The East York-Riverdale Mirror

This was a relief, as I was scheduled to be part of a neighbourhood event called Jane's Walk, named after the celebrated urban theorist and activist Jane Jacobs.

Jacobs was a noted critic of "urban renewal" in the 1950's, arguing that it was actually more about urban destruction as it left once vibrant neighbourhoods unlivable unless you owned an automobile.

She began her writing and activism in New York City, successfully fighting new expressways during the early '60s, and then moved to Toronto because of her objections to the Vietnam War.

She continued her efforts here, helping to stop the Spadina Expressway, influencing the re-vitalization of the St. Lawrence Market area and being a major critic of amalgamation.

One of her contentions was that you cannot know a neighbourhood by driving through it. Only by walking in a neighbourhood are you brought into contact with what makes it "real".

Sunday's walk was part of a new endeavor that began in Toronto and New York last year and is now spreading through out Canada with the intention of getting people out into their community so that they can reconnect to it.

I had been approached by Stephen Wickens, the real estate editor for The Toronto Star, to be part of a walk along the Danforth once known as "Upper Midway" which stretches between Greenwood Avenue to just past Woodbine Avenue.

After the Second World War this stretch of the Danforth was one of the nicest shopping areas in Toronto and I had experienced it first hand during the '50s and '60s while working in my family's butcher shop at Woodbine Avenue.

When I showed up for the walk at a quarter to one, Wickens and one other person were there to greet me and we felt the group would probably grow to about a dozen people given how nice the day was.

By 1 p.m. the number had swelled to a startling 150 or so, flabbergasting both Wickens and I and also heartening us at the amount of interest people were showing in their community.

The walk was a great success, as the orderly and disciplined crowd travelled along the Danforth, eagerly taking in the information we provided about the history and future potential of the street.

What was clearly said by many whom I talked to while on the walk was that they wanted a neighbourhood where they can walk to a local store and feel connected to their community.

There is a real change occurring in the way people want to live in their community due to the rising price of gasoline coupled with their awareness of environmental and local social issues.

Neighbourhood business should now partner with the community that surrounds them in order to re-vitalize the Danforth into the street it was always meant to be.