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Award winning and popular Regent Park hospitality hub PaintBox Catering & Bistro closed indefinitely according to a letter written by its founder and owner Chris Klugman and published in the restaurant’s website and social media, citing being defeated by the pandemic. “PaintBox is closed” says a written statement to customers and partners.   “I am writing this letter with a heavy heart to inform you Paintbox is closing effective immediately – and to apologize for any inconvenience or challenges this may cause anyone. This was not an easy decision to make. However, like many companies and organizations, this 22-month long pandemic with no end in sight has simply been too much to manage. With a new surge and other variants on the horizon, with a renewed government lockdown and cancelled catering, Paintbox is out of financial resources and no longer tenable.” Klugman said in the letter. Chris Klugman expressed his deepest thanks to Daniels Corporation President and CEO, ...

Lindsay Jackson, a community development officer with the city is leaving her position in Regent Park. The SDP also known as the Regent Park Social Development Plan, is a community wide initiative consisting of various city funded projects and activities aimed at building social cohesion and inclusion. The role of the SDP Planning Committee is to set the agenda for the SDP Stakeholder Table, which is the main decision-making body for the Social Development Plan. The SDP membership is made up of TCHC residents, Market residents, Agency representatives and Grassroots groups.  On January 13, 2022, the SDP Planning Committee held their regular weekly meeting over Zoom. This week’s meeting of the SDP Planning Committee was facilitated by Lindsay Jackson and Lloyd Pike, a long-time resident of Regent Park. The first item on the agenda was Lindsay’s announcement that she will be leaving the SDP to take on another position with the city. Lindsay Jackson was a community development wor...

Janine Hodgson and Sanjura Sharma reports on the SDP Evaluation and Benchmarks Committee The other major item presented at the January 13, 2022, SDP Planning Committee was a presentation by Janine Hodgson and Sanjura Sharma, who are support staff from Young Street Mission involved in the Evaluation and Benchmarks Committee. The role of the Evaluation and Benchmark Committee is to evaluate the progress, success and challenges of the Social Development Plan and its various committees and activities. As part of the presentation, Sanjura reviewed the work done to date by former evaluation coordinator, Pavathra Sulanthar, including the success of the pilot evaluation report that was published in July 2021. Janine reported that they will be meeting with the SDP working groups in February to begin the co-development of self assessments tools that will help evaluate the performances of the SDP working groups. The Evaluation and Benchmark committee will also be exploring how to assess th...

RPNA holds a community meeting on safety to discuss a Ding Dong Pitch (Prank) Regent parkers have continuously come together over many challenging issues including housing, redevelopment, immigration, access to adequate medical health and mental resources, and racism, but if there one issue that has repeatedly galvanized the community, it has been the issue of its youth, and its relationship with the Toronto Police Service - the latest incident of which came to a head at a community meeting on safety, organized by the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association on December 20, 2021. At approximately 4:45 pm, on Sunday November 21, 2021, Toronto Metropolitan Police officers from 51 Division, stormed a community youth event been held at 50 Regent Park Blvd. The youth event was organized by TCHC and Tridel, in partnership with Healing As One and other youth groups in the community, as a way of consulting with youth around phase 4 & 5 of the Regent Park Redevelopment. According...

Toronto Police Services hold community meeting with Regent Park youth and community members to discuss new initiative to tackle gun and gang violence in the city. On Thursday December 2, 2021, Toronto Metropolitan Police officers from 51 Division and the Toronto Metropolitan Police Youth Engagement Unit hosted a presentation and dialogue session about guns and gang violence with Regent Park youth. The meeting was held at the Regent Park Community Centre located at 403 Shuter Street and was facilitated by Isabelle Cotton, a Police Youth Engagement Officer. Cotton was assisted by her colleagues including 43 Division Superintendent Dave Rydzik; 51 Division Unit Commander Chris Kirkpatrick; 51 Division 2nd in charge Inspector Angadvir Singh; and Regent Park Neighborhood Police Officers Farzad Ghotbi and Mustafa Popalzai. The session was targeted at Regent Park youth and included a small number of adult community members. The main purpose of the session was to introduce Project#Engag...

