The Toronto Star heads to St. Clair disaster zone and finds condos and trendy restaurants

For months, Rob Ford has been characterizing LRTs as streetcars and characterizing streetcars—like the one on St. Clair—as neighbourhood-destroying trolleys of doom. Dubious, the Toronto Star dispatched a few of its bravest reporters to the area, who found trendy condos and stylish restaurants rather than a neighbourhood gone bad. As for the right-of-way’s impact on local traffic, a morning drive along St. Clair from Gunns Loop to Yonge took a mere 20 minutes, and the same trip by streetcar, only 29 minutes. To be sure, commute times change depending on the time of day, and not all St. Clair residents support the right-of-way. But calling St. Clair a “disaster” seems somewhat far-fetched—not that a wee fib now and then has bothered the mayor before. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »