ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the shifting emphasis on the building of both physical infrastructure, including buildings, roads and community facilities, and 'softer' forms of infrastructure, for example, social networks, and their dual roles in promoting community-building in Regent Park. By analysing the process of large-scale neighbourhood redevelopment, whereby a low-income community undergoes substantial transformation to a mixed-income community, the chapter highlights the ways in which prioritizing different forms of infrastructure can contribute to the development and redevelopment of a community. Regent Park, a neighbourhood in the centre of Toronto, is the site of the largest public housing development in Canada. The redevelopment process, first initiated in the 1990s and ultimately approved by Toronto City Council in 2005, stemmed initially from resident requests for neighbourhood change. Housing and poverty deconcentration policies in the United States have emphasized the redevelopment of public housing sites as mixed-income neighbourhoods.