Safety isn't the only issue with the St. Clair right-of-way. We call it The Nightmare on St. Clair.
As a business owner on St. Clair Avenue, all I can say is whoever designed this project was asleep at the wheel. The pollution from gridlock is so bad I cannot open the windows of my business. The honking, screaming and accidents go on all day. The traffic signals are confusing as are the location of the crosswalks.
The sidewalks are now so narrow that two baby carriages have trouble passing each other. Pedestrians are almost mowed down by frustrated drivers and this is when there is no construction going on.
Right now they are ripping up an area that was already ripped up twice before. How much more tax dollars will be wasted on this? I am so glad I sold my house here and bought in another city. I don't want to pay for this. Cars scrape their undercarriages over the barrier (how many lawsuits for damages are quietly settled by the city I wonder), SUVs kiss each other in the narrow lanes, trucks cannot get by cars, buses and large trucks have to back up and stop traffic in order to make turns.
Pedestrians have to stay off the corner curbs as large vehicles have to hump it to make turns. I once saw a bus stuck on a pole on Bathurst Street as he tried to make the turn but it was too tight. Traffic is backed up into the intersections because the lanes are too narrow and traffic going the other way sits idling as they cannot pass.
Emergency vehicles sit stuck in traffic as motorists have nowhere to go to get out of the way. Does someone have to die before this insanity will be put to a halt? A bus driver remarked to me that this project is the biggest colossal waste of money.
And then there is the level of destruction that the small businesses in the area have had to endure.
Small business losses have been huge. The grief caused to the families of these small businesses has been heartbreaking. I have managed to survive, but I will be gone soon too. And we are also galled by the parking authority handing out $60 tickets to small business owners for the crime of unloading merchandise in front of their businesses as there are no back lanes. Disgusting.
This white elephant was earmarked to cost $65 million, then $95 million and by my estimates, the total cost should be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $400 million by the time they reach Keele Street, all to save one minute. What a joke!
Does Mayor David Miller care? No. Does Ward 21 (St. Paul's) Councillor Joe Mihevc? No. We small businesses owners knew this was going to be bad, and we were right to fight it. And the city is offering grants to encourage new business to set up here in Toronto.
Why? Why doesn't the city help the tax base that is already here instead of killing it? I have never seen so much stupidity in my life.
Business has been bleeding to the 905 for years now and will continue to do so especially after witnessing this craziness. My advice to business people thinking of setting up in Toronto is to run, run to the 905.
This city is nuts and will destroy your business without a thought about your investment or hard work. They don't seem to care if you can't feed your kids. There are 11 more of these unmitigated disasters planned for this city.
Toronto, wake up, your neighbourhoods are slated for extermination.
Sharon Moore