Community is very important to me. I'm passionate about it because community is a big part of my Samoan culture. Community is about people. We believe in supporting each other as we live life together. It's so innate in me to support my community. I loved the opportunity!
Having said this, it was both André and I's first Janes Walk. We haven't even gone on a Janes Walk before. I had heard of the movement through twitter but had not yet participated. I was definitely excited about this movement though and was happy for the opportunity to participate.
What's a Janes Walk? In a nutshell, it's a walk/tour, in honour of Jane Jacobs - a writer and activist who supported community friendly urban development. These walks/tours celebrate neighbourhoods in which the tour-guides live. Definitely check out the website for more information and be inspired to lead a walk in your neighbourhood next year!
Our walk was on Saturday, May 3rd at 1:30pm. The weather was threatening rain. It rained before our walk and right after but thankfully, we had no rain during the walk (minus a few light drops). I prayed for this little miracle all week as I don't like to get wet! Having said this, we don't think the weather encouraged people to come out on our walk (or perhaps it was a boring topic or perhaps we're just terrible at marketing!). However, because I told my kids they HAD to come on their Pappa's walk, they invited a pile of their friends who enthusiastically came! Even a parent came along too, so, we had a very excited and energetic little crowd and thankfully, André was quick on his feet and was able to adapt his walk to a mostly 9-12yr. old group!
We live in Uptown Waterloo, Ontario and what André and I love about this area is the new Architecture popping up in Uptown that seems to frame the history of this area while looking ahead to the future. When André and I first moved to the area, the Uptown was not much of a destination. It was a place that you passed through but was not too interested in spending time. It's industrial roots were the prominent voice but it's transformation has an educational overtone that André and I embrace and are inspired by. Our Janes Walk is in walking distance of our home and we have walked this area before meeting each other as students, as a couple (still students) and as a family (as students and finally finished being students!). We love it and I'm SO happy to share it with you!
One of the kids on our walk, an intelligent and spunky 10 year old girl, brought her iPad on the walk and asked if she could take pictures as we went. We were SO excited to see the walk from her perspective and then we were SO inspired by her photos when we saw them, that I asked her and her Father if I could post her pictures on my blog. This is a such a treat and I hope you enjoy these as much as I have enjoyed putting them together.
 |
| We began our walk at Barrel Warehouse Park, an incredibly designed Urban park right in the heart of Uptown Waterloo. This park is part of the Seagram Lofts - an award winning revitalization of an industrial building. I love that there is a park right in the heart of our city! |
 |
| Green space!! Yes! This is our downtown! |
 |
| Moving along to the CIGI building across the quiet street of Father David Bauer Dr. |
 |
| André talked to the kids about courtyards - I think she took a stunning picture of this gorgeous garden - still trying to come back to life! The bell takes us around the corner to the Erb St. face of CIGI. |
 |
| The 4 corners revealed! Perimeter Institute, The Canadian Clay and Class Gallery, Knox Presbyterian Church and CIGI (where we were standing!). |
 |
| The photo up top of my daughter looking into CIGI was the first time her friend showed me her photos. This was their favourite photo! At the bottom, my daughter's taking notes of the materials that she noticed were being used in the buildings. André had asked the kids to take notice of all the different materials being used - she took the exercise one step further! You can imagine how proud that made her Pappa feel! |
 |
| The kids were soon distracted by the train that came into the historical Waterloo Central Railway Station. Great pic of the old mixed with the new! (Perimeter Institute in the background) |
 |
There's lots of public space/exploring space for the kids here, so, lots of great photo ops from our young friend! An interesting point, we didn't walk over to the more public space area of Knox Presbyterian church, our next stop. There were no photos taken from our young friend there. The kids enjoyed looking into the church and you'll see more pics of them when I put up my perspective of our Janes Walk. |
 |
| Over to The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, where there's ample public space, the train is a fun distraction once again! In addition to the train, concrete posts were also a playful distraction for the kids and no more pictures are taken here as they were SO engaged in play. You'll see that on my perspective of our Janes Walk as well! |
 |
| The kids were evidently intrigued by the architectural canopies at each building and they were always wanting to look inside each building. I thought these "looking inside" shots were so playful and perfectly reflective of how the kids experienced each building on our Janes Walk. |
 |
Nature seemed to always matter to these kids and I would imagine, to all kids! |
We began at The Barrel Warehouse Park and ended at Waterloo Park. Sandwiched in between were buildings that inspire and cause you to reflect on your life - where you are in life and where you're going as a person. This is what I love about Uptown Waterloo - it's a place for people to discover great things while they have the opportunity to discover the same greatness in themselves.
