When the revitalization of a minority community comes around, gentrification is a few steps behind; A student’s take

BY KAHA G. – 14 YEARS OLD

As you may know, Regent Park was known as Toronto’s largest community housing complex before the revitalization. It is notable that, when the revitalization of a minority community comes around, gentrification is only a few steps behind. In geography class, we were asked to choose a side to either be a part of the City Council, Daniels Corporation, or the residents. Since the documentary called “Farewell Regent,” was visibly biased towards the current residents, we had to go take a look for ourselves, and might I say I was surprised! Now, you might be wondering, which side did you choose? Well, I chose to be a newcomer to Regent Park, hence that the only point of view was from the current residents. I present to you, my statement.

Hello, my name is Kaha Gedi, and I am writing on behalf of the newcomers that have moved to Regent Park. I recently moved into Regent Park just last month. My family and I moved in because the majority of our family lives here. I’ve looked around the city and the prices are crazy high. Especially those tiny, one-floor houses that cost a million dollars. Anyways, I’ve been looking for a nice place to stay, which is why I jumped on the idea of Toronto’s first and largest community housing complex getting revitalized.

I looked at the new condos and community housing buildings being built, which look beautiful. I love how conveniently Daniels and TCHC designed the place. For example, there’s a school close to my apartment, and better yet a humongous community centre for children to have fun after school, as well as restaurants placed around there in case we want takeout.

I used to live in a rural community, so this is a significant shock on how much they’ve invested in this place. Additionally, I love the diversity in Regent Park; there are so many different cultures and religions. This is why it’s upsetting that it was deemed to be a quote-on-quote “ghetto” place to live.

Before the revitalization leadership shown in the community was and still is admirable. For example, in the 80’s there were no community centres, and there was high poverty, gun violence, or violence in general.

Regent Park may have been an area with low-income individuals, but at the end of the day, being impoverished is a state of mind. The number of people that have been forced to relocate shows the colours of gentrification and all the chaos that comes along with it. Why couldn’t they have revitalized some of the original apartment towers, and assured that the current residents would get their homes back? That would have been a better solution, as well as fair to the current residents.

Furthermore, I heard Regent Park is undergoing stages 4 – 5 of the revitalization, involving Tridel and TCHC’s partnership. They are contributing 26.8 million dollars to the prioritized needs of the community and are awaiting the rezoning application to be approved. They are also holding listening tours to get a better understanding of what people want in their neighbourhood and making deep connections with the community.

These changes are vital not only for the current residents, but for the future residents as well,

After all, it is all about community.

Thank you for your time.