Go For a Walk... Or Three
Join an upcoming Jane's Walk, connect event or a May Mum day adventure
This weekend, in hundreds of places around the world, people (including us) will be outside exploring their cities on free walking tours. It’s all part of Jane’s Walk, an annual festival of community-led walks and talks inspired by Jane Jacobs, a writer, urbanist, and activist.
We love this weekend so much! The walking tours are all free, led by volunteers. They’re a great opportunity to hear stories from passionate people, discover new places or learn something new about a place you regularly go, and connect with others (we even know of one couple who met and started dating after a Jane’s Walk Cailynn helped lead).
A Jane’s Walk showcasing Sunnyside’s alley art in May 2019.
Check out what’s happening in your city and plan to join a walk. In Calgary, you can find all the details on all the walks here, and if you’re having trouble picking a walk, you can search by location, date, time, theme and accessibility.
There’s a huge range of offerings, from an urban sketch walk at St. Patrick’s Island to birding around the pond in McKenzie Towne, a poetry walk in Mount Pleasant and a downtown gay history walk, just to name a few.
Cailynn has helped lead Jane’s Walks in her Calgary neighbourhood numerous times, and pre-pandemic, we both hosted a Jane’s Talk event through our Urban Affairs Book Club (RIP). We read and discussed The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, and even heard from Jane Jacob’s Calgary nephew.
A rainy Jane’s Walk, in 2017, showcasing the quirks and character of Sunnyside.
We love the simplicity of this weekend festival — it’s just people, out walking and talking, together. So in that vein, here’s ideas on a few more upcoming group walks you can join.
Connect Event Series
The City of Calgary is working on its next 20-year plan for Calgary’s parks, covering how parks are developed, redeveloped and managed. As part of that project, feedback is being collected through various methods, including on walks.
Interpretive walks at Weaselhead Flats and Nose Hill Park happened in April, but there’s an upcoming connect with birds walk at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on May 13. It involves World Migratory Bird Day and the launch of a new IndigiTRAILS tour. Find all the details here.
May Mum Day Adventures
And we’re hosting a walk this Friday — a May Mum Day Adventure in support of the Alberta Wilderness Association. Join us for a kid-free wander at Bowmont Park at 4:30 pm; head here for all the details. We’d love for you to join! And check out the other walks happening throughout May, including at Nose Hill, Weaselhead and Fish Creek.
