Interview+Notes

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=User Study Interview Notes=

toc Here are the rough notes from the interview with individuals involved in the community. The questions list below were the basic outline for the interviews but liberties were taken based on the individual situations.


 * 1) How long have you lived in Don Mills? Or why do you come to Don Mills?
 * 2) Where do you like to go in Don Mills? What do you enjoy doing in your community?
 * 3) Have you visited the Shops at Don Mills? How often would you say? What do you enjoy doing there?
 * 4) An extension of question 3: Where do you hang out most often? Where do you hang out with your friends? where do you go for quiet time?
 * 5) How do you find out about community events?
 * 6) Have you attended events/activities?
 * 7) How do you get your information? What are your main sources of information?
 * 8) Are you involved in the community? How?
 * 9) What do you like about your community?
 * 10) How do you think the community could be improved?
 * 11) How do you define a community?


 - have been living there for a little over a couple decades - Volunteers for meals on wheels but is rarely required to deliver within Don Mills, visits with seniors - Enjoys dance, exercise classes and dance classes but does not attend classes in Don Mills, Scarborough is cheaper and has more options - Gets information from North York Mirror, information from other places in Toronto at the Don Mills Library - Gets a lot of information from the Library - The Shops at Don Mills would be good if you lived in California but it will be too cold in the winter, particularly for the seniors - Enjoys visiting McEwan's, likes their bags in particular instead of other places where you have to pay for bags (these are paper and free) - Does not buy much at McEwan's - Prefers No Frills for grocery shopping because it is cheaper, drives mainly to get to places - Does enjoy walking around the community for exercise - Has visited the centre during an event, visited during the opening weekend - Does like the events to get people out, community activities


 - Stays with family in the area, did visit the older shopping mall when it was there - Most recently for a few weeks in the summer (noting that individual is here for vacation) - Has visited the Shops a few times: Jack Astor's, bookstore, bank, shoe stores, McEwan's - Enjoys McEwan's because of the variety, likes looking but would not buy much - Enjoys McEwan's more for a snack and coffee - Notes: would only use for groceries if nothing else was nearby (noting: proximity is a factor) - Events at square bring people together: people went and enjoyed themselves and went home - Events are not a meet and greet, events weren't to meet people, watch people walk by - Takes a while to bring people together, doesn't mean you're buddies when you attend an event - The community comes out but it doesn't operate like that - Older people liked to meet and go for coffee in the past - Because of outdoor format, older people can't go socialize there because they won't drive or walk out there - People came out for events, more social thing - Notice board in the square and if you go in the bookstore they give you a flyer - Library: you see different things that are happening, Edward's Gardens, bookshop has a flyer about visiting guests (McNally Robinson events_ - Wanted to go to concerts: Natalie McMaster, Leahy - Don Mills is located at crossroads of Lawrence and Don Mills - Wants a nice neighbourhood with facilities (bank, drug store, library, grocery), little community events, added bonus if there are shops and eating places - Thinks you might get information in the weekly paper, biweekly paper, community paper - Events like concerts you just go, you don't meet people but you would socialize more at events like classes, churches, where you meet regularly - You don't have the opportunity to talk as much otherwise

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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"> - Teaches at local high school and oversees specialized Arts/Technology program - Worked at the school almost 22 years - Lives close to Don Mills - Goes to library, people are really nice - Used to have time at lunch to walk around the neighbourhood - Likes the winding streets and interesting architecture - One of the best kept secrets in Toronto in terms of living, still a sense of community: the churches, the library, the arena - Individual contrasts Don Mills to suburbs (does not consider Don Mills a suburb) - Likes the variety of housing: mixed types: semi-detached, split level, apartments, higher income family housing - Includes seniors homes right across from high school and middle school, at one point the school had a day care - Has visited the Shops at Don Mills - Likes the idea of outdoor shopping, hates malls - Part of it has to do with student exhibition (was asked by those running the complex to put on a student exhibition, the program was given a space to display student work (last year, was also the high school's 50th anniversary, some work from regular art program is there still) - Sees real effort to bring a sense of community, the walking environment - Likes McEwan's, like the speciality items for dinner parties - Likes the bookstore - Promoted the program's specialized summer camp in the square - Great customer service, well-trained, enthusiastic, encourages people to enjoy the space - What doesn't work: no places that are more suitable for students (price-wise), could include places with takeout, lower end restaurants - Finds out about events: knows a couple of people who have businesses in the area, through other teachers (some live in the neighbourhood), sometimes through the school administration, blood donation drives, get flyers from the science centre, community newspapers - Main sources of info: friends, especially artist friends, through newspaper, galleries, involvement in art community, Internet, television, professional publications (like art and design magazines), through students (learns as much from the students are they do from us), professional networking, Facebook (former students), email people - involvement in Toronto: committees at different universities, volunteer work for some galleries, exhibit own work as an artist, involvement in school program activities (exhibitions, event nights, competitions) - In Don Mills: shop, work, play - What makes a community: diversity, pride in the community, all ages, genders, socioeconomic situations, balanced use of physical space, safety (translates to having a lot of activities available that engages the citizens), should be about taking care of each other, people getting out and meeting each other - Difference between Don Mills and suburbs: work, live, play, have transport available between - Hates the situation with living in cars (seeing people in traffic) - Improvements: more community events - There's a division right now with people who are afraid of change, understanding that communities are always changing is important, change is always being hopefully for the best - Older generation is outraged by the mall, they've lobbied very hard, even to stop events in the common green area - Good to get people out of stores to move around more - Maybe more places where people, seniors, can gather together for exercise, coffee, a place for them

