Regent Park is a neighbourhood located in
downtown Toronto,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
built in the late 1940s as a
public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...
project managed by
Toronto Community Housing
Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) is the public housing agency in Toronto, Ontario. A municipally owned corporation, municipal corporation of the Municipal government of Toronto, City of Toronto, TCHC provides approximately 60,000 unit ...
. It sits on what used to be a significant part of the
Cabbagetown neighbourhood and is bounded by
Gerrard Street East
Gerrard Street is a street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It consists of two separate parts, historically referred to as Lower Gerrard and Upper Gerrard. The former stretches between University Avenue and Coxwell Avenue for 6 km, across Old T ...
to the north, River Street to the east, Shuter Street to the south and
Parliament Street to the west. Regent Park's residential dwellings, prior to the ongoing redevelopment, were entirely social housing and covered all of the 69 acres (280,000 m²) which comprise the community. The original neighbourhood was razed in the process of creating Regent Park. The nickname Cabbagetown is now applied to the remaining historical, area north and west of the housing project, which has experienced considerable gentrification since the 1960s and 1970s.
History
Regent Park—and adjoining areas of the Old City's east end—were home to some of Toronto's historic slum districts in the early 1900s. Most residents of the area were poor and working-class people of British and Irish descent, along with smaller numbers of continental European Jewish and Macedonian immigrants. Concern over crime and social problems in the area, as well as substandard housing, led to plans for affordable housing during the Second World War.
These plans came to fruition soon after the end of the war, when the Regent Park North public housing project was approved in 1947. Families began to move into Regent Park North in 1949, but construction continued into the 1950s. The last families moved into Regent Park North in 1957. In subsequent years, more public housing units were built in Toronto, including Regent Park South, which was completed in 1960. The high-rise portion was designed by
Page and Steele Page + Steele, formerly known as Page and Steele, is an architecture partnership created in 1926 by Forsey Pemberton B. Page (1885–1970) and W. Harland Steele (1900–1996) in Toronto, Ontario. It is now part of the IBI Group of architectural and ...
while the spartan
row house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...
and walk-up apartments were designed by John Edward Hoare.
![RPpic1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/RPpic1.JPG)
Although Regent Park had been designed to alleviate the area's substandard housing, crime, and social problems, these issues soon reemerged. By the mid-1960s, for example, there were complaints about the housing projects falling into a state of disrepair. Changes to the Canadian immigration system in the 1960s led to an influx of multicultural and multiethnic immigrants into the country. Some of these people, including immigrants from the Caribbean, China and Southeast Asia, settled in Regent Park in the 1960s and 1970s, changing the ethnic and racial composition of the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, the area continued to have a reputation of crime. In the early 2000s, a new redevelopment plan for Regent Park was implemented. The plan in question called for Regent Park to be redeveloped as a mixed-income neighbourhood. Because of the area's proximity to the downtown core, it is potentially high value real estate. The neighbourhood's ethnic composition has changed between 2001 and 2016. In 2001, the neighbourhood was 22%
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
, 21.8%
South Asian
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...
, 19.5%
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
, 14.1%
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
, 10.6%
Southeast Asian
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
and 3.4%
Latin American
Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...
. By the 2016 census, Europeans had become the largest group, while the presence of visible minority groups declined. The neighbourhood in 2016 was 28% European, 25.7% South Asian, 13.6% Black, 12.5% Chinese and 3.7% Southeast Asian. In Regent Park, the median household income in 2016 was $42,369, although there was a decrease in this income range as compared to 2011. This is lower than the median household income for Toronto at $65,829. As well, the Regent Park neighbourhood has a higher percentage of households without income (5.9%) compared to the City of Toronto average (4.7%) and 44.4% of households are at or below the poverty level, compared to 20.2% for the city average.
