PLEDC announces the next instalment in their Parkdale Community Forum series:
WHERE Goes the Neighbourhood? Managing Gentrification in Parkdale
In the past several years our neighbourhood has undergone a considerable amount of change. Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? And what happens next?
Join us on Monday January 22nd from 7pm to 9pm for a community forum bringing together residents, local business owners, community service organizations, and political and media types, to discuss, debate, and brainstorm how we can achieve a socially sustainable neighbourhood.
A team of fourth-year Urban Planning students at Ryerson University will share a twenty-minute presentation based on a comprehensive study that they recently completed about gentrification in Parkdale. Following this, we will hold a moderated panel discussion to explore innovative solutions for how the community can deal with the ongoing changes in the neighbourhood.
The panel features Matthew Blackett (Spacing), Misha Glouberman (Trampoline Hall), Craig Peskett (Parkdale Residents Association), Victor Willis (Parkdale Activity - Recreation Centre), Margaret Zeidler (Urbanspace Property Group), and is moderated by Carl Wilson (The Globe and Mail).
The final portion of the moderated panel discussion will include an audience/panel Q+A, and although the event will officially end at this point, participants are invited to stick around for an informal and semi-experimental breakout discussion designed to advance the dialogue on issues raised in the forum.
JUST THE FACTS PLEASE:
WHERE Goes the Neighbourhood? Managing Gentrification in Parkdale
A community forum presented by PLEDC
Monday January 22, 2007 - 7pm-9pm
Toronto Public Library, 1303 Queen Street West
free childcare is provided, please rsvp if you'd like to use it
PANELISTS:
Matthew Blackett, 32, is a Parkdale resident and the founder/publisher of Spacing, a Toronto-based magazine that examines the city's urban landscape. He is a former member of Mayor David Miller's Clean & Beautiful City Roundtable and a frequent speaker at city-building conferences and panels. He also teaches at Humber College's School of Journalism and is an award-winning graphic designer and marketer.
Misha Glouberman runs the Trampoline Hall Lectures, Room 101 Games, and teaches classes in improvised music, theatre, and charades. He was also the founding member of the Queen/Becaonsfield Residents association, an informal group of neighbours concerned about the impact of bars on West Queen West.
Craig Peskett is the president of the Parkdale Residents Association. Over the eight years that he has lived in Parkdale he has been a tenant, homeowner, local business owner, and landlord. Victor Willis is the Executive Director of the Parkdale Activity - Recreation Centre (PARC). He has been involved in community and mental health initiatives for twenty years - at the 519 Church Street Community Centre, Trinity Square Cafe Enterprises, the Gerstein Crisis Centre, and the York Support Services Network. Victor is familiar with mental health issues - as a worker, as a social justice advocate, and personally within his family.
Margaret Zeidler is a graduate of the University of Toronto's School of Architecture and former Executive Director of AMREF Canada (African & Medical Research Foundation. Her company - Urbanspace Property Group specializes in the renovation of derelict buildings into living and working spaces for artists and social entrepreneurs. Ms. Zeidler strongly believes in this cause. Her first and most well known project was the adaptive re-use of a former tin-lithography factory at 401 Richmond Street West in 1994. The 200,000-square-foot building has been transformed into a community for hundreds of artists, cultural entrepreneurs and social innovators.
Carl Wilson (panel moderator) writes about music and culture for The Globe and Mail and his blog zoilus.com, among many other venues, from his base in Parkdale. He helps run the Trampoline Hall Lecture Series, and his short book about love, bad taste and Celine Dion is due in 2007 in the 33 1/3 series from Continuum Books.
PRESENTED BY:
Parkdale Liberty Economic Development Corporation (PLEDC) is dedicated to community economic development in the Parkdale and Liberty areas. Our projects seek to improve work opportunities for community residents, retain and increase community-oriented businesses, create an attractive investment environment, strengthen links between Parkdale and Liberty, and promote environmental stewardship in the community. We aim to represent the diversity of our community and to respond to changing needs.
Contact:
Chris Reynolds, Communications Coordinator
416-516-8301 - creynolds@parkdaleliberty.com
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Parkdale Liberty Economic Development Corporation
1313 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M6K 1L8
http://www.parkdaleliberty.com