‘Jane’s Walk’ in Cebu this May 3, 4

JANE’S Walk is an annual festival of free, citizen-led walking conversations inspired by Jane Jacobs. Its mission is to help people walk, observe and connect with their community and environment. Walks inspire people to make a difference because they enable members of a community to discover and respond to the complexities of their city and environment through personal and shared observation.

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building. She had no formal training as a planner, and yet her 1961 treatise, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail, that now seem like common sense to generations of architects, planners, politicians and activists. A firm believer in the importance of local residents having input on how their neighborhoods develop, Jacobs encouraged people to familiarize themselves with the places where they live, work and play.

Walks take place in hundreds of cities around the world this May 3 to 5. Here are the activities for Cebu’s Jane’s Walk:

May 3, Friday

2 p.m. - A walking tour of Museo Sugbo, a former prison during the Spanish occupation that now houses the Cebu Provincial Museum since 2009. (Meet up at Museo Sugbo). 4 p.m. - Lost bookstores and cinemas of Cebu (Meet up at Halad Museum on Manalili St., Cebu City).

May 4, Saturday

8 a.m. - Liloan Food and Heritage Walk (Meet up in front of the Liloan City Hall). 9 p.m. - Pasil Food and Night Market Walk (Meet up will be at the 7-Eleven on GF Antigua Bldg, B. Aranas corner T. Abella St., Cebu City).

The walks require no registration. Contact Cebu Literary Festival on Facebook or email cebuliteraryfestival@gmail.com or contact 0917-815-5794 for more information. /