{"id":11925,"date":"2010-06-22T11:56:03","date_gmt":"2010-06-22T15:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=11925"},"modified":"2010-06-22T11:56:03","modified_gmt":"2010-06-22T15:56:03","slug":"cities-for-people-alexandra-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/06\/22\/cities-for-people-alexandra-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Cities for People — Alexandra Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is part of a series of posts by students in OCAD\u2019s Cities for People<\/a> summer workshop (click the link to read a bit about what the class is about). This post was researched and written by<\/em> Gillian Herold, Daniel Kim, John Koutoulakis<\/em> and Max <\/em>Pravosoudov<\/em>. The psychogeographic map of Alexandra Park is by Max Pravosoudov<\/em> (<\/em>Click <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> to view a larger image of the map.<\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Alexandra Park is a neighborhood in a unique location in downtown Toronto. Its boundaries are defined by four large and well known roads: Dundas Street West, Queen Street West, Bathurst street, and Spadina Avenue. It\u2019s amazing how a large portion of Alexandra Park goes unnoticed while the surrounding areas such as Kensington, Chinatown, and Queen Street West, are being occupied by so many people. Not many people seem to know about the area, especially the Atkinson Housing Co-op, due to the fact that it is a very enclosed community. However once exploring the area and reading articles and websites about the Atkinson Co-op there seems to be an interesting story that is reflected by the environment and space within Alexandra Park.<\/p>\n

It all started with Sir Casimir Gzowski, a Polish Engineer who purchased the area and built a large estate at Dundas and Bathurst in 1841. This is now the site of the public library and Scadding Court Community Centre. In its early stages the neighborhood developed as a primarily Polish and Ukrainian area. Many of the people living in Alexandra Park were new Canadians. In the 1960\u2019s many of the houses in the area were demolished to make public housing which brought more new immigrants to the area. Around this time racial tensions began to rise, along with violence and drug use. Alexandra Park became synonymous with an African Canadian gang called the Project Originals<\/a>, which also formed around this time.In the 1990\u2019s residents of Alexandra Park wanted to turn the government housing complex into a self-managed co-op to take control over the struggles of the neighborhood. In 1998 Alexandra Park became the Atkinson Housing co-op, where residents contribute to the decision making process in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

What is unique about this neighborhood today is its environment and the story of how Alexandra Park came to be. According to an article in the Globe and Mail, the intentions of the 1965 redevelopment plans were to develop the 60\u2019s trend of housing, grouping people with low income together. Architect Jerome Markson, and the firms of Klein & Sears and Webb, Zerafa and Menkes, had a vision of enclosing the community from traffic to accommodate an environment that focuses on residents and children of the community. This can be seen by the pedestrian walkways in the neighborhood. The parking lots are on the outskirts, and connected pods of green spaces can be found throughout the Co-op housings.<\/p>\n

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On the south side of the Sanderson Branch of the Toronto Public Library, a small community garden can be found. We found it interesting to see the 60s aesthetics of the geometric shapes and cement structures on other buildings such as the Alexandra Park Community Centre.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, throughout the past 40 years of Alexandra Park, the structure of the 60s-era buildings were found to be dysfunctional.\u00a0 The maze-like layout of the housing allowed crimes to go unnoticed. The reaction taken by the Co-op was to place surveillance cameras around the neighborhood. Indeed, our first walk was greeted with signs of surveillance and safety warnings, which gave an intimidating aura to the area. Along with the notice signs, there were narrow pathways, boarded fences, and very private and rectangular buildings that felt like a very long brick wall rather than rows of houses. With the minimal use of windows, the amount of bricks exposed felt harsh and disconnected from the walkway.<\/p>\n

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A video surveillance notice can be found on the way into the Atkinson Co-op neighborhood from Dundas Street West.<\/em><\/p>\n

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On Vanauley Walk where rows of Atkinson Co-op houses snake their way through the neighborhood, creating a maze-like alleyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Wooden fences around the housing, and metal fencing along Dundas\u00a0 Street, Cameron Street, and Augusta Street, encloses Alexandra park, separating pedestrians and vehicular traffic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although at first it seemed like an unpleasant environment, Alexandra Park is actually a place with a true sense of what a community is like. And this is where the story of this neighborhood becomes interesting. Even though Alexandra Park has had struggles in the past due to the developments of the site, local residents and community members who are engaged in the community use the resources that they have to efficiently provide services and programs to enhance the life of the community. What seems to be a segregated and run-down neighborhood, is actually a community that has a lot of social engagement and activities that goes unnoticed by the greater Toronto.<\/p>\n

The two narratives we identified in Alexandra Park as most significant are<\/strong>:<\/p>\n