Overview
Over our last two meetings (February 22 and February 29), our group aimed to finalize our research questions, documentary format, pick interviewees, and plan the remainder of the semester by setting deadlines and breaking down our work. We settled on two research questions: “Why are residents apathetic about the SDP?” and “How did community involvement affect the first Regent Park “revitalization” in the 1950s, and what are the similarities and differences between the first revitalization and the current revitalization?” This attempts to synthesize Jacob and Jackson’s interest in apathy, Ismail’s interest in the SDP, and Asae’s interest in the history of Regent Park. To answer these questions, we brainstormed a list of potential interviewees. Of the people that Ismail has reached out to, we have secured two interviews (longtime resident Deany Peters and past RPNA Chair Mary Henkelman). After our first meeting, Asae did more research on Regent Park’s history, Jackson wrote a documentary outline, Ismail continued to reach out to potential interviewees, and Jacob drafted interview protocols for three groups of interviewees (residents, community organizations, and TCHC/developers).
Group photo of the SDP Champsions (Asae couldn’t make it to our second meeting)
Deliverables (weeks 1-2)
Finalize research questions and goals
Pick medium
Plan the semester (deadlines, WBS, deliverable lead)
Pick interviewees
Draft questions, draft format of media
Talk to FOCUS about video support
What was challenging about this session?
Our biggest challenge is/was narrowing down our research inquiries to prevent scope creep. Ideally, the documentary will have a 20-25 minute running time. We each have our own interests we would like to explore, and the goal now is narrowing down specific aspects directly relating to the SDP. For example, Asae would like to learn more about the history of Regent Park. We know from this class, however, that Regent’s history is multifaceted and incredibly rich, spanning close to a century when accounting for working-class Cabbagetown. Instead of focusing on Regent’s history from a broad, comprehensive lens, we agreed to focus on a specific element: the history of resident leadership and mobilization. Not only do we capture a timeline of Regent Park (and save running time), but we narrate the history of resident leadership as a precursor to the current SDP. In other words, we see community responses to the current SDP as a continuation of past resident mobilization.
Learning experiences
It is inspiring to see how connected Asae and Ismail are to their community. They seem to know everyone in Regent Park, from the kids, the elders, to the key and up-and-coming neighborhood leaders. Most of the research on Regent’s revitalization points to patronization, where planners feel obligated to instill some sort of socio-behavioral framework onto the impoverished. They believe there is no community, that existing residents are incapable of relinquishing themselves from poverty and require education from the upper-classes. Asae and Ismail showed us how deeply connected the Regent Park community is, and more importantly, what the community supplies. They know who is who, but they also know what each member brings to the table. It is gratifying to see their leadership, but it is disappointing to see how long their community has been undermined. We are also grateful for the FOCUS crew for being patient with us and helping brainstorm our documentary—just another thing the Regent Park community supplies.
Reflections: Positionality and feeling like “fish out of water”
We (Jacob and Jackson) were forced to confront our positionality as outside researchers who were unfamiliar with Regent Park’s social and institutional context. For example, we had little idea of who to interview and what institutions were important to the SDP. As such, we let Asae and Ismail take the lead on important questions like who to interview and what topics would be best suited for interviews. Despite our formal training and experience in qualitative research, we think that this inductive social justice approach to research will help create a more accurate and faithful portrayal of Regent Park and the SDP.
After our first meeting during Reading Week, we went to get Tacos from the Regent Park Café made by chef Amanda Hamer of EdibleBliss, a local caterer.
The SDP Champions team members are Asae, Ismail, Jacob, and Jackson