ABSTRACT
A survey of residents undertaken by Toronto Community and Housing Corporation (TCHC's) consultant team in 2004 prior to redevelopment indicated that most would prefer to return to a rebuilt Regent Park after reconstruction. Early in the Regent Park redevelopment, when the first phase of the demolition was under way, a summer art workshop project recruited youth from the community to work under the direction of Toronto street artist/photographer Dan Bergeron, of Fauxreel Studios, on a series of mural portraits of residents. Danielle Leahy Laughlin, in her dissertation research, began exploring the attitudes of Regent Park youth toward that community's public spaces in 2004, before any of the physical redevelopment had begun. A young person in Leahy Laughlin's study sample, Jessica, described the whole geography of the Boardwalk, with zones claimed by particular groups. The interviews asked generally about residents' level of participation in planning the redevelopment.
