On a golden early-autumn day, under flawless blue skies, local residents took to the streets Saturday to celebrate fresh starts and brighter futures in the downtown neighbourhood of Alexandra Park.

The 18-acre tract — originally built in the 1960s as public housing, squeezed between the bustle of Kensington Market, Chinatown and Queen St. W. — has long been terra incognita to many in Toronto, and regarded by some who did know it as a no-go zone of gangs and hidey-holes.

But all that’s changing under a revitalization plan that began in 2008 with not much more than dreams and determination and, eight years on, celebrated the official opening Saturday of its first 40 new townhomes.

The party brought drum bands and bouncy castles and ice-cream trucks and smoking barbecues onto the sunny streets, along with delighted residents like Hamza Waseem.

Waseem, 21, came to Canada from Pakistan at age 5 and has lived in Alexandra Park since 2004.

“As a community we were known for drugs, violence, crime,” he told the Star. “But now it’s bringing more safety, and we feel better for sure. We were closed off, we were isolated from the community,” he said. “This is opening us up and making it safer.”

The next five years will see the rest of the old townhomes replaced, new roads to connect Alexandra Park to the city, a central park, an expanded community centre and enhanced economic opportunities.

“For the youth especially, it’s already created a lot of jobs for us,” Waseem said. The third-year civil engineering student at the University of Toronto now combines his training and neighbourhood pride working as a site manager.

Toronto Community Housing sold land to developers for construction of two market-priced condominiums, and with the proceeds and a share of the condo profit was able to fund the revitalization.

Greg Spearn, president and CEO of Toronto Community Housing, said he was particularly proud residents were deeply involved. “In fact, we’ve made major changes to our designs based on resident input, because those are the folks that have to live there.”

School trustee Ausma Malik agreed it was important “that we were doing right by the community to maintain this amazing neighbourhood, making sure that this is always a place that can be home.”

One of those who wanted her home to stay home was Janet Chavez, who has lived in Alexandra Park for 40 years, since emigrating from Ecuador. “We stick together,” she said.

As TCHC officials led a tour, Chavez, 51, watched the street party along with her father, Luis, from her new front stoop on Paul Lane Gardens.

The mother of two lived in a replacement unit in the neighbourhood while her new townhome was built, and is delighted with the result.

“It’s very nice,” she said. And her kids? “Oh, yeah, they’re happy.”

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Leslie Gash, vice-president of development for TCHC, said that in addition to the new park, there will be yards, and places for garbage bins “so they’re not eyesores.” And “people will have a street address, so it’s easier to order pizza and for the ambulance to arrive if it’s needed, just like any other neighbourhood in the city.”

Councillor Joe Cressy said one young resident told him her school friends were not allowed to visit her because their parents considered Alexandra Park too dangerous.

“This isn’t about bricks and mortar and buildings,” he said. “It’s actually about people in a community. That’s the core of it.”

That’s the reason one mural to be preserved at Alexandra Park is an image of late resident Sonny Atkinson. Originally, AP, as it is known, was surrounded by walls. Residents wanted them down. As Cressy explained it, when that didn’t happen Atkinson went “out one day with a sledgehammer and just started knocking down the wall.”

So in one sense, Cressy said, the new revitalization is “just a continuation of Sonny’s work — tearin’ down walls.”