Learn More About Your City With the Free Walking Tours of Jane's Walk This Weekend

Put on your walking shoes and get ready to explore the city — there’s a whole weekend of free walking tours this month that plan to show even the most seasoned New Yorkers something new about their city.

It’s the eighth year of Jane’s Walk NYC, a weekend of tours named after Jane Jacobs, opponent of powerful city planner Robert Moses and author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” the 1961 critique of 1950s urban planning policy. In the spirit of Jacobs, the free walks are led by local residents and are meant to spark conversations about planning, history, preservation, development and urban life.

Jane’s Walk NYC is organized by the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) but it’s also part of the global Jane’s Walk event with hundreds of smaller events in cities around the world. The walks start on Jacob’s birthday, May 4, and continue through May 6.

In Brooklyn, there’s a pretty impressive schedule of tours with dozens of walks scheduled across the borough.

If you want to learn more about East New York, you have two tour opportunities, both led by Zulmilena Then and Farrah Lafontant of Preserving East NY (PENY). On Saturday, May 5 at 11 a.m. you can join them for ‘The New Lots REgeneration’ to learn more about the area around Brooklyn’s last stop on the 3 line.

On Sunday, May 6 at 11 a.m. they’re exploring more of the neighborhood with ‘Treasures of the East,’ a tour past the architectural treasures of East New York and Cypress Hills.

In Dumbo, Navid Maqami of S9 Architecture will be leading a tour of Empire Stores and discussing the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Waterfront on Saturday, May 5 at 11 a.m.

If you are looking for a more strenuous hike through the city you can join resident Zach Youngerman for a 4.5-mile walk along tracing the glacial ridge line of Brooklyn through neighborhoods like Bay Ridge and Crown Heights on Saturday, May 5 at 11 a.m.

All walks are free but you’ll need to save a spot to find out the meeting locations. For more information on all the tours, click here.

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