Visitors / en 老司机直播 students work with Thorncliffe Park Women始s Committee to build more vibrant community /news/thorncliffe-park-more-vibrant-community <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">老司机直播 students work with Thorncliffe Park Women始s Committee to build more vibrant community</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-04-26T11:30:43-04:00" title="Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 11:30" class="datetime">Tue, 04/26/2016 - 11:30</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Community members participating in the Thorncliffe Park workshop (photos courtesy Aseem Inam)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/arthur-kaptainis" hreflang="en">Arthur Kaptainis</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Arthur Kaptainis</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/current-students" hreflang="en">Current Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/visitors" hreflang="en">Visitors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-staff" hreflang="en">Faculty &amp; Staff</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/toronto" hreflang="en">Toronto</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/community" hreflang="en">Community</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When academics write op-ed pieces in newspapers and prepare reports for municipalities, foundations and others, they face a challenge, says&nbsp;<strong>Aseem Inam</strong>, a visiting professor in the department of geography and planning.</p> <p>鈥淭he key is how to make change happen,鈥 he said in his office in Sidney Smith Hall. 鈥淎nd one of the ways is to work directly with the community itself.鈥</p> <p>That鈥檚 why the John Bousfield Distinguished Visitor organized his Introductory Studio in Urban Design and Planning as an exercise in collaboration with the people who stand to gain the most from the process: residents.&nbsp;</p> <p>The graduate course culminated in an interactive workshop on April 16 in the high-rise northeastern Toronto neighbourhood known as Thorncliffe Park. Eight students gave a joint, 20-minute presentation before setting up shop at tables where citizens and stakeholders could hear more about the proposals and offer ideas of their own.</p> <p>鈥淚t was amazing to be a part of a course that shared our resources and made connections with grassroots groups,鈥 said&nbsp;<strong>Mercedes Sharpe-Zayas</strong>, a Master of Science in Planning student.</p> <p>Thorncliffe Park is a community of mostly moderate-income immigrant families with walkable spaces, accessible shopping and few of the social problems popularly equated with high-density neighbourhoods.</p> <p>Not that pressures are absent: The complex houses about 30,000 people rather than the 12,000 it was designed to accommodate the 1970s. Many are children under 14. The local elementary school is one of the largest in North America.</p> <p>But density creates vibrancy.</p> <p>鈥淥ne of the things that make Thornciffe Park stand out is that it has a thriving local economy,鈥 Inam said. 鈥淓xcept it is not made of typical bricks-and-mortar stores. People do business out of their homes. They will make food for their neighbours, make clothes, cut hair.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲hat is striking is that most of these are women entrepreneurs.鈥</p> <p>Indeed, students in the course engaged throughout the year with the Thorncliffe Park Women鈥檚 Committee as a partner in their studies.</p> <p>鈥淚t is not a legal entity, it is not a financial entity,鈥 Inam says of this collective including many immigrant mothers. 鈥淵et they have accomplished more than most community groups.鈥</p> <p>The committee鈥檚 hard work on a central green space called R.V. Burgess Park had already attracted the attention and admiration of Toronto鈥檚 department of parks, forestry and recreation, which supplied funding for new benches and playground equipment.</p> <p>The women are now looking at making use of a vacant former Target department store and widening the overcrowded pedestrian bridge that leads to the local high school. Both ideas arose collaboratively with the 老司机直播 students.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭hey understand the energy and logic of grassroots and have endless imagination and creativity,鈥 said Sabina Ali, chair of the committee.</p> <p>The Target reboot as&nbsp;<a href="https://thorncliffedesign.wordpress.com/">rendered in a full-colour booklet</a>&nbsp;transforms part of a cracked and empty parking lot into a green space and patio. As for the abandoned big-box store, it holds a community meeting space, after-school centre, roof garden and marketplace.</p> <p><img alt="Plans and photos showing the proposed redevelopment" src="http://news.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/thorncliffe_inline.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 563px;"></p> <p>This last element is an expression of the 鈥渋nformal economies鈥 that Inam says are accepted everywhere even if they do not always meet the letter of the law. 鈥淲hen you say something is not legal, people here say, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 terrible,鈥欌 Inam commented. 鈥淏ut in other parts of the world, where open-air markets are common, they say, 鈥業sn鈥檛 that nice?鈥欌</p> <p>Another proposal is to change zoning regulation to permit small businesses to operate in residential areas. This would also make possible night markets of the type that sprout regularly afterhours in China and Hong Kong.&nbsp;</p> <p>The benefit is partly psychological. 鈥淚n many of these neighbourhoods there is a safety perception problem,鈥 Inam said. 鈥淲ell, you put up lights and have people come out, with eyes on the street.鈥</p> <p>Among the more surprising innovations discussed at the workshop was a 鈥減op-up caf茅鈥 fashioned from that pillar of international commerce, the shipping container.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淢y students said this is how you could do it: Cut open one wall, have a little kitchen, have some stools and a seating area outside. By visualizing it, people got really excited.鈥</p> <p>Among those impressed by the ideas that emerged from the yearlong course are Don Valley West MP Rob Oliphant, Toronto City Councillor Jon Burnside and Silvia Fraser from the City of Toronto鈥檚 Tower and Neighbourhood Revitalization Unit. All were present at the workshop.</p> <p>Kelsey Carriere, another MSc/planning student, was struck by the 鈥渇earless sense of possibility鈥 shown by young people at Thorncliffe Park. Their enterprise and commitment shows in a new bicycle repair service.</p> <p>Inam, an associate professor of urbanism at the Parsons School of Design of The New School in New York, hopes to return to the neighbourhood as a professional consultant. His students developed a personal commitment to Thorncliffe Park and its people. One senses in conversation that Inam did too.</p> <p>鈥淭hey use networks and make things happen,鈥 Inam said of the Women鈥檚 Committee. 鈥淭hey go to the city, they reach out to the property owners. They mobilize people.</p> <p>鈥淵ou meet them and they are gentle and softspoken. But they are powerhouses. They are very persistent. They try something. If it doesn鈥檛 work, they try again next year.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:30:43 +0000 lavende4 13886 at