Gentrification in Toronto's Little Jamaica: Food for Resistance

Abstract

Over the past decade, the Toronto neighbourhood commonly known as Little Jamaica has experienced gentrification through the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit. This gentrification has perpetuated social and economic inequalities affecting the Caribbean diaspora in Little Jamaica. Urban planning tools, such as the Heritage Conservation District, have been central to the effort to preserve and protect the distinctive culture in Little Jamaica. Yet community members recognize these measures as inadequate to curb gentrification and reduce economic inequality. I argue that an analysis of gentrification only as a matter of urban planning fails to account for the way that the local community takes up cultural forms, like food, to resist gentrification. Though food is widely recognized as a means of constructing identity and building community in diaspora, less attention is paid to the political implications of food’s social power. Drawing on interviews with community members and local activists, this essay examines how the Caribbean community in Little Jamaica constructs cultural identity through food, highlighting a tension between authenticity and hybridity that exists within this cultural identity. I conclude that, because food produces cultural identity and community, food and food spaces may play a role in communities’ resistance to gentrification and inequalities in the urban sphere.

Keywords

• Gentrification
• Caribbean Diaspora
• Food
• Cultural Identity
• Cultural Resistance
• Community