In this week’s group session, we created a team name— Yellow Brick Road. Here’s a brief introduction about each of our members:
“Hi, I’m Renee, a fourth-year student at the University of Toronto, double-majoring in Book and Media Studies, and Urban Studies. I’ll be contributing through writing and coordination, helping guide the research direction, taking interview notes, and narrative development.”
“Hi, I’m Lexie. I’m a fourth-year student at UofT double majoring in Human Geography and Urban Studies (and a minor in Sociology!). I’m contributing to the project via editing and contributing to research.”
“I work in the City Planning Division at the City of Toronto and I was interested in the topic of children and parents in Regent Park, because I believe that the well-being of children and parents reflects the peace and overall health of a community.”
“Hello, I’m Alpha, a fourth year student majoring in Sociology, and will be applying for a major in Urban Studies this April. My interest in this project primarily focuses on the differing perceptions of the revitalization of Regent Park between parents and their children. For this project, I will help film and compile the research into a piece of media that provides insight into the identity of Regent Park. ”
“Makita is a resident of Regent Park, and her input as a mother, worker, and student in the area will be vital for the production of our documentary. She brings to the team a strong interest in the relationships between parents and children within the context of Regent Park, alongside her personal input on the experience of residents in Regent Park. ”
Together, we came together to address some shared concerns and interests we have on the redevelopment of Regent Park. Our group discussed perceptions of safety around the area, inviting residents of Regent Park (in our group) to share their perspectives. We talked about spaces that tend to feel busier or more active at certain times, or parts of the neighbourhood where parents feel unsafe letting their children go unsupervised.
We touched upon the differing generational perceptions of the revitalization and identity of Regent Park. We wonder whether younger generations feel different about the change than their parents–or even grandparents–do. In speaking with Makita, she reflected upon how the differences in experience can even vary by just a few years. She compared her children, and their experiences in the neighborhood, noting that even within the same family, experiences were not uniform. Navigating the neighborhood is something that cannot be defined by one person's experience, and in the coming weeks we want to try and get as many perspectives as possible to give several answers to our research question.
Something successful during this week’s session was narrowing down our focus with the help of Professor Aditi. Rather than broadly discussing redevelopment in Regent Park and how it affected different generations of people, we began centering our topic and ended up with the research question being, what are the differences between the perceptions of safety between parents and children of Regent Park? We also generated some strong visual ideas for the upcoming documentary, such as starting off the film with children playing in a supervised playground, incorporating a “slice of life” style.
One challenge that occurred was defining “downtown east identity” in a way where it feels specific and meaningful and makes sense to our research question. During our group discussion, we talked about how Regent Park has historically been stigmatized, and how perceptions of safety, specifically from outsiders, may differ from residents lived experiences. For instance, when Ali mentioned that prior to moving to Regent Park a year ago, he was warned that the area used to be dangerous 5-10 years ago. Yet compared to his current experience, it has not matched that narrative, in doing so, this raised important questions about how reputation, history, and media shapes identity.
So far, this experience has allowed us to be more attentive to everyday spatial practices. As a child may see a park as a place to play, a parent might be cautious or attentive to nearby streets as risk zones. These subtle differences reveal much about belonging, as well as generational change in a redeveloping neighbourhood. Overall, we are very excited about the documentary potential of visualizing routes, the interviews, and hopefully having the area be more understood by the media.
The team members of Yellow Brick Road are Lexie Young, Renee Chiu, Alpha Vu, Makita Depradine and Ali Joya.