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This past Thursday, June 5th, in their recently constructed Limberlost Place building, George Brown College hosted ‘Reflections on Regent Park’, a discussion on Rhythms of Change, a book by Mitchell Cohen, President and CEO of The Daniels Corporation, about the company's time transforming the long-disinvested neighbourhood in partnership with the City of Toronto through the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.
Cohen began with a story of an international delegation of Urban Economy Forum members who came to visit Regent Park in 2019 to witness the transformation that had unfolded. In careful detail, Cohen described a lively soccer game occurring as he led the group down bustling streets that just a few years prior had been desolate grass lawns and parking lots, taking particular delight in revealing that not one of his 30 guests could even speculate on the tenure of the towers, townhouses, and mid-rises before them, affordable and market rate units blending seamlessly. That indistinguishability was a key goal of the revitalization, an effort to dismantle the longstanding visual stigma attached to the squat, three-storey brick buildings that generations of Torontonians had come to associate with Regent Park.
After reflecting on the last two decades of revitalization he led of Regent Park, Cohen sat down for a fireside chat with Dr. Gervan Fearon, President of George Brown College, where they discussed the importance of community engagement, the challenges posed by deep-rooted stigma, and the resounding success that Regent Park represents today. Sat by the proverbial fire, Dr. Fearon quizzed Cohen on the formative years of the revitalization and the groundbreaking public-private partnership that allowed Regent Park to be rebuilt. Cohen then detailed a time early on when the very future of Regent Park as a place on the map was in question, with swaths of consultants assuring Daniels and the City of Toronto that no one would ever be able to sell a condo listed in the infamous Regent Park. Instead, ‘Cabbagetown South’ was to be the new name, clearing away both the buildings and very name of the neighbourhood in one fell swoop. Cohen explained his ardent opposition to the renaming and instead articulated the need to honour the name residents of Regent Park had called home for half a century. 20 years on, the audience reacted with surprise to past consultants’ gloomy projections, a positive indication of a neighbourhood's upswing if there ever was one.
Following the fireside chat, the floor was opened for audience questions. Cohen fielded inquiries ranging from the extent of consultation with the Indigenous community, to the origins of the performing arts programs at Daniels Spectrum, and the impact a change in mayoralty during the 2010s had on the revitalization. Toward the end of the session, after an evening emphasizing community input and the right of return, a guest posed the question on everyone's mind: how many original residents actually returned to Regent Park once their homes had been rebuilt? Cohen answered succinctly but with pride: 77% of residents came home, according to Toronto Community Housing statistics.
As the question period drew to a close, a woman named Jue Yan rose to ask the final question, or rather to express her gratitude to Cohen. Yan was one of the 34 single mothers who was able to move into new supportive housing units in Regent Park with her two young children, thanks to The Daniels Corporation partnership with the Woodgreen Organization. Detailing the way in which a safe home allowed her to rebuild her family's life, Yan extolled the plethora of programs available for her children within Regent Park. As she concluded with an emotional expression of gratitude, Yan exclaimed “Without Regent Park, life is impossible!” followed by a roar of applause from the audience.
After dozens of attendees had their personal copies of Rhythms of Change signed by Cohen, he spoke with me about the federal government's ‘Building Canada Strong’ plan. With four decades of home building experience and a history of redefining what private-public partnerships can achieve, Cohen offered his insights on aspirations of a revived public builder: “I think it is key for government to understand the importance of partnership with the private sector, and harness their expertise and financial clout to create buildings that are not just market rate but buildings that incorporate affordable housing within them.”
On how these affordable units would be managed within primarily market-rate communities, Cohen embraced the framework that he had implemented in Regent Park, and which had so successfully aided Ms. Yan’s family: “The federal government needs to make investments so that non-profit groups like Woodgreen or Covenant House or the YMCA can be able to have homes within private sector driven, market buildings, so that they can have a head lease in perpetuity where the rental is guaranteed, and that creates integrated communities for generations.”
It was no accident George Brown College was the host of the event, having themselves spent years revitalizing neighbourhoods through innovative campus expansion. On the 10th floor of the Limberlost Place, the book talk itself represented a milestone, being the first event held in Canada’s inaugural institutional mass timber tower. Rising 52.5 meters over Toronto's emerging East Bayfront neighbourhood, Limberlost Place is just one of three George Brown buildings in the vicinity, representing a significant investment and infusion of student life into the formerly industrial port area.
To gain a better understanding of George Brown College's approach to development, I spoke with Dr. Fearon. When discussing the experience George Brown College has taken from decades of investment across Toronto, he had this to say: “The biggest lesson is that we exist in an ecosystem, we are not separate from the city, we exist as a part of the city. As such we are very deliberate about how we support the vibrancy of communities and support growth in communities.”
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