The story is familiar by now: when streetcar tracks need to be installed or repaired, the TTC takes longer than promised to tear up a road. Small businesses lose money and rebel. The street names have taken on the mournful timbre of historic battlefields at this point: St. Clair, Bathurst-Dundas, Queens Quay, Roncesvalles.
It’s a unique and perhaps unavoidable Toronto problem — the city is criss-crossed by trams like few others places in North America.
But the construction of the Leslie Barns was supposed to be different. In laying a spur line between Commissioners and Queen Sts. and building a streetcar warehouse at Lake Shore Blvd. and Leslie St., the TTC hoped to avoid the pitfalls of the past.
By some measures, they have succeeded. A local community relations office has earned some good will, and some important deadlines have been met.
But four years since the transit agency broke ground on the project, many local business owners say their bottom line has been hit hard and their patience tried by delays and bad communication. While construction on the Eglinton LRT grabbed headlines and became a debating point in the mayoral election, Leslieville has quietly grown restless as another streetcar project drags on.
