[URBAN NOTE] "Street party greets opening of new Alexandra Park homes"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Jim Coyle describes what seems to be the successful first stage of Alexandra Park's revitalization.

On a golden early-autumn day, under flawless blue skies, local residents took to the streets Saturday to celebrate fresh starts and brighter futures in the downtown neighbourhood of Alexandra Park.

The 18-acre tract — originally built in the 1960s as public housing, squeezed between the bustle of Kensington Market, Chinatown and Queen St. W. — has long been terra incognita to many in Toronto, and regarded by some who did know it as a no-go zone of gangs and hidey-holes.

But all that’s changing under a revitalization plan that began in 2008 with not much more than dreams and determination and, eight years on, celebrated the official opening Saturday of its first 40 new townhomes.

The party brought drum bands and bouncy castles and ice-cream trucks and smoking barbecues onto the sunny streets, along with delighted residents like Hamza Waseem.

Waseem, 21, came to Canada from Pakistan at age 5 and has lived in Alexandra Park since 2004.

“As a community we were known for drugs, violence, crime,” he told the Star. “But now it’s bringing more safety, and we feel better for sure. We were closed off, we were isolated from the community,” he said. “This is opening us up and making it safer.”