Red Deerians are invited to spend the weekend walking while learning about their city.
For the third year, the City of Red Deer has organized walking tours from Friday through Sunday in conjunction with the international Jane’s Walk movement.
Jane’s Walk honours the legacy of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs, a Torontonian whose ideas were influential in modern urban planning.
The walks are designed to be educational, helping citizens to explore their city while getting an insider’s perspective.
Red Deer is hosting five walks, all of which are free and open to all.
The first walk, on Friday morning, is to help children explore traffic signals and safety while hopping, skipping and jumping their way to school. The walk is scheduled for 8 to 8:20 a.m., with participants asked to meet at 50 Springfield Ave.
The walk will end at Mountview School and is to be led by Emily Damberger.
On Saturday, city Coun. Paul Harris will lead a walk from 1 to 2:30 p.m. focusing on sustainability, quality of life and walkability in the urban environment. The walk will start and end at Sunworks (4924 Ross St.).
The first of three Sunday walks is titled Planning for pedestrians: Where did all the sidewalks go? being led by Rod Trentham.
Running from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., walkers will meet in the east parking lot of Canadian Tire (2510 Gaetz Ave.) and end at the Superstore on 52nd Street.
From 1 to 3 p.m., Paul Pettypiece will lead a walk visiting several existing railway sites while looking at the role the city’s three railroads played in its development.
The old railway station at the corner of Ross Street and 51st Avenue will serve as the walk’s meeting and end point.
Finally, local historian Michael Dawe will lead a walk focusing on how the 1911 town plan for Red Deer still shapes the city today. The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery will serve as the start and end point for the 1:30 to 3 p.m. walk.
City environmental program specialist Lauren Maris said the walks are meant to celebrate the built environment focus area of the city’s Environmental Master Plan.
“The idea is to bring awareness about how our built environment affects us,” she said.
Registrations are encouraged through environmentalservices@reddeer.ca so walk numbers are known.
For more information on the international initiative, visit www.janeswalk.net.