEASE

JANE'S WALK

************************* Sault Ste. Marie joins fourth annual urban walk-fest

Saultites invited to discover Bayview

SAULT STE. MARIE, ON - On Sunday May 2, Saultites are invited to take to the streets for Sault Ste. Marie’s first annual Jane’s Walk.

Jane’s Walk is a series of more than 100 free neighbourhood walking tours that explore our collective history, architecture, planning and personalities.

Since its inception four years ago, Jane’s Walk has grown to reach over 50 cities across six countries and four continents.

Celebrating the legacy of Jane Jacobs, the foremast urban thinker of our times, Jane’s Walk inspires citizens to get to know their city and each other by getting out and walking.

Jacobs famously declared that walkable, diverse and mixed used neighbourhoods are the hallmark of a healthy city and its people.

Sault Ste. Marie’s first Jane’s Walk will highlight the Bayview neighbourhood, including the Sault Theatre Workshop, Glasgow Park, the original site of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, recent efforts to address air quality issues and the impact of the urban renewal movement on the neighbourhood’s history.

Participants are invited to meet at the steps of the Sault Theatre Workshop [shown], 121 Pittsburg Ave., Sunday, May 2 at 2 p.m.

“For Jane Jacobs, the best way to get to know the city and the neighbours was on foot,” says Jane Farrow, executive director of Jane’s Walk. “Jacobs encouraged everyone to just get out and look around, to walk the sidewalks and talk about what they thought needed to happen to make their neighbourhood better.”

Current and past neighbourhood residents are encouraged to take part in the walk and share stories about Bayview, while Saultites that are unfamiliar with the neighbourhood are encouraged to take part and enjoy the stories, company, and walk.

About Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building.

She had no formal training as a planner, and yet her 1961 best-seller The Death and Life of Great American Cities introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail that are now common sense to today’s architects, planners, politicians and activists.

Foremost is her simple yet revolutionary idea that dense, mixed use neighbourhoods are the key to the health and survival of a city.

About Jane’s Walk

Jane’s Walk cultivates a broad understanding of how cities - their economies, neighbourhoods, communities and institutions - organically develop and thrive.

It works to advance walkable neighbourhoods, to increase urban literacy and promote neighbourhood cohesion, civic engagement and leadership.

*************************