The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide

The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide is a growing collection of people, organizations, projects, books, ideas and ongoing conversations about cities and the people who shape them. It grows out of the podcast, but extends well beyond it—connecting the people doing the work, the places where it’s happening, and the ideas, experiments and resources worth carrying forward. Think of it as part reference library, part trail of breadcrumbs: a way to follow the conversation wherever it leads.

Explore by type, browse alphabetically or by date, or search for something specific. Follow the tags to discover connections—or explore the map to see where the people, projects and ideas in the Field Guide take us.

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Dark Ages Ahead

If The Death and Life of Great American Cities was Jane Jacobs’ She’s So Unusual, Dark Age Ahead is the deeper, stranger masterpiece you wish more people knew.

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Susan Hughes

Susan Hughes is an award-winning Canadian author whose work spans children’s fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and picture books. She has written more than 30 books for young readers, often exploring history, community, social issues, and the ways people understand the world around them.

Her books include Walking in the City with Jane: A Story of Jane Jacobs, illustrated by Valérie Boivin, which introduces young readers to Jacobs and the observations about everyday city life that shaped her thinking

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Walking in the City with Jane

Susan Hughes’ illustrated children’s book introduces young readers to Jane Jacobs through the curiosity and careful observation that shaped her ideas about cities. It follows Jacobs from her fascination with everyday urban life to her celebrated fight against plans that threatened New York neighborhoods.

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Jane’s Walk

Jane’s Walk is an annual festival of free, community-led walking conversations inspired by Jane Jacobs.

On the first weekend of May every year, Jane’s Walk festivals take place in hundreds of cities around the world.

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Sarah Luca

Sarah Luca is an urbanist and community builder who served as chair of the board of Jane’s Walk, the global movement of free, community-led walking conversations inspired by the work and ideas of Jane Jacobs.

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Nate Storring

Nate Storring is Co-Executive Director of Project for Public Spaces , where his work focuses on placemaking, public-space stewardship, and engaging people in urban planning and design through storytelling. He has helped shape PPS research and resources on inclusive placemaking, innovation districts, and place governance, and is co-editor of Hyperlocal: Place Governance in a Fragmented World and Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs. Before joining PPS in 2015, Nate produced exhibitions and public programs exploring cities, architecture, and transportation in Toronto, Chicago, Boston, and Rhode Island.

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Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs was a writer, activist, and urban thinker whose close observation of everyday street life transformed how generations understand cities. Her work challenged top-down planning and championed mixed uses, short blocks, density, and the complex social choreography of sidewalks and neighborhoods. Her description of that choreography gave Sidewalk Ballet its name.