Experience Downtown Blog

Celebrate Jane Jacobs with Free Community Walks in May

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In its fourth year, Jane’s Walk MKE encourages people to walk, talk, explore, and reimagine our city together during the month of May. There are more than 40 free, community-led tours and explorations to engage people in exploring their own neighborhoods and others around the city. The all-volunteer effort includes walks and talks as well as paddle events and bike rides. More than 1,000 people laced up their shoes and hit the streets during the 2018 Jane’s Walk MKE. This year, the month kicks off with a “Ballroom Block Party” on Wednesday, May 1, at Turner Hall Ballroom.

Jane’s Walk MKE is part of a worldwide movement of more than 200 cities hosting free, resident-led walking tours, inspired by urbanist, writer and activist Jane Jacobs. Milwaukee is unique in that it offers one of the largest efforts worldwide by expanding from one weekend to the whole month. Jacobs (1916-2006) championed the voices of everyday people in neighborhood planning and city-building. She is the subject of the critically acclaimed 2017 documentary Citizen Jane. and author of the classic Death and Life of Great American Cities.

The Ballroom Block Party is a free event at Turner Hall Ballroom on Wednesday, May 1, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The evening’s multi-faceted format was inspired by the Project for Public Spaces' Power of 10 concept, which argues that "places thrive when users have a range of reasons (10+) to be there.” Attendees will experience art, music, Milwaukee trivia, food and drink, fun photo opportunities, and “sidewalks” lined with organizations dedicated to making Milwaukee better for all through neighborhood- and community-building efforts. Learn more and register at JanesWalkMKE.org.

Here is a sample of free community-led explorations available to all. View the continuously growing list and register for events at JanesWalkMKE.org.

1. Wednesday, May 1: Kickoff celebration - Ballroom Block Party at Turner Hall
2. Friday, May 3: Thoroughly Modernist Milwaukee-A TGIF Stroll
3. Saturday, May 4: Cambridge Woods Neighborhood Walk
4. Saturday, May 4: Connecting Water & Art in the Garden Homes Neighborhood
5. Saturday, May 4: Koch Walk (downtown)
6. Saturday, May 4: Reclamation & Restoration in the 30th Street Industrial Corridor
7. Saturday, May 4: Lincoln Park SpringFest Walk
8. Saturday, May 4: Inaugural Hank Aaron State Trail Spring Ride & Sculpture Unveiling
9. Sunday, May 5: East-to-West Night Hike
10. Sunday, May 5: Urban Wilderness Paddle in Lincoln Park
11. Sunday, May 5: Center Peace (Sherman Park)
12. Sunday, May 5: Complete the Eight-Hour Day March (Bay View)
13. Wednesday, May 8: Jane’s Walk - Bay View
14. Friday, May 10: ZIP MKE’s 28 in 28 Tour: 53202
15. Saturday, May 11: Back Down Memory Lane (Villard Avenue)
16. Saturday, May 11: Hike the Gorge!
17. Saturday, May 11: Connections and Reconnections: Lakefront Brewery and Brady Street
18. Saturday, May 11: A Walk with Neighbors from Lindsay Park to Nash Park
19. Saturday, May 11: Jones Walk (on Jones Island)
20. May 11 & May 12: Milwaukee's Vanishing LGBTQ Landmarks (Walker’s Point)
21. Sunday, May 12: Welcome to Forest Home Cemetery
22. Monday, May 13: 20 Years of Creative Transformation in the Menomonee River Valley
23. Wednesday, May 15: The hidden beauty of Milwaukee River Greenway
24. Friday, May 17: ZIP MKE’s 28 in 28 Tour: 53203
25. Friday, May 17: What’s cool and new in Riverwest
26. Friday, May 17: Bike-In Movie Series Kickoff - 88Nine’s INVISIBLE LINES
27. May 18 & May 19: Through a glass darkly - Hike the Milwaukee River Trails
28. Saturday, May 18: Bike the Brown Deer Trail
29. Saturday, May 18: Wisconsin Ave to New State Theater - Transforming a Commercial Corridor
30. Saturday, May 18: Westown Walking Tour - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
31. Sunday, May 19: Poetry WALK in Juneau Park
32. Sunday, May 19: Building a Healthy, Sustainable Neighborhood for All
33. Sunday, May 19: Milwaukee's Women in History at Forest Home Cemetery
34. Sunday, May 19: The Hartung Park Story: From Quarry to Landfill to Urban Park
35. Sunday, May 19: Lindsay Heights - Economic & Green Renewal
36. Thursday, May 23: Discover the Kinnickinnic River!
37. Thursday, May 23: KK River Trail Gap
38. Thursday, May 23: Yield Tosa - Crosswalk Audit of North Avenue
39. Thursday, May 23: Safer Passages: Hawley Road Diet Post Walk/Bike
40. Friday, May 24: ZIP MKE’s 28 in 28: 53204
41. Sunday, May 26: Urban Food Roots Walk
42. Wednesday, May 29: Milwaukee's RiverWalk (downtown)
43. Friday, May 31: ZIP MKE’s 28 in 28: 53205

Jane’s Walk MKE is an all-volunteer effort made possible through an organizing committee and dozens of community partners and residents striving to engage and reimagine our city through observation, dialogue, education, and storytelling. Jane’s Walk MKE is a local program of Milwaukee Turners.

Jane’s Walk MKE’s mission is to organize free, resident-led neighborhood explorations and building community connections that embody urban activist Jane Jacobs’ legacy through observing and dialogue, education and storytelling, and collectively reimagining and changing the places in which Milwaukeeans live, work, and play. We believe in building a “walkable and talkable” city, planned for and by citizens. We envision a Milwaukee that has, to borrow from Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities,“ the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, [it is] created by everybody.”