Where Is Everyone In Regent Park?

By: Lori Harito

I was walking around Regent Park last week alone, and I felt like I was in a ghost town.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I've been walking around Regent Park since our assignment began in September, but I've either been with somebody or have stayed there for maybe 20 minutes.

However, last week I was there for about an hour and a half and I didn't realize how completely alone and dead it was. One particular scene that really got me thinking of this was when I was near Sumach street. I was walking around looking for some good pictures, and I stumbled upon it. An empty and completely deserted newspaper box just sitting alone in the middle of this area with some very good looking graffiti on it. And then I turned around as I was about to leave, saw a piece of crumpled up newspaper just floating on the street...just tossed away like garbage and I thought, oh this could not be anymore perfect for my story on the media. This certain scene reminded me of that scene in American Beauty, I'm sure we all remember, of the plastic bag floating around. And seeing that newspaper just completely abandoned made me think, where is everybody in Regent Park? Why is it so dark and lonely here?

It became more and more evident to me, how right John Sewell was when he was telling us about how badly the City of Toronto screwed up when they built this. Who's idea was it to isolate these people in such a fashion as to make everyone isolate you from the city?
Once you enter Regent Park that's how you feel, completely and utterly isolated. No wonder people feel stereotyped. If the planners wanted to create a ghetto-like feel to these residences then they did just that. Typically, that's what a ghetto was back in the day, no?

From doing this project, and from what people tell me and from what I have seen myself, Regent Park does have a community of strong bonded people, who have come together to create a place of their own. But walking around it, I'm wondering where are all these people? I saw more construction people than Regent Park-ers, not that they're these distinct people we need to gawk at, but I can not understand what Toronto was thinking when they decided to throw these people in this area and isolate them so much? The point of creating a city is to integrate people, not isolate them.