Advancing the observations of Jane Jacobs takes many forms, and one of the best routes for doing this is to get out and walk. When our Canadian colleagues and board members inaugurated the Jane's Walk program, we jumped on board with them as Jane's Walk USA. With limited funds but unlimited energy, undergraduate students in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah assembled ways to bring this "gift to the world" to as many interested people in the United States as possible.
The first event was conducted on May 5, 2007, in Toronto by a group of Jacobs' friends and colleagues who wanted to honor her ideas and legacy. Mayor David Miller declared it Jane Jacobs Day, and twenty-seven local guides offered walks in the neighborhoods where they worked, socialized, and lived.
Over the years, the program has expanded worldwide, and together with our Canadian colleagues, we have worked to bring the power of observation to communities as different as Anchorage, Alaska, and Mumbai, India. Each year, the program has increased its pace, and now has grown to include worldwide, and we have evolved to year-round international walks as Jane Jacobs Walk (formerly Jane's Walk USA). Each year, under the leadership of the Center for the Living City, our Jane Jacobs Walk program is taking steps to bring insights, community connections, and power of observation to a diversity of neighborhoods in cities throughout the world.
