From Hyde Park to Sheffield Park to Madison Park, plenty of Charlotte-area neighborhoods are filled with people who love where they live. Now, they have an opportunity to show the world what’s remarkable about their neighborhoods.
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Read about previous years’ walks: |
The Jane Jacobs Walk festival in early May offers an opportunity to spotlight neighborhoods that might not be on everyone’s radar screens – as well as help neighbors interact with one another and to welcome others from around the community.
The first weekend of next month, May 2-4, neighborhoods around the world will hold Jane’s Walks, to honor Jane Jacobs, a neighborhood activist who successfully fought the most sweeping “urban renewer” (Robert Moses) in New York. This year, with help from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, PlanCharlotte.org is helping organize and publicize a flurry of Jane’s Walks all around Charlotte on that weekend.
Here is the essential thing to know: Anyone in any neighborhood can lead or join a walk, and the walks are free to the public. It’s a bottom-up, not a top-down event. It need not be on foot either. You might ride a bike or roller-skate.
If you’d like to create a walk and publicize it, visit the Jane’s Walk website’s page for Charlotte.
The festival is not limited to Charlotte neighborhoods. If you’re in another town or city and want to organize a walk, visit the main Jane’s Walk website – http://www.janeswalk.org – and click on “Add Your City.” You’ll have to register on the site.
If you find the website tricky or would rather talk by phone, feel free to contact Mary Newsom (704-687-1203) or Selena Skorman (704-687-5110) at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute.
Charlotte is full of places with intriguing histories, buildings, parks, greenways and people. Whether your neighborhood is McCrorey Heights, or Colonial Heights or Washington Heights, Jane’s Walks offer a chance to bring your neighbors together.