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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"> - lived in Don Mills since 1960s - services that are important to the elderly are medical (including doctors), communal (religious or otherwise), learning (e.g. workshops and courses), driving licenses - buildings of Don Mills include condominiums on Don Mill West (On Donsway), library, schools - signs up for computer, software learning courses - computer courses were offered at Better Living, but not sure how many people knew about this - sometimes meetings take place at the library or at the condominiums - Catherine Wynne talks about taxation issues and how that would affect the condo residents - shopping centre appeals to high class status, expensive; the shopping centre doesn't have heating and cooling mechanisms which is inconvenient for seniors - can do more activities during the summer but not sure what to do during the winter - how will the shopping centre deal with snow? - have visited some of the stores in the shopping centre: bank, some cafe and restaurant, shops - the Pannier restaurant is very noisy - get information about events from daily newspapers, TV (mostly news channels such as CTV, CBC, CP24, and Global), community news centres, community organizations (e.g. DMRI--Don Mills Residence Incorporated), advocacy groups, newsletters, church newsletters (short, to the point), information pamphlets from libraries, condo magazine, community magazine, and any other free newsletters and newspapers (e.g. Metro and 24) - go online to visit website if there's content he's already interested - reading on screen is difficult - prefers print or TV - use Google to search for information - everybody should belong to organizations - contact with other people gives you information - being with people is what we should do as humans - interested in historical societies, architectural conservancy, service club, non-profit agencies - isolation of people is the worst thing we have - even when we have apartment buildings, people feel they are too close and want to separate - isolation is a major issue - organizations crying for people, historical groups, hard to get people out - that may be due to economic factor, that people aren't joining to meet people - need to build support mechanisms - health system has limits to what we can spend on the elderly - community is different for different people: historical community, church - Don Mills is my community - people are able to travel, don't need to live where your community is - it feels fragmented, shopping centre can't be a community; it isolates people under pay bracket - refer to church as a community, condo as a community - you don't feel close to other people - nowadays about 60-80 people come to practice in church - should maximize the use of the buildings, such as the church (the basement of the church is rented out and used for a private school; the auditorium hosts food banks, a part of the church's parking lot is connected to Better Living)

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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">- currently lives in Leslie and Bowen - previously attended high school in Don Mills - feels there's nothing unique about Don Mills - his current neighbourhood already has all the necessities - don't bother going to Don Mills except to meet his friends - suggest concerts may be able to draw people to Don Mills - suggest "community" is defined by the people in that community and how they interact - community is localized to one area - people who get more involved are the personalities of the community - even if people are not interacting with each other, it can still be a community. That is, it is part of the personality of the community--it is non-interactive - people who are being attracted by the new developments are tourists - some of the things to do: walking, talking, shopping, students hanging out at Tim Hortons - there are many seniors - the new development didn't have the seniors in mind - open plaza is not really more beneficial over malls--not good for winter shopping - the new mall doesn't really serve the community - the new mall doesn't attract him, but it may be useful to have - festivals are occurring more often now, attracting more shoppers

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"> f) **Current Student**
- has been attending the high school for 3 years now, part of the CyberARTS program - has worked there in the summer for the past four years - optometrist is in the area - doesn't have another reason to visit the area, mostly just passing through otherwise - likes the school - often visits the Shops at Don Mills purely to hang out - detests the shopping available - goes to Shops at Don Mills about twice per weekday (proximity factor) - like the open space and 'semi-interesting' architecture - has not attended any events at the Shops other than its grand opening last April - visits nearby Moccasin Trail Park and other parks in the Don Valley, sightseeing, sketching - some people don't like leaving the school complex (for lunch), mentions having to convince people to come - hangs out at Tim Hortons or Starbucks, large groups usually stay on the school grounds or go to the central lawn at the Shops - good quiet time at Moccasin Trail and the school art studio - doesn't live in the community; says 'not privy' to information about the community because of this - does know about school events: art exhibitions, music nights which sometimes happen at the Shops or the Don Mills Library, sport intermurals - part of the school stage crew, gets info from events coordinators - not involved in own community, nothing other than school stuff in Don Mills - likes the open space and forested areas of own community, doesn't like anything else - own community hard to access and bad neighbours - prefers Don Mills community - likes stores and cafes close by, area hard to miss - doesn't so much like the less access to the valley that Don Mills has - really likes the people in the area - saw the replacement of the Don Mills Shopping Centre with the Shops at Don Mills - likes the addition of the better design and bookstore or restaurant but other shops there (like clothing, spa, shoes) seem like a step backwards - usually sticks to geographical and political definitions of community (ridings, natural landmarks) - socially defined community important (//sense// of community) but culturally defined (neighbours only include others if they are culturally similar) not desirable (mix is good)

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