Mustafa The Poet, Regent Parks own performed live at Massey Hall in Toronto Downtown. Not many artists get to play their first hometown concert at the prestigious venue Massey Hall. For Mustafa, the location was even more significant than for most. It’s a walk away from Regent Park, the Toronto neighbourhood that looms over all the songs on Mustafa’s debut album When Smoke Rises.  Mustafa Ahmed, better known by his stage name Mustafa the Poet, is a Canadian poet, singer and songwriter who grew up in Regent Park. On 1st of December of 2021, Mustafa The Poet Performed at the Massey Hall in Downtown Toronto. His album is a tribute to his friends and family and their lives spent in Regent Park. The full house crowd at Massey Hall was full of Mustafa’s friends and family, including the families of Ali Rizeig, an 18-year-old resident of Regent Park who was gunned down in the doorway of his home in 2017 and Jahvante Smart aka Smoke Dawg, a 21-year-old Canadian rapper who was killed outs...

Police arrest two in killing of Regent Park mentor Thane Murray. Third man wanted. Two men have been arrested for first-degree murder and a third is wanted by police in the fatal shooting of Thane Murray, a Regent Park mentor gunned down in a hail of bullets Two men have been arrested for first-degree murder and a third is wanted by police in the fatal shooting of Thane Murray, a Regent Park mentor gunned down in a hail of bullets early on a warm September night. Police announced the arrests three months after the high-profile death of Murray, a beloved, 27-year-old community leader and City of Toronto employee who was one of three men shot while walking in Regent Park, allegedly by multiple shooters. The Sept. 18 shooting near Oak and Sumach streets was described as “disturbing” by police in part due to sheer number of bullets fired: investigators found more than 50 shell casings on the scene, and police also reviewed a surveillance video posted on social media that appeared to ca...

The following is a report of the December 7, 2021 SDP Stakeholders Meeting: The Regent Park Social Development Plan is a community wide initiative aimed at fostering social inclusion and cohesion. The SDP Stakeholders Table is the main decision-making body responsible for the implementation of Social Development Plan. The Stakeholders Committee meets four times yearly. SDP Membership Intended to be a coalition of stakeholders serving or residing in Regent Park, participation on the Stakeholders Table is open to anyone including: market and TCHC residents; agencies; Grassroots Groups; Faith Groups; and businesses located in or serving Regent Park; TCHC and its development partners; City of Toronto, and other elected representatives serving Regent Park. SDP Voting Privileges While membership is open to all, voting privileges are restricting to residents and stakeholder groups who are actively involved on the various working committees of the SDP. The working committees are commun...

The next agenda item on the November 25, 2021, SDP Planning Committee was the Community Benefits Working Group Terms of Reference. Tridel Builders, the development partner with TCHC, has pledged 36.8 million in community benefits for phase 4& 5 of the Regent Park Redevelopment. TCHC has been working with RPNA Community Benefits Coalition to co-develop terms of reference for a community benefits working group that would oversee how the 26.8 million would be spent. According to Ismail Afrah, last week TCHC senior manager, Peter Zimmerman, met with RPNA co-chairs Marlene DeGenova and Ismail Afrah, to inform them that going forward TCHC will no longer continue discussions about the terms of reference for the Community Benefits Working Group and that TCHC would unilaterally deciding the terms of reference. At the planning committee meeting, Ismail stated that he informed Peter that according to the signed community benefits agreement that the development of a terms of referen...

In this episode of St. James Town TV, we feature the Weathering the Storm Research Report. The report was prepared for The Corner and the St. James Town Service Providers Network by Lisa Kovalchuk, a professor of sociology at the University of Guelph. Lisa Kovalchuk’s team of researchers included community residents Priyal Goenka, Tanvir Kaukab, and Lovlyn Dsouza. The aim of the study was to determine how the Covid-19 pandemic played out in the highly diverse and densely populated community of St. James Town. The study focused on three demographics, youth, newcomers and other immigrants, and seniors. According to Lisa and her team, in the area of children and youth the study found that parents with infants and pre-teen children reported lockdown impacts that affected child development such as the lack of social interactions and gaining of learning experiences because of the disruption of day-care and the closure of recreational family outing options. Parents of special needs c...