Jane's Walk: The Search for Walkable Cities |
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| Written by Sabrina Bowman |
| Monday, 27 April 2009 10:53 |
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“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.
A short, fiery woman with no planning background, Jacobs increasingly loudly questioned the “wisdom” of cities built for cars. Instead, she proposed a community-based approach to the design and layout of cities that has since revolutionized the way people look at how cities should be created. She advocated symbolizing the city as an ecosystem, alive and fluctuating, with its development entirely dependent on how it is used. In other words, once-vibrant downtowns would meet their slow death when residents migrated by automobile to the blandness and perceived safety of the suburbs, leaving cities neglected and devoid of community.
Dense cities, while not innocent of contributing to environmental degradation, have a much smaller impact on the environment. They are usually well-serviced by public transportation, and often feature amenities within walking distance of most residents. They build on land that is already urbanized rather than gobbling up natural spaces. As the epigraph of this article indicates, Jacobs was an advocate of making walkable cities. She championed shorter blocks, denser buildings, and interactive, friendly urban neighbourhoods, as opposed to car-dependent and isolationist suburbs. She advocated for cities that are not only pedestrian-friendly, but that put pedestrians first, before automobiles. Although suburbs were originally envisioned as the safer and friendlier alternative to city living, in reality, they contribute to a worrisome trend of individualization and the destruction of neighbourhood interaction due to their car-dependence and sometimes, even a lack of sidewalks. The more time spent in a car, the less time spent walking neighbourhood streets and bumping into neighbours. In an urban neighbourhood where residential areas are peppered with businesses, community centres and libraries all within walking distance, people are (surprise, surprise) more likely to get out and walk. Rather than driving from your home to your garage/parking space, to your work parking lot and back again, you have to step out your door, and on to the sidewalk, making you interact with others - you’ll have to make eye contact with strangers, and perhaps (heaven forbid!) even smile at them. Walking, as opposed to driving, also exposes you to a multitude of urban features you might have missed when speeding by in a car. By walking, you can often pass by beautiful or sometimes stunningly hideous architecture. You might discover a new restaurant or shop you’d never have known existed if you simply zipped along the highway. You’ll sometimes stumble upon a small oasis of green, or a little courtyard with a public bench where you can rest your weary feet and watch the world go by. In fact, walking in the city forces you to learn about where you live, and situates you in the moment. Unlike in a car, you cannot shut out the sounds of the city, the brightness of the lights, of the voice of the man asking for change. It forces you to interact in multiple ways with the elements around you, and forces you to see where you are going. Despite a reputation for being dirty and dangerous, dense, walkable cities are actually havens of neighbourliness with the benefit of exposure to a world (both figuratively and literally) of people, sights, sounds, tastes and smells. But this will happen only if we decide to make the city our home, leave the car in the garage (or better yet, eschew car ownership altogether) and pick up on our own two legs (or one leg or wheelchair, whatever the case may be) and walk towards a greener, friendlier and more vibrant place to live. Jane Jacobs passed away in 2006, but through her legacy arose “Jane’s Walks.” These series of neighbourhood tours started in 2007 in Toronto, and have since spread to Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, PEI, Regina, Edmonton and several other Canadian cities. The walks are organized by volunteers, led by passionate urbanites, often experts in a wide variety of fields, and are free and open to anyone who wants to learn and who loves their city. All the walks encourage dialogue and help participants to see their city and their neighbourhoods in a different light. The walks always occur in the first weekend of May. To find out how you can participate in this legacy, visit www.janeswalk.ca.
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