Master builders meet citizen activists
Trefann Court and beyond: from "urban renewal" to true civic life
Bebout, Rick
http://www.rbebout.com/queen/mtc/2ptref.htm
Date Written: 2001-12-01
Publisher: Rick Bebout
Year Published: 2001
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX24163
Examining former Toronto Mayor John Sewell's role as a community organizer and advocate during the urban renewal of the Trefann Court neighborhood and the importance of community self-determination in urban planning.
Abstract:
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Excerpts:
"Organizing is a simple and yet complicated job to describe," he says. "In essence, it means talking to people, finding out problems, helping with solutions." But, even more, it means helping people help themselves -- in their own ways, not "insisting that they do things your way in return for getting your resources and assistance." I've come to think of it (working mostly with kids) as making space, physical and psychological, where people can move and think and act for themselves.
...
Trefann would not be renewed under the dead hand of experts. Instead, it would be revitalized by the hands of its own people. The neighbourhood looks today much as it did before -- if, mixing old and new, better kept (even out back) than when it posed as poster nabe for the ideology of "urban renewal."
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