A Community in Transition

Regent Park was built in 1948, and is Canada’s oldest and largest funded community housing. The community is culturally diverse with an average household income of $15,000. The neighborhood was originally designed to depict a “garden city” by having more closed off public spaces and fewer streets and walkways. This was to provide a safer environment for the youth by creating a close nit community. Unfortunately, the opposite affect had occurred. Instead the design of the closed community caused it to be isolated from the rest of the city and became more susceptible to criminal activities. Regan Park is now known in Toronto as one of the most dangerous areas to reside in. With the severity of this problem the government has invested $1 billion in a span of 15 years to improve the housing community. This will be done by tearing down the original housing complex and replacing it with new subsidized apartment buildings and condos. The construction has already begun and progress is slowly beginning visible.

This type of development in the city is a representation of Lefbvre’s description of contemporary spaces. That this once uniquely designed community will resemble the rest of the city. “Repetitious spaces are the outcome of repetitive gestures”. A common problem, decaying housing has a common solution. It is another example of Toronto aiming for a postcolonial atmosphere to achieve particular identity. This article also makes one think of why the area was designed the way it was. Regan Park is an example of Marxism, an area that enclosed lower class families from rest of the city. It is interesting to evaluate the design of not only this area, but also many others around the Toronto and hopefully the new development will lower crime activity as well as increase safety.