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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...