Jane’s Walk helps Philadelphians find our place in this city | Opinion

When I walk South Street or in the Italian Market, near where I live, I feel at home. I take comfort in the familiar sights, reinforced in retracing millions of steps, and the sense that living in this big, complicated place, I’m part of something far bigger than myself.

I am not a Philadelphian — not in the sense of someone who was born or raised here. But, I am Philadelphian by choice, having lived here for 11 of the last 14 years. My understanding of the city isn’t built on generational family knowledge, but observation and the experience walking its streets; my mental map becomes more intricate the longer I live here.

Being a Philadelphia citizen is to belong to a place older than the nation, a more intimate bond than the nationalistic sense of that label. But what does it mean to be of this city? How do we express that? It's more than paying taxes, serving jury duty, or rooting for our teams. (Though it’s all those things.) In a more romantic sense, citizenship is about our collective work creating Philadelphia every single day, and the ways we demonstrate our commitment to that complex, beautiful project and to each other.

That’s the highest calling of a city, anyway. Or, as urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs, wrote in a 1958 essay, “There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.”

I feel most Philadelphian during Jane’s Walk, a weekend of public walks inspired by Jacobs’ influential ideas — particularly that our cities are better when we’re all involved in writing their histories or planning their futures. It’s an annual event that takes place in some 250 cities worldwide on the first weekend of May. Locally, Jane’s Walks are led by professional and citizen experts who believe Philadelphia’s neighborhood narratives, layers of history, natural systems, and creativity ought to be better appreciated and understood. They hold space on the street for dialogue among strangers about the city we share.

We often sleepwalk our way through the city, ticking through the day’s tasks in our head or distracted by devices. Jane’s Walks ask us to do the opposite. They’re a chance to move through Philadelphia deliberately, trying to really see it, hear each other’s stories, and share public space. They are moving expressions that we care about this place, and our places in it. I see them as tonic that helps recharge our sense of citizenship.

Being a citizen is a pledge that we renew by participating in our city’s public life. In its most basic sense, public life begins when we hit the city’s streets on foot. When we do, we become part of the larger body politic. We can choose walking as a solitary experience, but I think there is magic when we let ourselves become part of the whole, when we run errands and surrender to serendipitous encounters on the same trip. That’s the gift of city living, and it strengthens our bonds to this place.

Every day we thread our own stories into the slipstream of city sidewalks, invisibly imprinting them with the experiences we carry, dancing what Jacobs called the “sidewalk ballet.” When we pound the pavement together this weekend — as Broad Street Runners, or as Jane’s Walkers — we get a chance to publicly reaffirm our citizenship. I hope you’ll walk out loud this weekend.

Ashley Hahn is a writer and the city organizer for Jane’s Walk Philadelphia, which takes place this weekend, May 3-5, with 35 free, public walks. The full local schedule is at janeswalkphl.org.