Take a stroll through the cityJane's Walks about community talks

THE eighth annual Jane's Walk is back -- this time with more than a dozen guided walks throughout fascinating areas of Winnipeg.

Jane's Walk celebrates the ideas and legacy of Jane Jacobs -- a celebrated urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to building walkable and vibrant cites.

Free walking tours held on the first weekend of May each year are led by locals who want to create a space for residents to talk about what matters to them in the places they live and work. The first Jane's Walk was organized in Toronto eight years ago and it has since spread to cites across Canada, the United States and worldwide.

Community members with a passion for urban issues and local history volunteer to organize a walking tour in their neighbourhood exploring an interesting aspect of the lived urban experience. Jane's Walks are about community conversations.

Walks confirmed for this year include:

- Neighbourhoods Change: Exploring North Point Douglas. Join longtime North Point Douglas tour guide Rob Galston as he highlights important landmarks, sites, personalities and historic events that have given shape to one of Winnipeg's most historic, fascinatng and resilient neighbourhoods. - Explore the forgotten history of Victoria Park, the main gathering place for strikers during the 1919 General Strike in Sandy Gesslar's History and Heroes: Victoria Park and Winnipeg General Strike. - Join Tricia Wasney, manager of the Winnipeg Arts Council's Public Art Program, for an inspiring tour of the public art you walk by every day. - Over Under Sideways Down: Downtown! invites you to explore one of the most fascinating urban centres in Canada. Veteran Jane's Walk leader Rob Shaw presents an eclectic walk looking at "old gems" and new trends in downtown street design and residential development. - What can one street tell you about the changing face of a neighbourhood? On Our Way, West Broadway invites you to join Choi Ho as she walks a short stretch of Spence Street.

A complete list of walks is published on www.janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 14, 2014 A10