Eduardo Lopez Moreno
Moderator
“Rhythms of Change” is a story of change. A very successful urban renewal project that portrays perseverance, ingenuity, the human agency that wants to change things and knows how to do it. It is a book – an album of poetry – that tells a living story of Regent Park in Toronto, Canada, of an urban transformation that integrated and respected local residents and the history of the community, and today is recognized as a revolutionary regeneration appreciated all over the world. Once a forgotten and ill-conceived neighborhood in the young city, a silent transformation took place in Regent Park with individual willpower, institutional support, innovative ideas, and an urban design that led to a social transformation process. The housing sector treated local communities with dignity and empathy, and today the place has become a seed of light that can be reborn in many places in the world carrying a mark of change and a unique footprint.
To present a book made by multiple voices that were witnesses and agents of change, written in a prose that tells a living story of an-going social and urban transformation. It is a knowledge event that aims to publicize, sensitize and open a debate of one of the most successful urban transformations in recent years. It is a story to communicate, learn and understand which are the ingredients of success and how they connect from a local neighborhood intervention to the city and to the world.
The launching of this book strongly connects to the WUF’s objective and thematic areas, particularly with the fundamental objective of not leaving anyone behind and the urban SDGs, portraying a history of realizations of global agendas localize in specific urban areas. This event also connects with Dialogues 1 (housing), 3 (social cohesion) and 5 (finance).