The next nine Trenton Walks! will meander through a park and a marshland, around downtown Trenton and into some great neighborhoods this spring.
Trenton Walks! is an initiative of the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association, a nonprofit, public-private partnership dedicated to promoting and providing transportation choices that are designed to reduce congestion, improve mobility, increase safety and further sustainability in Mercer and Ocean County.
The focus of the walks this spring will vary from historic battles and the best of nature to the history of the D&R Canal and plans to reconfigure Route 29 in downtown Trenton from an expressway to an urban boulevard to enhance pedestrian and bicycle access to the Delaware River waterfront and redevelop surface parking lots into a new mix of land uses.
Trenton Walks!, an initiative of the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association.
The next walk will take place on Thursday, April 24, with walkers enjoying a stroll on the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park Towpath and Greenway from the Battle Monument through downtown Trenton.
That will be followed by the first Sunday afternoon walk for the program, on April 27. This walk will be hosted by Larry Paul, leader of the Trenton Green Team, the executive sponsor of Trenton Walks!
Longtime Chambersburg resident Jeffrey Laurenti will chat about the history of Chambersburg and Villa Park and the key roles this area has played in Trenton's history, on Saturday, May 3. He'll cover the evolution of this part of Trenton from the Italian quarter of the capital city to the home of many Latinos, one of the two largest ethnicities in the capital city.
Walkers will get a taste of Trenton’s Mill Hill neighborhood when Jacque Howard, Trenton365 media guru, takes the lead on Wednesday, May 7, for a walk along the Assunpink Creek Greenway.
The first Friday afternoon walk will follow on May 16, with an ambling walk around historic Cadwalader Park, the more than 100-acre park designed by the father of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted. This walk will be led by Cadwalader Park Alliance leaders Becky Taylor, Randy Baum and Jordan Antebi.
On Thursday, May 22, two New Jersey Future leaders, Sabrina Rodriguez-Vicenty and Ben Dziobek, will lead walkers to the other side of Route 29, enabling participants to stand next to the river and imagine what a new highway configuration might mean for those who want to bike, walk, fish, or recreate in some other way in a new park next to the Delaware River.
In a walk led by Tim Brill, Trenton Walks! co-chair, on Sunday, June 1, walkers will stand at the same site as George Washington did during the Revolutionary War during the pivotal First and Second Battles of Trenton. This special history tour highlights the many locations in the downtown area that played a critical role in the “Ten Crucial Days” that turned the tide in America’s fight for independence, as our nation prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding next year.
This spring season's walks will end with another lunchtime walk in downtown Trenton in early June, a second June walk that focuses on the D&R Canal history and its current use as a water source for one milllion New Jersey residents, led by Stephanie Vannais, resource interpretive specialist with N.J. State Parks, Forests and Historic Sites, and a glorious celebration of nature at the Abbott Marshland, led by Kelly Rypkema of the Mercer County Park Commission.