Regent Park

Alternate uses: Regent Park (disambiguation)

Regent Park is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Formerly the centre of the Cabbagetown neigbourhood, it is bounded by Gerrard Street East to the north, River Street to the east, Shuter Street to the south, and Parliament Street to the west. It is an extremely culturally diverse neighbourhood, with more than half of its population being immigrants. It is home to approximately 12,000 people. Over 50% of the population living in Regent Park are children 18 years and younger (compared to a Toronto-wide average of 30%).

The average income for Regent Park residents is approximately half the average for other Torontonians. A majority of families in Regent Park are classified as low-income, with 68% of the population living below Statistics Canada's Low-Income Cut-Off Rate in one of its census tracts, and 76% in the other (compared to a Toronto-wide average of just over 20%). Poverty is a reality for seven in ten Regent Park families.

Regent Park's residential dwellings are entirely social housing, and cover all of the 69 acres (280,000 m²) which comprise the community. Indeed, Regent Park is Canada's oldest social housing project, having been built in the late 1940s. (The Toronto slum neighbourhood then known as Cabbagetown was razed in the process of creating Regent Park; the nickname Cabbagetown is now applied to the regentrified, upscale area north of the housing project.)

Redevelopment

Now more than a half-century old, Regent Park projects are aging rapidly and are in need of costly repairs. The city government has developed a plan to demolish and rebuild Regent Park over the next ten years, with the first phase starting Fall 2005. The addition of market units on site will double the number of units in Regent Park. Former street patterns will be restored and housing will be designed to reflect that of adjacent neighbourhoods (including Cabbagetown and Corktown), in order to end Regent Park's physical isolation from the rest of the city.

In support of the Clean and Beautiful City campaign by Mayor David Miller, and to further the goal of elevating architecture in all Toronto Community Housing Corporation projects, an architectural competition was held for the design of the first apartment building in the complex. Toronto-based architectsAlliance was selected winner of the competition, with a Neo-Modern glass point tower set on top of a red-brick podium structure in their proposal.

As one of Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods, Regent Park has been stigmatized as a bastion of immeasurable poverty and despair. However, evidence has proven the contrary; there is a strong sense of community that pervades Regent Park and its diversity is reflected in the city's diversity. Certainly, the revitalization process will modernize Regent Park, however it remains to be seen whether or not it will effectively reduce the neighbourhood's poverty and stigma.

The redevelopment has been criticized by housing activists such as John Sewell for actually reducing the number of rent-geared-to-income units available and for allegedly concentrating these units in buildings that will be exclusively low-income. Despite these allegations, the City approval of the redevelopment is conditional on the replacement of all of the rent-geared-to-income units that existed in Regent Park prior to the commencement of redevelopment. A small number of the rent-geared-to-income units, however, can be rebuilt in other locations in the east Downtown, outside of Regent Park itself.

Evolution from a Transitional Community to a Residential Community

Regent Park was originally designed as a transitional community. It was to house people experiencing financial difficulties, for whatever reason. Most residents were on social assistance, and working residents paid rent proportional to their income. In the last two decades Regent Park has also become an immigrant settlement community, as immigrants facing difficulties in settling in Canada come to live here. Thus, the community is always viewed, administrated, and existed as a transitional community. This contributed to the concentration of a socially marginalized population, and various social ills of the Regent Park. In particular, a transitional community did not generate the awareness, interest, and commitment of its residents to invest in the development and sustainability of a higher quality of life.

The revitalization has provided an opportunity for the community to transform it self into a residential community. The mixed income housing model is aimed towards this end. However, critics allege that the revitalization maintains segregation and separate treatment of the poor, as it allegedly keeps the units housing the assisted-rent and the market-rent units separate. Also, critics claim that revitalization will eventually phase out the poor population that presently reside in Regent Park.

Regent Park Community Groups and Service Agencies

File:RPservices.jpg

Regent Park Community Services

Various community groups have been highly active in promoting a positive sense of community and community representation, and in pursuing a higher quality of life. Regent Park Neighborhood Initiative (RPNI) is one such organization, which mission is “to provide leadership in building and sustaining a healthy and vibrant community.” Another such organization is Regent Park Focus, which “uses media technology as a tool to employ young people, enhance resiliency, bridge information gaps, increase civic engagement, promote health and effect positive change.” Pathways to Education is a program of the Regent Park Community Health Centre that promotes “individual health and the health of the community by addressing the two principal social determinants of health: education and income.” Moreover, there are various cultural associations such as Regent Park Tamil Cultural Association, which aim to promote intra and inter cultural development and exchange, and to foster a healthier community.