[https://www.toronto.ca/ext/sdfa/Neighbourhood%20Profiles/pdf/2016/pdf1/cpa72.pdf ]
Redevelopment
![There Goes The Neigbourhood (24328647145)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/There_Goes_The_Neigbourhood_%2824328647145%29.jpg)
More than a half-century old, the Regent Park projects were aging rapidly and in need of costly repairs. The city government developed a plan to demolish and rebuild Regent Park over the next many years, with the first phase having started in the fall of 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
former Toronto Mayor David Miller and to further the goal of renewing architecture in all
Toronto Community Housing
Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) is the public housing agency in Toronto, Ontario. A municipally owned corporation, municipal corporation of the Municipal government of Toronto, City of Toronto, TCHC provides approximately 60,000 unit ...
projects, an architectural competition was held for the design of the first apartment building in the complex. Toronto-based
architectsAlliance
architectsAlliance is a Toronto-based architectural firm headed by architect Peter Clewes. It was formed in 1999 with the merger of Wallman Clewes Bergman (composed of Rudy Wallman, Peter Clewes and Ralph Bergman) and Van Nostrand DiCastri Arch ...
was selected winner of the competition, with a modern glass point tower set on top of a red-brick podium structure in their proposal.
While phase two had not yet been completed, the third stage of the revitalization plan began in May 2014, which will include newer or updated facilities. The revitalization plan has five phases. Phase two of the revitalization plan was completed in 2018 with the third phase set to be completed by 2023/2024.
[
]
Evolution from a transitional community to a residential community
Regent Park was designed as a transitional community. It was to house people experiencing financial difficulties, or socioeconomic adjustment support. Most residents were on social assistance
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
and working residents paid rent proportional to their income (average total income of individuals in 2010 was $38,714).[Census, 2011] In the last two decades Regent Park has also become an immigrant community, as immigrants facing difficulties settling in Canada end up living there. Thus, the community is always viewed and administrated as a transitional community. This contributed to the concentration of a socially marginalized population and various social ills of Regent Park. In particular, a transitional community failed to generate the awareness, interest and commitment of its residents to invest in the development and sustainability of a higher quality of life.
Culture
Various community groups, including the Salvation Army, have been highly active in promoting a positive sense of community and community representation, and in pursuing a higher quality of life. The CRC, which has operated since 1965, offers healthy meals, free clothing, showers and laundry facilities, housing supports, drop-in, life skills and food skills programs. Additionally, they provide the only not-for-profit social housing in Regent Park. Every year, they host Taste of Regent Park in the Big Park, with a pay-what-you-can community catered meal, local vendors and live entertainment. Another such organization is Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre
The Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre is a non-profit group in Toronto, Ontario's Regent Park neighbourhood.[Pathways to Education
Pathway or pathways may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''The Pathway'' (novel), a 1914 work by Gertrude Page
*'' The Pathway'', a 2001 album by Officium Triste
* ''Pathway'' (album), by the Flaming Stars
* ''Pathways'' (album) (2010), by the Dave Ho ...]
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.
Neighbourhood characteristics
The majority of the buildings in Regent Park are owned and operated by Toronto Community Housing
Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) is the public housing agency in Toronto, Ontario. A municipally owned corporation, municipal corporation of the Municipal government of Toronto, City of Toronto, TCHC provides approximately 60,000 unit ...
, the public low-income housing administrator in Toronto. Regent Park is the "Community Housing Unit 27" managed by TCHC and its manager is Ade Davies.
Most units are low rise apartment units bounded by Gerrard Street, Parliament Street, Dundas Street
Dundas Street is a major historic arterial road in Ontario, Canada. The road connects the city of Toronto with its western suburbs and several cities in southwestern Ontario. Three provincial highways— 2, 5, and 99—followed long sectio ...
and River Street. The units are three-storey brick buildings with central balconies. On the south side of Dundas Street the housing consists of five high-rise apartment towers with two-storey townhomes on the east and west sides.
