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February 15, 2006 - Hello Oak Street

Monday, February 13, 2006 marked the beginning of the end. Wrecking crews started demolishing the first phase of buildings in Regent Park at the corner of Dundas and Parliament Streets. The cycle has now completed: buildings that replaced the Victorian 'slums' of Regent Park are now being relegated to the trashbin of history. In their place, we are promised a brave new world: a new community that will reduce crime, hopelessness and improve the lot of the poor who live there.

If that sounds familiar, it's because we could very well be talking about the rationale for why Regent Park was built in the first place. Although it's hard to imagine today, Regent Park was greeted by most with enthusiasm and hope. One man I talked to when I was down there today commented that when he was young "Regent Park was a going concern." In the 1930s and 1940s, social housing was actually in great demand, as people sought relief from urban areas that had not seen any proper investment in decades. Victorian urbanism was looking tired and drab, and the Regent Parks of this world didn't look so bad.

Fast forward to 2006, and the Regent Parks of this world are the last place that most people want to be. It turns out that even though some of the housing itself may have been nicer than the Victorian slums, but the concentrations of poverty that came with social housing, and the neglect of treating many of the problems associated with it pretty much negated the physical gains made by social housing. The effectiveness of state intervention and urban planning are very much in doubt when people look at projects like Regent Park, and the hopes that these projects inspired is long gone indeed.

The loss of faith in state intervention will have major ramifications for this project. While the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) - the organization responsible for the redevelopment of Regent Park - has made a concerted effort to consult with the community. However, there is a level of skepticism towards this project that will not easily be diffused. A conversation with a fellow bystander at the site today lead to a conversation about the project and what will likely come of it. The man in question informed me that he had lived in Regent Park for 38 years. When asked what he thought redevelopment would accomplish, he thoughtfully responded "fuck all". To many, this will be a futile effort at best.

To others, this will be perceived as an attack on the poor. For many, Regent Park was a community that they worked hard to build. In all likelihood, part of that may have been tied to it being a place where being poor did not make you stand out from everyone else. Despite reassurances, many will view this as an attempt to destroy their community and push the poor out of the downtown area.

These potential objections create a difficult course to navigate this project through. Without the hope and trust that people felt about these projects 50 years ago and the skepticism of many today, there will be a need to build trust, and lots of it. Project leaders need to prove that the poor will not be driven out of the area. They will also need to show that this redevelopment will truly change the nature of the area. No one seriously expects the redevelopment of Regent Park to eradicate poverty or its associated problems. However, people will need to see that it can lead to healthy neighbourhoods that act as part of the city, and not just warehouses for the poor for it to be a success.

• View my photo entry for Regent Park's demolition