The neighbourhood of St. James Town has shaped me in many ways. It forged my Canadian identity, which stemmed from a strong sense of being an “other”, a newcomer. It also taught me about immigrant presence in the cities of the Global North, about their enclaves and safe spaces. Having volunteered at St. James Town Community Corner, I have experienced on-the-ground multiculturalism as an open-ended, people-centred project. The stories and experiences embodied by over ten thousand immigrants living in a modernist, high-rise neighbourhood pushed me to conduct research and write my PhD dissertation about the place. Currently, I am turning the dissertation into a book and writing a fictional immigrant tale situated in the area.