[URBAN NOTE] "How Can Moss Park Avoid Alienating Residents As It Gentrifies?"

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist hosts Tannra Yelland's brief article on the fear of gentrification in Moss Park. Yelland can offer no solutions to the fear of people in this area that they might be pushed out.

The potential recreational centre in Moss Park ignited opposition and calls of gentrification when it began as a proposal for an LGBTQ-focused sports centre rather than one catering to the residents of the area. That’s since changed. The City and The 519—a city agency “committed to the health, happiness, and full participation of the LGBTQ community” that secured an anonymous donation for one-third of the centre’s costs—have embarked on a series of public consultations ostensibly intended to secure both the input and the support of the many communities represented in Moss Park. There have been the three public consultations and a number of smaller “focused conversations” with youth, Indigenous groups, shelter and service users, and housing and neighbourhood associations.

“Our focus is primarily reaching out and connecting with people in the Moss Park community who historically have been systematically excluded from decision-making,” says Jaymie Sampa, one of the community organizers of the the smaller, demographically focused meetings. She estimated she and her four co-organizers have conducted about 35 meetings.

A recently released report on the results of all the community engagement to date dealt with some of the complexities of improving services without pushing out the highest-need community members. For instance, the study notes that “safety is the most commonly cited concern among people who use the park and its facilities—and it’s a frequent issue mentioned by those who don’t.” Yet the answers to this problem diverge wildly, often based on past experiences with police, the colour of an individual’s skin or their life circumstances. And the answer probably won’t be found no matter how many focus groups the Moss Park community organizers have, because the conditions creating those disparities will remain.