List of Community Groups:

Regent Park Residents Council
Dreamers - Peace Garden [1]
Regent Park Women and Families
Regent Park Youth Council
Regent Park African Women's Group
South East Asian Services
The Umar Bin Khattab Mosque [2]
Parents For Better Beginnings Team [3]

Political Representation and Administration of Regent Park

Canada consists of 308 electoral districts, and Regent Park is located in the Toronto Centre – Rosedale riding. For city administration, each district is divided into two city wards. Regent Park is located in the Toronto Centre ward.

**Regent Park Political Representation**
People Representatives in Government	Member of Toronto City Council	Pam McConnell, Police Services Board Chair
	Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP)	George Smitherman, Minster of Health
	Member of (Federal) Parliament (MP)	Bill Graham, Leader of the Opposition
Candidates for Canadian federal election, 2006	Bill Graham	Liberal Party of Canada
	Lewis Reford	Conservative Party of Canada
	Michael Shapcott	New Democratic Party
	Johan Boyden	Communist Party of Canada
	Chris Tindal	Green Party of Canada
	Phillip Fernandez	Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
	Liz White	Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada
Active Non - Electoral Political Groups	Ontario Coalition Against Poverty	Issues: Poverty, Homelessness, Police Violence

Social, Economical, and Political Issues in Regent Park

Regent Park is home to an immigrant and marginalized population. It experiences a higher rate of violence, crime, drug abuse, and social ills compared to other Toronto communities. Also, the community is characterized by high rate of poverty and unemployment. Despite many positive developments these issues remain.

Police and Residents Relations

As late as 2001 the relation between some residents and police was confrontational[4]. The Toronto Police Service – 51 Division [5] is responsible for the community. It was once located in the community at 30 Regent Street, and it has now moved to near by 51 Parliament Street.

Regent Park is one of the high crime prone area, and police face tremendous challenges in providing protection and security to the community. Recently, the community and police relations have greatly improved. Police have adopted a community oriented, preventive, and collaborate approach, and indicate that they are more effective in providing security to the community.

Culture of Poverty

Regent Park has been described as a community where the “culture of poverty” prevents people from improving themselves. People behave the way they do because that is how they are accustomed to or because they are not aware of the better alternatives available to them. In Regent Park the “culture of poverty” exhibits it self in the following manners:

Lack of concern for the environment:

Broken beer bottles, discarded old appliances, and examples of vandalism are found throughout the neighbourhood. Most people are unaware or have little interest in maintaining a clean and sustainable environment. The TCHC has serious flaws in its waste management strategy. For instance, Regent Park units do not have a comprehensive recycling program.

Regent Park as a Social Experiment

Regent Park is Canada's first and the largest social housing project or a social engineering project. Thus, it has attracted the attention of various social science scholars and media. Scholar and activist Dr. Sean Purdy has written his thesis based on his research about Regent Park. His paper "Ripped Off" By the System: Housing Policy, Poverty, and Territorial Stigmatization in Regent Park Housing Project, 1951–1991[6] provides valuable insights about Regent Park.

In addition, Norman Rowen, Program Manager of The Pathways to Education Program, and researcher Kevin Gosine have published research that documents the success of Pathways in improving academic achievement and reducing the high school dropout rate among Regent Park youth.

The recent Regent Park Revitalization Plan is also viewed and undertaken as a pilot Canadian social re engineering effort. The federal and local governments view the plan as means to establish best practices and bench marks. Although, such enthusiasm adds to the momentum of the revitalization plan, the Regent Park history warrants caution as not to repeat or reproduce the shortcomings of its past.

List of Academic Literature

Purdy, Sean. "Framing Regent Park: the National Film Board of Canada and the Construction of Outcast Spaces in the Inner City, 1953 and 1994,” Media, Culture and Society (UK), Vol.27, no.4 (July 2005).

Purdy, Sean. “By the People, For the People: Tenant Organizing in Toronto’s Regent Park Housing Project in the 1960s and 1970s,” Journal of Urban History, Vol.30, no.4 (May 2004), 519-548.

Rowen, Norman and Kevin Gosine. "Supports that matter: A Community-Based Response to the Challenge of Promoting Academic Achievement Among Impoverished Youth," in B.J. McMahon and D.E. Armstrong (Eds), Inclusion in Urban Educational Environments: Addressing Issues of Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing (2006), 277-299.

External links

Regent Park Organizations

Employment and Community Service Agencies for Regent Park

Schools in Regent Park

Regent Park in the Media

When good design meets bad planning John Sewell on the Regent Park redevelopment plan (July 7, 2005)
What to do with Regent Park? John Sewell, January 20, 2005
Roll of the Dice in Regent
Immigrant dreams become nightmares
Tragedy in Regent Park

Community Building

Ideas that Matter - RP Featured Issue
From ghetto to neighbourhood - Redevelopment Graphics

	North: Cabbagetown
West: Bay Street, Church and Wellesley	Regent Park	East: Riverdale
	South: Corktown