Transition Zone

The Regent Park that has been a beacon for vulnerable communities is clearly endangered. You can feel and see this trend among the new towers and topography of the Toronto neighbourhood but also in the data and census numbers that signal a slow shrinking of its Black population.

Just east of downtown, Regent Park was built as a sixty-nine-acre public housing project in the 1940s. That it is now being gentrified is not surprising, nor are the complexities of the intentions behind its makeover. Rhythms of Change: Reflections on the Regent Park Revitalization, a conversational career memoir by the real estate developer and jazz musician Mitchell Cohen, gives insight into the leadership behind this significant undertaking.

Born in Regina, Cohen attended McGill University in the early 1970s. Shortly after graduating, he set up a social work practice in the basement of a red-brick building, part of a Montreal development known as the Gardens. Here he...