It’s official–our team has reached the final stretch of our project! This week, we faced two hurdles: deciding on the narrative for our piece of journalism and outlining a plan for our podcast. Last week, we shared how we connected to local Regent Park entrepreneurs through interviews and this week, we looked back on those interviews. We began deciding on our final story, but our group quickly realized we were still missing something–a key piece of the puzzle that tied our story together. While talking with our group members Elena and Patricia, it hit us: a casual chat about Regent Park businesses highlighted one common theme: the stigma surrounding Regent Park is a huge factor impacting economic justice for entrepreneurs there! This was the missing piece to our story!
For some background, Regent Park has gained a bad rep from the media for years. The Media has framed it as a space that breeds crime, poverty, and general deviant behaviour, but as anyone who has been to the area can tell you, this is misleading. We learned this week that the media plays a massive role in determining how urban issues are portrayed. Elena and Patricia’s experiences confirm this. Both have had poor experiences with people when they said they lived in the community.
Patricia shared that while in the corporate world, mentioning that she was from Regent Park often led people to uncomfortable silences and negative judgements or comments fueled by what they had heard about Regent Park in the news. Elena has had similar experiences, with people telling her that Regent Park is unsafe and even asking her “how she lives there.” But both Elena and Paritica mentioned that when these people visited actually Regent, their reactions shifted to one with more acceptance; they quickly realized that Regent Park wasn’t at all like the rundown area that the media portrayed; their judgements were replaced once they visited.
Patricia and Elena shared some thoughts with the group about how entrepreneurship in Regent Park has changed post-redevelopment. Listen to what they have to say here:
Andrew from Cafe Zuzu mentioned that overcoming stigma to bring new visitors into the neighbourhood was one of Cafe Zuzu’s most challenging and rewarding tasks. He believes that they have the potential to act as a bridge from Regent Park to the wider city, attracting additional foot traffic and helping out other stores in the area. In so doing, they are working towards economic justice.
Andrew is optimistic that Cafe Zuzu will attract new customers into the Regent Park area, fighting the stigmatization of the neighbourhoods. Listen to his thoughts here :
The Corner Shop Chronicles Team. From left to right: Jake, Elena, Patricia, and Shreya. (Taken by U of T Staff).
In the coming weeks, we are excited to start writing our journalism piece and recording our podcast! Our focus will be on the incredible journey of entrepreneurs who fought hard against the stigmatization of Regent before the redevelopment. These entrepreneurs created thriving small businesses despite the odds. Now, some of these entrepreneurs and some new faces are working hard to bring the same energy back into the neighbourhood and revive the business scene. We hope our project will inspire Regent Park residents and visitors to frequent these small businesses and enjoy what they offer. We can’t wait to share our final pieces with you!
The Corner Shop Chronicles Team Members are Elena, Patricia, Jake, and Shreya.