Save
Our St Clair, a group of residents and businesses
better known as SOS,
expressed their opposition to a dedicated
right-of-way for the St Clair streetcar
with a rally and march today.
The
rally, held at Joseph J Piccininni Community
Centre and lead by SOS founder Margaret
Smith, included a number of notable speakers:
-
Ward 17 Councillor Cesar Palacio
-
Davenport MPP Tony Ruprecht (Lib)
-
Corso Italia BIA Chair Jeff Gillan
-
former Toronto Mayor John Sewell
The
City of Toronto and the TTC are currently
conducting a provincially mandated Enviromental
Assessment (EA) Study to detemine the most
effective way to improve transit on St Clair,
prompted by a scheduled need to replace
the streetcar tracks.
While
9 alternatives have been under consideration,
the EA team recently announced that a dedicated
right-of-way (DROW) for the streetcar would
be one of the 4 alternatives to received
detailed study.
SOS
believes a DROW would be detrimental to
the business and residential communities,
often citing information from various departments
of the City and the TTC as the basis for
their concern.
The
theme of the speeches was that while the
community is in favour of improved transit,
there is a real concern that a DROW represents
too great a risk and that there is a sense
those concerns are not being heard or addressed.
John
Sewell, former mayor of Toronto and a St
Clair community resident, noted that daily
ridership on the St Clair streetcar has
decreased by 10,000 over the past 30 years,
which he attributed to a reduction in the
number of vehicles serving the route.
Jeff
Gillan, Chair of the Corso
Italia BIA (the first group to indicate
opposition to the DROW), drew attention
to an alternative
solution they have developed and which
he indicated is being supported by all 5
of the St Clair BIAs. (click
here for PDF)
Following
the rally, the participants gathered up
placards and headed out onto St Clair, for
a march which took them from Lansdowne to
Wells Hill Park, just east of Bathurst.
The
march was orderly and without incident,
with an impromtu police escort provided
near the end.
There
appeared to have been 200 people in the
march.
A
number of local and national media were
present.
Also
present were some members of the EA Study
team as well as representatives of SCRIPT
(St Clair Right-of-way Initiative for Public
Transit) a group that favours a dedicated
right-of-way for the streetcar.
Additional
information on this issue, including links
to relevant sites, can be found in MyStClair's
Streetcar News section located here.
Some
photos contributed by David LeBlanc,
Ferreira-Wells
Immigration Services
