Residents of Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood aren’t the only ones to express anger over the TTC’s expansion plans. The Save Our Sheppard group in North Scarborough are also angry, saying a light rail transit line will create a traffic nightmare and proposing a much more expensive subway instead (which, if the Woodbine/Danforth area is any indication, will cause an even further decline of pedestrian traffic and kill even the most tenacious businesses). But Leslieville isn’t opposed to light rail transit going through their neighbourhood – Leslievillers love to stroll and they are used to traffic. What they’re angry about is the maintenance facility for the new fleet of streetcars, proposed to be built in their backyard.
At an open house last Thursday night, some residents were outraged over the proposal to build the facility near Lakeshore and Leslie, claiming they felt tricked by the TTC’s lack of publicizing their dramatic plans. In June of last year, the TTC said the Leslieville location was just one of 6 sites being considered (another on Coxwell Avenue may draw the same kind of controversy). The TTC says it needs to build a maintenance facility for its 200 new light rail vehicles, as well as building streetcar tracks down Leslie Street. But people who live in the area say the noise from all those streetcars going down Leslie street each day will be unbearable.
The irony is that the site of the proposed Leslieville facility is the same spot that Leslieville residents fought so hard to prevent from being turned into a box store development. They won, but a few months later the TTC proposed building the maintenance yard nearby.
The TTC says the new facility will employ 540 people and create an economic base for local businesses. Do you agree, or would you rather have seen Wal-Mart come in to the area?
