After joining a Jane’s Walk in my neighborhood – the West End – in May, I yesterday attended a Jane’s Walk Recap session at the Museum of Vancouver, discussing some insights from Jane’s Walks in the Vancouver neighborhoods of the West End, Marpole and Grandview-Woodlands which are all currently undergoing community plan processes.
During our discussion, it became clear that on the one hand each neighborhood has specific characteristics that people experienced and discussed but on the other hand all three neighborhoods face similar challenges such as affordable housing, heritage preservation, traffic, community or the scale of buildings and their relationship to people.
In the West End, a variety of issues such as the use of yards and backlanes as well as park space, recreation areas, community gardens and open space were discussed. Once again people made clear that they want a walkable neighborhood and affordability, renoviction, scale and traffic were some of the hottest issues.
Moreover, it became clear that thanks to its diversity and strong sense of community, for many people the West End simply feels like “home”. The neighborhood can also build on a rich character, sensing the history and the heritage, and is a really quiet, pleasant and walkable place for such a dense community.
With all these insights from many Jane’s Walks around three interesting neighborhoods, it became clear that Jane’s Walk in Vancouver clearly served its purpose of getting people out exploring their neighborhoods, meeting their neighbors and engaging in a friendly, engaged discussion amongst interested participants.
