By Dawar Naim
(Dawar is a journalist with the FOCUS Media Arts Centre)

Radio Regent is a 24-hour, public access radio station in the heart of the Regent Park community. The station is managed by the Focus Media Arts Centre.  One of the weekly shows that is produced on Radio Regent is the 4GetAboutIt! Youth Collective.

In this episode of Radio Regent’s 4GetAboutIt!  The youth collective invited William Mendes, the Director of Program Delivery for Toronto Community Housing, to be a guest on their radio show to discuss and learn more about the 4th and 5th phases of the Regent Park redevelopment.

As anyone who has been living in and frequenting the downtown east neighbourhood of Toronto over the past 15 to 20 years, you may have noticed that Regent Park has been going through a significant large-scale revitalization.  Once entirely made up of aging social housing managed by Toronto Community Housing (TCH), the neighbourhood is now entering the final 4th and 5th phases of physical revitalization. The physical development plan seeks to transform Regent Park into a new, integrated and thriving mixed-income community boasting new TCH buildings, multiple new market rent apartments, condos, state of the art sports and recreational facilities as well as new businesses and streets.   

William Mendes, the Director of Program Delivery, had interesting things to say to the youth who are often left out of conversations about their own neighbourhood.  Mendes told the youth collective that in the fall there is going to be an opportunity for Regent Park residents to participate in a Plan and Process meeting to create a vision of the community and find out what they would like to see for the phases 4 and 5 of the Regent Park revitalization. Taking this vision forward TCHC and Tridel Builders, the new developers for the phases 4 and 5, will design and plan what to build. Going further into the conversation, Mendes mentioned that there is an interest from the City of Toronto to introduce a library in Regent Park. He also talked about more public and retail spaces for the economic development and uplifting of Regent Park. Mendes explained that the master plan of the Regent Park revitalization will be updated according to the latest trends and City requirements during the fall.
Mendes also mentioned that during the summer TCHC held public meet and greets to introduce the new developers, Tridel Builders, to the residents of Regent Park and that these kinds of activities will continue.

Working together with the City of Toronto, organizations serving Regent Park, Regent Park tenants, their neighbours, private sector development partners, community partners and grass roots groups, TCHC is transforming Regent Park into a urban neighbourhood of choice.