Streetsblog

In Honor of Jane Jacobs, Take a Walk This Weekend

This weekend marks the sixth annual set of Jane's Walks, walking tours about urban history and planning held in honor of the patron saint of 20th century urbanism, Jane Jacobs. In New York, the Municipal Art Society has catalogued more than 70 tours, all of them free, in all five boroughs. In most cases, there's no RSVP required.

By Noah Kazis

4:17 PM EDT on May 4, 2012

This weekend marks the sixth annual set of Jane’s Walks, walking tours about urban history and planning held in honor of the patron saint of 20th century urbanism, Jane Jacobs. In New York, the Municipal Art Society has catalogued more than 70 tours, all of them free, in all five boroughs. In most cases, there’s no RSVP required.

The selection is great (really, go check out the full list), but here’s a sample of walks that should appeal in particular to Streetsblog readers:

Manhattan West Public Space Icons: From Times Square to the High Line, look at the urban design transformations taking place on Manhattan’s West Side. This tour will also look at protected bike lanes, pedestrian plazas and transit corridors. Saturday, 8:15 a.m.
Brownsville Brooklyn: The Brownsville Partnership is doing incredibly innovative work on restoring the pedestrian environment, encouraging mixed-use development, and boosting bike and pedestrian safety around Brownsville’s many super-blocks. The group leads a tour of their neighborhood. Saturday, 10:00 a.m.
New Dorp, Staten Island: Possibilities for Walkability and Transit in a Railway ‘New Village’: Learn about how Staten Island’s old town centers and railway stations can form the backbone of a more urban borough. Saturday, 11:00 a.m.
Complete Streets (r)Evolution: Jackson Heights and Elmhurst in Queens: See how safe streets and new public spaces are coming to two of New York’s most vibrant, immigrant-friendly neighborhoods. Saturday, 11:30 a.m.
Eyes on Brooklyn Heights: Market Urbanism contributor Sandy Ikeda leads this tour showing how Brooklyn Heights exemplifies Jane Jacobs’ ideas about urban development. A Market Urbanism meet-up will follow. Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
The World’s Most Talked-About Bike Lane & The (Former) Home of the Death-o-Meter: More of a Jane’s Bike, this family-friendly ride looks at the new Prospect Park West bike lane and the changes to Grand Army Plaza. Sunday, 12:00 p.m.

Go check out the full list for more walks, including those more focused on history, architecture and preservation. See you there.

Noah Kazis

Noah joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox. Before coming to Streetsblog, he blogged at TheCityFix DC and worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Toledo, Ohio. Noah graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis on the class politics of transportation reform in New York City. He lives in Morningside Heights.

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