Jane’s Walk, a celebration in honor of the renowned author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” and expert on cities, Jane Jacobs, has resumed in Cambridge for the first time since 2019. On Saturday more than 50 people, including city councillor Cathie Zusy, braved the rain during a two-hour walk around the summit and back slope of Observatory Hill.
Jane’s Walks are free, community-led “walking conversations.” The idea was inspired by Jacobs’ principle that the best way to understand cities is to get out and walk and observe. Each year in early May – on or about Jacobs’ May 4 birthday – these walks take place simultaneously in hundreds of cities around the world.
Charles Sullivan, executive director of the Cambridge Historical Commission, once again led the walk, peeling back the layers of development since the early 19th century when the land around Observatory Hill was wide open. The walk began at St. Peter’s Church, built in 1847 to accommodate the Irish immigrants settling in the area. The group asked Sullivan numerous questions as he pointed out brickyard workers’ cottages, Greek Revival houses, works of the pioneering woman architect Lois Lilley Howe and a surprisingly different structure in the 20th-century Gray Gardens subdivision: a 1790s tavern built in Duxbury transported and reconstructed as a home in 1930.
The walk was organized by Glenna Lang, longtime Cambridge resident and author of the recent book, “Jane Jacobs’ First City: Learning from Scranton, Pennsylvania.” Twelve delighted walkers got copies of “Jane Jacobs’ First City” donated by publisher New Village Press for the occasion.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.
Congratulations to Glenna Lang for keeping activist Jane Jacobs on the urban radar. Context was evident in stories about triple deckers tucked away and 18th and 19th C houses, many of them multi-family, anchoring old topography.
Jane Jacobs challenged urban planning and priorities during the “scorched earth” bulldozing of Urban Renewal of the 50s and 60s. She argued that cities were living beings and ecosystems, advocated ideas such as “mixed use” development, criticized organized “high-rise housing”, and championed diversity, density and dynamism in a healthy “urban jumble”. “Jane’s Walks” are now in 212 cities in 36 countries, on six continents.
As Cambridge moves forward with new zoning, it is important to revisit Jacobs’ urban principles which saved communities from the wrecking ball. Her approach in design, open space, sociology of urban spaces- not just sterile numbers-doesn’t have to be a deterrent for much needed development. But it is part of a vibrant community.