MoveIn Status
Praying for a team.

Firsthand
A visitor to the Donwood Park patch noticed that the buildings in the area were in good repair and that some residents were driving expensive cars.

A Persian couple who have lived in the neighbourhood for 25 years had nothing bad to say about the area and felt that it had in fact been getting better.

Others in the patch experience poverty. In a YouTube video (at right, warning: explicit content), a well-known rapper from the patch who was born in Pakistan says that he and others grew up hungry. They also experienced drugs, gangs, and violence. ¹

There is a strong sense of pride and loyalty in the neighbourhood and in the wider City of Scarborough (Scartown). A comment on the rapper’s video clip says “palace 4 life. scartown 4 life.” (The “palace” is one of the buildings in the patch.) This rapper, who has done quite well for himself, invested in his neighbourhood by arranging for basketball nets and other playground equipment to be installed. ¹

The Landscape
The Donwood Park patch is located on the northeast and southeast corners of Midland Avenue and Lawrence Avenue East. The north corner of the patch is adjacent to Donwood Park. It is part of the larger Bendale neighbourhood in the former City of Scarborough.

There is a mosque across the street from the patch that attracts residents to the area.

Midland Park Baptist Church is located on Treewood Street in the patch. It offers ESL classes.

This patch contains seven apartment buildings that house approximately 4,500 people in all.

• 1375 and 1385 Midland Ave. (market-rent buildings)
• 2700 and 2702 Lawrence Ave. E. (known as “The Palace”; also market-rent)
• 5 Brockley Dr. (market-rent building)
• 2 and 4 Treewood St. (market-rent buildings)

An innovative school building will replace two existing facilities that house Bendale-Thomson High School located at Lawrence and Midland. The new school will have fewer corridors as well as more open, flexible meeting spaces. It may even use geothermal heat and include a green roof. Design of the school will likely start in September 2009. ²

The People
There are many people from Southeast Asia in this patch, especially India and Pakistan. Some say that individuals linked to the Taliban have been active in this neighbourhood. ¹

In the wider neighbourhood that includes this patch: ³

• 52% of the people are immigrants
• Most immigrants came before 1991
• 45% of residents over 15 have a post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree
• The 2006 unemployment rate was approximately 7.5% as compared with 6.7% average in Toronto
• 57% of individuals were considered visible minorities

The History
David and Mary Thomson and David’s brother Andrew were the first Europeans to settle in the former Township of Scarborough. They arrived in the late 1790s and built homes in what is now the Bendale neighbourhood which contains the Donwood Park patch.

In 1819, St. Andrew’s Church was built on land donated by the Thomson family. Many of Scarborough’s early settlers lie in the Presbyterian church’s cemetery. In 1834, Scarborough’s first public library was founded near the church. ⁴

The Challenge
“And what, pre-tell, are YOU doing other than watching the news, judging ppl from the sidelines? You offering kids an alternative? You involved in community groups? … The ones crying the most are usually the ones doing the least for the community.” ¹

Would you be willing to move in and help reveal God’s love in the Donwood Park patch?

Sources
¹The Real Toronto: Midland n Lawrence including comments on the clip.
²“New school of thought on building schools,” The Star, March 13, 2009
³All statistics in this section taken from Statistics Canada 2006 Census tract profiles for 0369.00 and 0353.02(CT), Toronto (CMA) and Ontario.
⁴Scarborough Historical Society