[URBAN NOTE] "Moss Park residents push back against The 519"

[rfmcdonald]

Daily Xtra reports on controversy in Moss Park surrounding the 519's plan to build a LGBT-centered recreation centre in that community.

Close to 100 community members opposed to changes in their downtown Toronto east neighbourhood gathered this week to express concerns over The 519’s plans to build a new recreation centre in Moss Park. The meeting was organized by the Queer Trans Community Defence on April 7, 2016, at the John Innes Community Centre.

The 519, Toronto’s LGBT community centre, and the City of Toronto are currently conducting a feasibility study to see if Moss Park could be a suitable location for the new sports centre. While originally framed as providing LGBT-specific programming, the project has since widened its scope and aims to be inclusive of both queer residents and current community members, many of whom are marginalized individuals. However, organizers of Thursday’s meeting are questioning this change in rhetoric.

“We have very little faith in The 519 people and the city people really being effective advocates for the Moss Park people,” says Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, a member of the Queer Trans Community Defence. “How can The 519 serve this community when they’ve been focused on a vastly different community at Church and Wellesley?”

The threat of gentrification — and what that could mean for current residents — is the main concern for many of those opposed, who feel that the proposed changes would push out the homeless, drug users and sex workers who currently use the park and surrounding area.

“Where are you expecting us to go? You can’t scrub us off the face of the city,” said Syrus Marcus Ware via recorded video message. Ware, an artist and community activist, called into question how inclusionary the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood has been for queer individuals who are not white and middle class. He said that marginalized folks were at the forefront of the queer rights movement, making the pressure being put on them to make room for non-marginalized queer folk even more poignant.