TIFF is the exception to normal street closures
Instead, along the barricades, there were people walking briskly to work. Lots of them — thousands — making the five-block trek from Spadina Ave. over to the other side of University Ave., where the bank towers stand.
It’s become a bit of a frenzied annual tradition, kind of like the Running of the Bulls in Spain, except instead of rampaging large animals with horns on their heads, it has hustling professionals in crisp dryclean-only outfits: The Rushing of the Bankers and Lawyers. It’s become a TIFF tradition.
It was fine. As near I can tell, no one was trampled (though some broke a sweat), and the whole trip can be managed in 10 minutes or so.
But still, it’s a bit puzzling: Why do we close the busiest commuter street in the city during morning rush hours for a film festival party that isn’t using the street during that time of day? For most people involved, it’s a minor hassle, but this is a lot of people, and with the traffic and streetcar diversions, it adds up to a major hassle for the city, the TTC and the transportation network.
And again, no one is hosting gala opening parties at 8:15 in the morning. The restaurant patios set up Thursday morning (which reach onto the road, but not onto the streetcar tracks) were empty. The streetcar tracks were mostly unobstructed, except for metal barricades monitored by police officers at intersections.
This has been a source of tension since 2014, when the city started closing the street for a four-day TIFF kickoff party. The TTC opposes it for obvious reasons: It inconveniences its customers and provides a big logistical hassle, and imposes additional costs on the TTC for staff and shuttle buses and whatnot. But the city government basically says, “Don’t be a downer! Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are in town! Vanity Fair and Entertainment Tonight are here! It’s a party!”
This, of course, is a bit of a different tack than they take for street closings of some other kinds.
For example, the laudable Open Streets TO celebrations that are designed to allow regular Torontonians to get out on the road downtown and have fun. They don’t host those on weekday mornings. They don’t even close major intersections, instead keeping them open so crosstraffic can get through. And in those cases, they have them Sunday morning, in the dead of summer vacation season, when only churchgoing motorcades and migratory brunchers might be disrupted. They end at 2 p.m. to make darn sure the barricades are down and streets are clear by the time any heavy traffic might arrive.
Which points to a possible compromise here. Those Open Streets parties show that streets are simple enough to close and open again in a few hours — you just move a few barricades around. While the King streetcar is busy all day, the morning rush hour is the busiest time, and the most disruptive time to introduce delays and diversions, by far.
What’s more, the streetcar tracks are barely blocked at all on King St. in the morning, and no TIFF revellers really seem to be using the street for much at that time.
So why not keep the street open to streetcar traffic for the morning rush hour while the visiting celebs sleep off their jet lag and last night’s cocktails, and then move the barricades over in time for all showbiz to begin?
No one hates parties. Everyone loves movies. But people do also love getting to work. As fun as watching Bay Streeters run in the roads is, couldn’t we find an easy compromise here?