Don’t close King
There’s an odd disconnect at the City of Toronto when it comes to King St. and streetcars.
On one hand, the city and the Toronto Transit Commission are about to embark on a pilot project to restrict cars on King and clear the way for streetcars to move more people more quickly.
It’s the busiest surface transit route in the city, carrying 65,000 passengers a day, and it’s so jammed now that it’s a nightmare for commuters.
On the other hand, the city still plans to shut down the heart of King for four days in September in order to let some movie stars and film buffs frolic in the street. Streetcars and transit users be damned.
They do this every year during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and this year the shutdown is scheduled to go from early on the morning of Thursday, Sept.14, to the following Monday morning, Sept. 18.
It means closing the central portion of King from Bathurst to Jarvis Sts., a major disruption for tens of thousand of passengers in order to make life easier for the pretty people at TIFF.
The film festival is a big deal for the city and the province, bringing in thousands of visitors and millions of dollars. But that doesn’t mean life in the heart of the city has to be shut down.
The TTC is pushing back, arguing that such a major imposition on so many transit customers doesn’t make sense. They’ve suggested various alternatives — such as moving TIFF festivities onto adjacent John St., or barring cars while still allowing streetcars through.
They even proposed a more modest closing schedule to the city that would reduce the number of weekday rush hours affected from four to three. That, too, was brushed aside.
The city should rethink. TIFF is important, but so are the tens of thousands of transit users who rely on the King streetcar every day. They don’t deserve to be shunted aside so cavalierly.
Surely there are ways to mitigate the inconvenience for ordinary citizens while letting the TIFF crowd party on. Streetcars are an iconic symbol of Toronto, and it would be fitting to have them at the heart of the festivities. The city should be more creative in addressing this situation.