Spot on the Couch

Spot on the Couch

Welcome to Spot on the Couch - a show about navigating the rapidly changing world around us, while focusing on important cultural, political and social moments. In a world where you can often feel out of place, there’s always a spot for you, here, on our couch! Join Sav, Tat, and Yas, your hosts, on Tuesdays to learn more about the particular topic of the week. Thanks so much for listening, stay connected via our socials: www.instagram.com/spotonthecouch/ spotonthecouchpodcast@gmail.com

Episodes

  1. 10/16/2019

    1. Demystifying Gentrification in the City (w/ Mercedes Sharpe Zayas & Aysha Ahmadjan)

    What is Gentrification? It's a pretty big buzzword within the popular lexicon right now, yet many of us still don't fully understand it. Join Sav, Tat, and Yas, your hosts, for this informative episode on gentrification in Toronto. The pod invites two amazing guests, Mercedes Sharpe Zayas and Aysha Ahmadjan, about the gentrification going on within the city of Toronto. Mercedes Sharpe Zayas is the Workforce Planning Coordinator for the Parkdale Community Economic Development (PCED) Project, within the Parkdale People’s Economy (PPE). We talk with Mercedes about unpacking the structures of gentrification, and will walk listeners through the issues that Parkdale faces as it is being rapidly gentrified, and the resistance that has been happening.  To Learn more about what has been going on in Parkdale, the PPE, and ways to get involved check out these links: The new Parkdale People’s Economy website can be found here . It includes our ‘Parkdale People’s Calendar’ which features upcoming events and the 2019 schedule for our community meetings. The content on our website is still super out of date and needs to be updated to reflect all our current activities, but hopefully this is a good starting point! You can also find our research reports, like the Parkdale Community Planning Study and the Parkdale Community Benefits Framework. The PNLT website can be found here. They also have great videos on the rooming house crisis, like this one. Video on the Parkdale Rent Strike. The Parkdale People’s Map is a great visual reference to demonstrate the impact of development and investments in the neighbourhood  The Public Studio’s Art, Design, and Gentrification zine, which can be found here. The Ogimaa Mikana Project which can be found here. Aysha Ahmadjan is a talented artist, activist and community organizer who will be giving us a breakdown of the Google Sidewalk Labs project on the Quayside and discussing its contribution to gentrification in the city. To Learn more about what has been going on with Google sidewalk Labs, and ways to get involved check out these links: Find the Google Sidewalk Labs' master innovation plan (MIDP) here Find #BlockSidewalk 's website and signup list here  To find out more about what the hosts talk about, check out these article: Stein, S. (2019, June 26). Gentrification Is a Feature, Not a Bug, of Capitalist Urban Planning. Jacobin. Retrieved from here.

About

Welcome to Spot on the Couch - a show about navigating the rapidly changing world around us, while focusing on important cultural, political and social moments. In a world where you can often feel out of place, there’s always a spot for you, here, on our couch! Join Sav, Tat, and Yas, your hosts, on Tuesdays to learn more about the particular topic of the week. Thanks so much for listening, stay connected via our socials: www.instagram.com/spotonthecouch/ spotonthecouchpodcast@gmail.com