Demographics
Regent Park has long been recognized as one of the lower-income neighbourhoods in the downtown Toronto area. There is a higher representation of visible minorities, refugees, immigrants and Aboriginal people in the neighbourhood compared to neighboring areas. It experiences a higher rate of violence, crime, drug abuse and social ills compared to many other Toronto communities. Regent Park has a reputation for poverty in Toronto. In 2016, median income in part of Regent Park was $42,369, an increase from $22,268 in 2011. The neighbourhood's Census Tract (5350030.00) has experienced a significant shift in income structure between the 2006 Census, and 2011 National Household Survey. In the 2006 Census, 61.1% of residents earned less than $20,000 annually.[Census, 2006] However, by 2011, such low-income residents only constituted 40.4% of residents.[National Household Survey, 2011] By 2016, that number dropped further to 35.2% of residents. The number of those earning more than $60,000 has tripled from in those years, representing 25.6% of the population in 2011. Although a significant portion of residents making less than $20,000, since revitalization, the neighbourhood has become home to a growing number of high-earning residents. This can be explained by a number of potential causes. Either the historical residents have experienced increasing incomes, low-income residents can no longer afford housing in the neighbourhood and are experiencing displacement, or (most likely) owing to the nearly doubling in total residential units in the neighbourhood, the proportion of low-income residents has drecreased as a function of the overall increase in residents. The neighbourhood in 2016 was 28% European, 25.7% South Asian, 13.6% Black, 12.5% Chinese and 3.7% Southeast Asian. The poverty rate has dropped to 44.4% in 2016 from a high of 73% in 1996.
Government
Canada consists of 338 electoral districts and Regent Park is located in the Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre (french: Toronto-Centre) is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto (1872–1903) ...
riding. For city administration, each district is divided into two city wards
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...
. Regent Park is located in Ward 28.
In 2002, Toronto City Councillors recognized the need for increased tenant participation in the day-to-day management of housing. As a result, Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) initiated the Tenant Participation System (TPS). The first election for TPS was held in 2003. The tenant representatives were volunteers representing a constant number of adjacent units. Overall the formal mechanism set up to give tenants voice in the day-to-day management of the Regent Park had a positive impact. For instance, lighting in Regent Park has improved as a direct result of the TPS representatives requests. However, the mechanism developed for the whole of Toronto's various housing communities need to adopt to local conditions in order to meet the needs of the Regent Park residents more effectively.
Emergency services
The Toronto Fire Services station 325 is Regent Park's fire station, located at 475 Dundas Street East. The Toronto Police Service – 51 Division is responsible for the community. It was located in the community at 30 Regent Street, but has since been moved to nearby 51 Parliament Street. As late as 2001, the relation between some residents and police was confrontational. Paramedics serving the Regent Park area are deployed from Toronto Emergency Medical Services Station 40, an Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support station staffed with Level II (Advanced Care Paramedic) and Level I (Primary Care Paramedic) crews located at 58 Richmond Street East.
Education
Regent Park is served by two public libraries. The Toronto Public Library Parliament branch is located at the corner of Gerrard and Parliament streets and houses a special local history archive about Regent Park. The other nearby library is the Riverdale branch located at the junction of Gerrard Street and Broadview Avenue Broadview can refer to:
Places Australia
*Broadview, South Australia
Canada
*Broadview (electoral district), in Ontario
*Broadview (TTC), a Toronto subway station
*Broadview Avenue, a street in Toronto
*Broadview, Saskatchewan
United States
*Broa ...
. In addition, the Children's Book Bank is a small nonprofit that provides free books and literacy support, located at 350 Berkeley Street (at Gerrard). The Regent Park Child Care Centre may be found at St Bartholomew's Church, which cares for infants and toddlers.
Public education
There are four Toronto-based school boards that provides public education
State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...
for the city, including the neighbourhood of Regent Park. Two of the four Toronto-based school boards teach primarily in English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, the secular Toronto District School Board
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...
(TDSB), and the separate Toronto Catholic District School Board
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999) is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. I ...
(TCDSB). The institutions operated by the other two Toronto-based school boards, the secular Conseil scolaire Viamonde, and separate Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir, teach primarily in French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
. However, neither French-language school board operates a school in Regent Park. The following TDSB elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
s operated in Regent Park:
* Nelson Mandela Park Public School on Shuter Street - first opened 1853 as Park Public School (current building built 1914-1917) and renamed in 2001 when Park Public School and Park Senior Public School merged after the late South African President Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
; school serves Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8.
* Lord Dufferin Public School on Parliament Street
* Regent Park/Duke of York Junior Public School on Regent Street - opened 1958 as Regent Park PS and merged with Duke of York PS (located at 14 Pembroke Street and now ecole publique Gabrielle Roy of the Conseil scolaire Viamonde) during the period of 1977-1980. This school was demolished in 2015 and a new Toronto District Catholic School will be built at a future date.
