Jane’s Walk events hit the streets this weekend

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on May 4, 2023.

Herald file photo A group of Jane's Walk participants spent time in the Garry Station neighbourhood during last year's event.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The city of Lethbridge is encouraging residents to take part in the free annual Jane’s Walk Friday through Sunday. This year the walk has been transformed into a three-day festival filled with activities for everyone to enjoy.

The purpose of the walk is to encourage people to get out on the streets of their neighbourhoods to discover unseen, under-celebrated and unique stories about their city.

Community planner with the city of Lethbridge, Genesis Hevia Orio, said Jane’s Walk is an annual event that is intended to honour Jane Jacobs, a journalist-turned-urbanist who was the first person to advocate for the preservation of older neighbourhoods in New York, before moving to Toronto.

“This was at the time when the planning field was decided on and delivered by engineers, and at the time they were trying to put in freeways and highways because the automobile was becoming very popular,” said Hevia Orio

She said their main purpose was to get cars from point to point. To be able to do that they had to tear down older neighbourhoods which destroyed communities that had been there for hundreds of years.

“Jane Jacobs advocated to preserve these older neighbourhoods, because she believed that every neighbourhood has its own stories and identity that needs to be shared and preserved beyond the buildings that exist,” said Hevia Orio.

She said the buildings help foster the community, but it is mostly about the people, their experiences and their stories that matter.

 “What she (Jane) really identified and try to honour was the stories that one person has, that by sharing with others they get a better sense of community and they meet their neighbours so they build social connections and they also appreciate their neighbourhoods a bit more,” said Hevia Orio.

 She said when Jane died in 2007 her friends in Toronto began organizing Jane’s Walks to keep the idea that neighbourhoods have stories that matter and value and to continue sharing that with all members of the community.

 “Every year thousands of cities around the world, in every continent and most countries, there are Jane’s walks happening the first weekend of May, and Lethbridge is delivering a Jane’s walk festival this year to continue that legacy,” said Hevia Orio.

 She said Lethbridge has been doing Jane’s Walks since 2011.

 “The first one started in London Road and they continue to be one of the neighbourhoods that continues to share their stories through Jane’s walks,” said Hevia Orio.

Jane’s Walk Festival will begin Friday with a Downtown Public Art Walk at 4 p.m. where members of the Allied Arts Council will guide residents through all the public art pieces downtown and share the story behind them, how they came to be and the meaning of each public art piece.

On Saturday, two walks will take place in the London Road neighbourhood at 10 a.m. where one will look at Indigenous plants and how they shape the landscape in the neighbourhood, and the other will look at all types of buildings in the London Road area, the new buildings, the older buildings and the renovated buildings. Residents will have an opportunity to learn where the buildings started, how they have changed and how development has changed over time.

 On Saturday at 3 p.m. a group of residents selected in a first register-first serve basis will have an opportunity to take a tour of the Waste and Recycling Centre.

 “To learn about what happens with our organics once they get picked up. We’ll be meeting at the Galt Museum and Archives and we’re going to bus all the attendees to the landfill and will get a tour of the new organics processing facility that the city has just built, so that they can process the organics that are going to be picked up from the organics program,” said Hevia Orio.

On Sunday, there will be a Jane’s Ride, a bike ride the environmentally conscious projects going on in the city will be highlighted.

“For example cycling, another example is green infrastructures, the solar panels being retrofitted in a home,” said Hevia Orio.

Detailed Walk descriptions, times, and meeting locations can be found at http://www.bit.ly/janeswalklethridge and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/janeswalkLETH.

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