Meet the Team
Meet the researchers behind Store-ies: Andrea, a fourth-year Peace, Conflict and Justice student with 15 years of experience working in social services; Caitlin, a fourth-year Urban Studies and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) student; Eryn, a fifth-year Environmental Studies and Urban Studies student; Fatmata, a third-year doctoral candidate in the Social Justice department at OISE, University of Toronto, and a Regent Park resident.
Together, our team aims to explore the untold store-ies of Regent Park. Our play on words combines “store” and “stories,” inspired by how the physical streetscape of stores, businesses, and community spaces shape identity in the neighbourhood.
More specifically, our guiding research question for the mini-documentary is: What differences between the old and new layouts of Regent Park help explain shifts in community identity?
Although our question may evolve as we progress further into the planning process, the core of our exploration remains focused on Regent Park’s identity, how it has changed throughout redevelopment, and how the proposal language and promises made during the development stages compare to reality. We also want to examine how redevelopment is perceived by residents today.
About Our Theme
We want to explore the potential disillusionment that may have come about from the replacement of locally owned businesses, ethnic grocery stores, and convenience shops with chain stores and high-end retail. How has this impacted the community? Who does it benefit? Who does it exclude?
We are still figuring out how to approach this in a way that captures the overall community while recognizing our time and research limitations. We do not have the capacity to trace every business that has ever existed in Regent Park. Instead, we hope to connect with residents and hear their stories about what made Regent Park “iconic.” What were the shared spaces everyone used or knew about? And how has their disappearance or adaptation shifted both community and individual identities?
The Downtown East Identity
Due to limited time and our lack of in-depth knowledge about other Downtown East neighbourhoods such as Cabbagetown, St. James Town, and Moss Park, we decided to focus solely on Regent Park. Regent Park contributes greatly to the overall identity of Toronto’s Downtown East. When people think of redevelopment in Toronto, they think of Regent Park.
Its redevelopment also impacts adjacent neighbourhoods by increasing housing market value and shaping public perceptions of surrounding areas simultaneously. Because our course is centred on Regent Park, we are concerned that extending our research to other neighbourhoods without having had the same level of engagement could result in oversimplification or reliance on assumptions.
With limited time to plan, we want to avoid applying stereotypes under pressure, especially since misrepresentation of Regent Park is an issue the course aims to address. We do not feel we could do those neighbourhoods justice, and feel better suited to focus our research on Regent Park because we have a resident in our group, and our other three members have a more in depth academic and personal understanding of the neighbourhood.
Project Progress
So far, our group has established our focus area and refined our research question. We initially struggled to narrow our topic, originally looking into art and public displays but had trouble finding leads on such works. Now we have shifted our project to capture the community identity that emerges through communal and commercial spaces. We are still making final adjustments, but after several Zoom meetings, we have made progress and are excited to begin planning our documentary.
The team members of Store-ies are Eryn McDevitt, Andrea Jakaitis, Fatmata Bakarr and Caitlin Devion.