Revitawhat?

By Lianna Shen
October 23, 2007

I really wanted to talk to some kids this week about Regent Park revitalization. I figured they would have a different perspective from the typical do-gooder politician or outspoken resident. So I went to the basement of St. George’s Church during a PATHWAYS tutoring session, to see what I could get.

What I got was a whole lot of weird looks and giggles. Mostly, the kids just had no idea what I was talking about. Then I tried not using the word “revitalization” and I just started saying things like “tearing down the buildings” and “all the construction.”

“Ohhh…” says a blonde girl, Elizabeth. “Yeah, I don’t really know. I mean they’re trying to make the place not poor but it’s still the ghetto and it’s still going to be the ghetto cause the same people are going to be living here. It’s not like they’re getting rid of the people.”

She's reading The Lovely Bones, a book by Alice Sebold. I read it only a couple years ago, in university. She’s like, 13 years old. A smart kid.

Elizabeth lives in Scarborough. She used to live in Regent Park but had to move because her dad left his girlfriend and…oh wait lets not talk about that. She has a shiny new iPod nano with matching earbuds and she keeps them on the whole time she’s talking to me.

I feel like she is cooler than me. I take her picture.

“Why are you taking pictures?” She asks this with a kind of what-are-you-wearing tone, and I tell her because I need pictures too, not just interviews, for my project.

I ask her if she’ll come talk to me about the revitalization project and she says no because she hates her voice. I tell her I hate my voice too but that I promise I’ll make her sound smart when I edit it. She still won’t budge. Stubborn kid.

I eventually leave her alone because I don’t want to keep her from her homework. I go and sit down with one of the program facilitators, who is so very helpful. She says the kids are just intimidated because I’m carrying around a big black box with a microphone (a Marantz deck), and I totally understand. It’s a big ugly thing.

The deck fits in my bag and I stow it away. No kidding, within two minutes two kids sit down at my table. Granted, one is a mentor but this is cool! They are working on math and chemistry and I get bored so I peruse the room.

My friend Justin, who is a mentor, is helping a girl with “family”. I think this means family studies. She’s wearing a headscarf embroidered with delicate white thread, and she speaks with an accent. She tells me she wants to take computer science in university, and that she wants to go to UofT.

I ask her if she gets good grades. She rolls her eyes. Of course. She’s not even worried about backup schools because she knows she’ll get in.

That’s awesome, I tell her, that she already knows what she likes before she even gets into university. I certainly didn’t. I had to do it again after I graduated.

“That just costs more money,” she says. She laughs. At me. Because to her, it’s silly to do it twice when it costs so much. One degree will be enough for her.

I ask her if I can take her picture and she lets me. I have to ask because it is dim and I want to use a flash so I can capture her headscarf. I show her the picture, and she thanks me.


I wish I was that cool and smart at 16.