Meet me on Stittsville Main Street: A recap of this year’s Jane’s Walk

This year's theme was "third places"

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the 2025 edition of Jane’s Walk on Stittsville Main Street.

The walk was one of dozens of free, citizen-led walking tours during Jane’s Walk Ottawa, which itself is part of a worldwide movement of walking tours and events inspired by Jane Jacobs (1916-2006). She was 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.

I’ve been organizing the Stittsville Main Street walk since 2016, and each year we talk about the past, present, and future of the street. We start with the street’s historical role in the old railway village, we look at some recent developments and planning challenges, and we discuss opportunities and obstacles as it starts to transform into a more walkable, people-oriented street.

This year’s theme was “Meet me on Stittsville Main Street”, focused on “third places” in the community. If your “first place” is your home, and your “second place” is your workspace, a “third place” is someplace where you gather with other people.

And there are a lot of “third places” on Stittsville Main Street. There are outdoors spaces, including at Village Square Park, Bradley Square, and outdoor patios. There are private spaces, especially coffee shops. And there are indoor spaces, like the Legion, the Stittsville Muslim Association, the library, the Stittsville Youth Centre, the Lions Hall, and many more.

Research on “third places” have shown that they are important for mental health and social connection. In the face of threats to democracy and to the values that underpin our society, I also think that “third spaces” are an important place where we can build community resilience, by bringing people together to encourage dialogue, co-operation, and support.

“Third spaces” are more important than ever, and I encourage you to get out and explore. See you soon on Stittsville Main Street!

Thanks to our volunteers including Ellary, Lucy, Mandy, Marlova and Tracy, who assisted with photography and served as walk marshals. Some of their photos are included in this post, and you can see more here.