Saturday, May 19, 2012

A Note about Jane's Walk

I've had wonderful and gratifying feedback about "Jane's Walk"in comments, in emails, and in personbut it seems some readers are puzzled about the reason for the title and at least one has questioned its correctness. So, two-thirds of the way through the series, I offer again, as I did at the outset, my reason for doing the series and for calling it "Jane's Walk." 

May is Preservation Month. The first weekend in Maythe weekend of Jane Jacobs' birthdayis when the Center for the Living City encourages self-organized walking tours to "promote increased civic engagement [on the part of people] who care deeply for their communities." The imperatives that typically follow the title "Jane Jacobs Walk" are "Walk. Observe. Connect." To celebrate both Preservation Month and the work of Jane Jacobs, I came up with a uniquely Gossips of Rivertown version of Jane Jacobs Walk, meant to encourage readers to "walk, observe, and connect" with the built environment of Hudson and to discover new reasons to care deeply about this remarkable city.  

"Jane's Walk" will continue undeterred for the next twelve days, with apologies to those who think I have misappropriated the title and to the memory of Jane Jacobs if I indeed have.

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