Will Stittsville Main Street be Ottawa’s next great neighbourhood street?
That’s the question we’ll discuss on Saturday, May 7 as part of Stittsville’s first-ever Jane’s Walk. I’ll be leading a walking tour down Stittsville Main at 10:00am, starting from Village Square Park (Stittsville Main @ Abbott). The walk will last about 90 minutes.
Jane’s Walk Ottawa is a city-wide festival of neighbourhood walking tours led by locals who care passionately about where they live, work and play. The goal is to improve urban literacy by offering insights into local history, planning, design, and civic engagement through the simple act of walking and observing.
It’s named after Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), a writer, urbanist and activist who championed a community-based approach to understanding, organizing, designing, and building cities.
“No one can find out what will work for our cities by looking at garden suburbs, manipulating scale models, or inventing dream cities. You’ve got to get out and walk,” said Jacobs in 1957.
On Stittsville Main Street, rapid population growth and a new “Community Design Plan” could mean our traditional village main street is on the verge of a rebirth.
On this walk, we’ll talk about the street’s historical role in the old railway village, we’ll look at where it stands today, and we’ll discuss opportunities and obstacles as it begins to be transformed into a walkable, people-oriented main street.
Hope to see you there! For more information click here.