“With the LRT opening next year and inevitable social and urban rammification which entails, the goal of this campaign is to serve as a catalyst to activate the latent potential of local spaces, activities and heritage while establishing an intimate conversation between urban planning and people’s memories.”

The current pandemic restrictions only further exposes the vulnerability of local businesses whose short lifespan have been overshadowed by lack of investment, interest and inadequate governance over decades. Nevertheless, it has always been a hub for new immigrants and young children since its foundation, and is currently Toronto’s most ethnically diverse neighborhood (more than 38 distinct cultures). It is also one of the few neighborhoods to preserve some of the oldest buildings in the suburban Toronto.

The Weston commercial strip (Mt. Dennis) used to be an extremely vibrant, self-sufficient and bustling with family-owned businesses but it now lays in shambles awaiting demolition. The project invigorates the heritage of ‘people and community’ using old buildings as an interface and repository of memories. It aims to bridge and relate a forgotten history and urban condition to the current community.

The project also draws upon local precedents and the present community’s interest to tackle urban misfits such as the intersection of Weston and Eglinton as well as abandoned or under utilized parking lots. It also seeks to intergrate bike lanes, community gardens and playground relevant to the neighborhood’s heritage and strong grassroot initiatives such as MD Eco-connect or Black Creek Urban farm.

While acknowledging the increasing economic pressure to develop the strip, the project’s aim is four-fold:

1. To intergrate grassroot’s initiatives into the urban fabric.
2. To preserve and promote the neighborhood’s urban and social heritage and increase the resilience of local businesses.
   
3. To discourage tabula-rasa development while promoting renovation and appropriation (at the wake of Canada’s new environmental plan)
   
4. To request the city to reconsider the categorization of heritage buildings on the strip.
   
   

In what would be a drastic transformation, the project will also become a repository of processes, history and the dynamics between ethnic diversity and gentrification, preservation and development in the neighborhood. It will serve as a tapestry of ideas, memories and histories for the local residents: old and new alike.