Transportation
Regent Park is served by several Toronto Transit Commission streetcar routes: 501
__NOTOC__
Year 501 ( DI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Avienus and Pompeius (or, less frequently, year 1254 '' Ab u ...
, 505
Year 505 ( DV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodorus and Sabinianus (or, less frequently, year 1258 '' Ab urb ...
, 506
Year 506 (Roman numerals, DVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Flavius Ennodius Messala, Messala and Areobindus Dagalai ...
; and by the 65 Parliament bus route. The streetcars provide quick access to the Yonge subway line, while the 65 Parliament bus provides access to the Bloor-Danforth line. The Don Valley Parkway
The Don Valley Parkway (DVP) is a municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which connects the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Highway 401. North of Highway 401, it continues as Highway 404. The parkway run ...
is a major highway that runs to the east of the neighbourhood.
Academic study
Regent Park 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'' provides valuable insights about Regent Park.">Sean Purdy , "Ripped Off" By the System: Housing Policy, Poverty, and Territorial Stigmatization in Regent Park Housing Project, 1951–1991 , Labour/Le Travail, 52 , The Histor...
/ref> 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
* August, Martine. "Challenging the Rhetoric of Stigmatization: The Benefits of Concentrated Poverty in Toronto's Regent Park." ''Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space'', Vol. 46, no. 6 (2014), 1317–1333.
* Gosine, Kevin & Faisal Islam. “’It’s Like we’re One Big Family’: Marginalized Young People, Community, and the Implications for Urban Schooling.” ''School Community Journal'', Vol.24, no.2 (2014), 33-61.
* 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.
* Luisa Veronis. "''Exploring the Margin: The Borders between Regent Park and Cabbagetown''"
Keep regents park clean/Users/zinzoro/Desktop/PHOTO ON 25-01-2020 AT 11.19 2.jpeg
Documentaries
* '' Farewell Oak Street'' by Grant McLean
* '' Invisible City'' by Hubert Davis
Hubert Ira Davis Jr. (born May 17, 1970) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 19 ...
* ''Return to Regent Park'' by Bay Weyman
* ''A Way Out'' by Christene Browne
Christene Browne (born 1965 in Saint Kitts) is a Canadian director and writer. Browne is the first black woman to write, produce and direct a feature film in Canada.
Biography
Born in St. Kitts in the Caribbean, Browne moved with her family to Ca ...
Notable residents
* Smoke Dawg
Jahvante Jahqwane Sheldon Smart ( – ), known professionally as Smoke Dawg, was a Canadian rapper, singer and songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. Smoke Dawg was a part of hip hop collective Halal Gang alongside Mustafa the Poet, Puffy L'z, Safe, ...
, rapper
*Mustafa Ahmed
Mustafa ( ar, مصطفى
, Muṣṭafā) is one of the names of Prophets and messengers in Islam, Prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic language, Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is ...
, also known as Mustafa the Poet, poet, singer, songwriter and filmmaker
* Ahmed Hussen, Canadian lawyer and politician. He is MP in the Canadian Parliament, representing the York South—Weston riding as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
* Trevor Daley
Trevor Daley (born October 9, 1983) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman for the Florida Everblades of the ECHL and also serves as a hockey operations advisor for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played ...
, professional hockey player
* Glen Metropolit
Glen David Metropolit (born June 25, 1974) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who most notably played over 400 games in the National Hockey League (NHL)
Playing career
Early years
A native of Toronto, Ontario, Metropolit was nev ...
, professional hockey player
* Point Blank, hip hop group
* Puffy L'z
Habib Mohamed (born August 2, 1995), better known by his stage name Puffy L'z, is a rapper and singer from Toronto, Ontario. He is of Somali descent. Puffy L'z released his debut studio album '' Take No L'z'' on July 19, 2019 and it received a 6/1 ...
, rapper
In popular culture
The neighbourhood is the setting for the play Kim's Convenience.
See also
* List of neighbourhoods in Toronto
References
External links
Regent Park Revitalization Plan
{{authority control
Neighbourhoods in Toronto
Public housing in Canada
Urban decay in Canada
Gentrification in Canada