Residents fed up with construction

Poll finds 76% of respondents disagree with long-term closings of downtown sidewalks, roads

A majority of Torontonians are finding continuous construction to be an “inconvenience” and “difficult” in the midst of a burgeoning number of infrastructure projects around Toronto’s downtown core.

In a telephone survey released by Forum Research, almost half of the 757 participants, 45 per cent, said that “continuous construction downtown makes it difficult to get around.”

Additionally, 76 per cent disagreed with contractors and developers closing off sidewalks and traffic lanes for long-term projects.

“Torontonians are as fed up as Mayor Tory is with these constant lane closures and sidewalk diversions,” Lorne Bozinoff, the Forum Research president, said.

“One has to ask, will Toronto ever be finished?”

“It is time we started to place a much greater emphasis on the broader public interest when it comes to these kinds of decisions.” MAYOR JOHN TORY

What’s most notable in the poll, Bozinoff says, is that those who live closer to the downtown core are feeling more inconvenienced than those living in the suburbs.

Of the Scarborough respondents, only 29 per cent said construction downtown makes it hard to get around compared to another 52 per cent in Scarborough who said they were not affected. But of those living in the former city of Toronto, 53 per cent said downtown construction made it hard to get around with only 16 per cent that didn’t feel affected.

“It’s not just people spouting off. The people really don’t like the idea of long-term sidewalk and traffic closures,” Bozinoff said.

“This shows it’s a major inconvenience to people.”

On the brighter side, less than a quarter, 23 per cent, see continuous construction as a “sign that the city is thriving,” according to the poll.

“We certainly sense and appreciate the frustration for what I’ll call a short-term byproduct of building a great city,” Steve Deveaux, chairman of the Building Industry and Land Development Association, told the Star this month.

The two polls surveyed a random sampling of 757 participants by Forum Research.

The margin of error is 4 per cent, 19 times out of 20. With files from Betsy Powell and Lisa Wright