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Jane Walks at Doors Open Ottawa 2013

Doors Open Ottawa

Jane's Walk Ottawa joins in Doors Open Ottawa with a walk through the new Social Sciences Building at the University of Ottawa. This walk was featured our schedule on Jane's Walk Ottawa festival weekend earlier this month, and here is a chance to see it if you missed it.   Details on the walk are available here.

Doors Open Ottawa offers a chance to learn more about many of Ottawa's public and private buildings. It's your opportunity to see some spectacular interiors and to find out what goes on inside our landmark buildings. To see the entire schedule for Doors Open Ottawa, go to their website at Doors Open Ottawa and look for the link to the program:  2013 Buildings---pdf.

As well as the Jane's Walk tour, there will be several opportunities to walk around the University of Ottawa Campus with long-time Jane's Walk contributor Michel Prévost. His walk is described in Item 119 in the Doors Open program.

Jane's Walk wins Leadership Award!

The Canadian Urban Institute has honoured Jane's Walk with the Leadership Award for City Soul. More here. The Urban Leadership Awards are given to individuals and groups who are making Canada’s cities healthier, safer, and more dynamic places to live and work. About the CUI.

Cui Publication

Of course, Jane's Walk happens only through the participation of all our volunteers and attendees:  the walk leaders who put in time and effort to prepare and lead their walking tours, the marshals who keep the walks on track, our organizers over the years, our sponsors and partners who share their resources, and those who come out to see, hear, learn, discuss, and share.  You are all recipients of this award.  Thanks to everyone who has helped us build Jane's Walk Ottawa over the years.

Jane's Walk Ottawa  2013

Jane's Walk: Saturday & Sunday, May 4 & 5

Jane's Walk Ottawa will be back in May for a sixth year. Jane's Walk Ottawa is our local celebration of the work of Jane Jacobs that begins with Jane's Talk on Thursday, May 2 (see details below), and continues with our walking tour festival on Saturday & Sunday, May 4 & 5.

Susan At Dundonald Michelle Kirkman Photo

Everyone is invited to participate. You can come out as a walker, or lead a tour yourself. There are lots of volunteer roles from walk marshal to organizer. If you can help organize or you would like to lead a tour, please get in touch soon through Contact us.

The schedule is shaping up, with more walks being added daily.  Go to schedule.

Jane's Talk: Thursday, May 2

This year's Jane’s Talk will feature a group of community activators from Vanier from various organizations partnering in a neighbourhood-wide effort to revitalize their community:  the Vanier Community Association, the Arts Vanier Registry and Festival of Nations, Crime Prevention Ottawa, MuseoParc Vanier MuseoPark, the Beechwood Village Alliance Jane's Walk, VanierNow, the Vanier Community Services Centre and Embellissement Vanier Beautification.  The night's program will describe how individuals and groups have found their role in contributing to the community and at the same time achieving concrete outcomes for the community. They would like to share their experience and accomplishments with our audience: if we did it, you can do it, too.

Jane's Talk will be held

  • Thursday, May 2, 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
  • TAN Coffee, 317 Wilbrod St. (at Friel) in Sandy Hill. 
  • Admission is free, but pre-register at Eventbrite to reserve a place. 

Jane's Walk Ottawa on FaceBook

We're phasing out our FaceBook group, and replacing it with a regular FaceBook page.  If you're on Facebook, drop by the Jane's Walk Ottawa page.  Check it out.   

As mentioned, our FaceBook Group is winding down, but if you'd like to go there, you can find it here.

What is Jane's Walk?

Jane's Walk is a weekend festival of free neighbourhood walking tours led by locals who care passionately about where they live, work and play. Jane's Walk is a pedestrian-focused event that improves urban literacy by offering insights into local history, planning, design, and civic engagement through the simple act of walking and observing.  more

"No one can find out what will work for our cities by looking at garden suburbs, manipulating scale models, or inventing dream cities. You've got to get out and walk.
— Jane Jacobs, "Downtown is for People", The Exploding Metropolis, 1957.

"I like walking because in cars you can't see very much and can't get a close look at things. When you walk, you can say 'stop' and then look."
— Jane's Walk participant S.B., age 6.


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Thank you to all our supporters!

Jane's Walk Ottawa would not be possible without the support of many organizations and individuals. Our sponsors and partners include: