Protesters, a skunk and rabbit protest LRV facility.
Leslieville resident Sharon Howarth is hopping mad Sunday about the impacts on the community due to the proposed Ashbridges Bay LRV facility.
Photo/JOANNA LAVOIE
More than 40 people lined the sidewalk and median near Lake Shore Boulevard East and Leslie Street on Thursday, April 1 to protest the location of a proposed light rail vehicle (LRV) facility near Ashbridges Bay.
Sporting large signs and chanting slogans, the protesters - one of which was clad as the 'don't get skunked again' skunk and another as a 'hopping mad' rabbit - called on passersby to support them by honking their horns.
Nancy Hawley, a longtime Leslieville resident, helped organize the event.
She said her biggest concern is the loss of nearly 20 acres from the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant (ABTP), the site selected to build the new streetcar yard.
"It makes no sense to me that they would choose a contaminated site. There's lots of alternatives," Hawley said, pointing to the neighbouring West Don Lands as well as the port lands as other options.
Hawley said neighbours are especially upset with the choice of location because they feel a 1999 agreement reached between the city and a neighbourhood liaison committee as well as Citizens for a Safe Environment to maintain the full ABTP site for sewage and wastewater treatment is not being honoured.
"The community is really upset. People feel a loss of faith (in the city)," she said, adding the recent purchase of the new streetcars are a good thing. "We want to honour that agreement. We want the ABTP cleaned up and protected."
Longtime Beach resident Karen Buck, of Citizens for a Safe Environment, said the ABTP is a complicated facility that must continue to be fully used for water treatment.
"It's like trading one essential service for another," she said, adding the city's recent choice to use liquid chlorine is still not the best idea for disinfecting wastewater.
Hawley added it would take $60 million to remediate the ABTP site in order to use a portion of it for the streetcar storage and maintenance facility.
"We really want our councillors to stand up for us and stop this. We want them to stand up for the environment and the citizens that live here."
She also noted some of the residents at the protest, which ran from 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m., were concerned about local safety issues as an estimated 154 streetcars will soon be travelling along Queen Street East and south on Leslie street to reach the yard.
"Rail yards are usually put where people don't go," she said.
Carrying a large sign with a skunk on it, Beach resident Jose Gaspar said he came out to protest the new LRV facility because he doesn't want to see the loss of the green spaces in the area.
"We love it down here," Gaspar said, adding he wants more parks and less rail and vehicular traffic in the Ashbridges Bay area.
"What we need is more bike lanes, not TTC tracks."
The protest also served to encourage residents to make their way to an April 8 community meeting at the EMS Academy at 895 Eastern Ave., from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
"We're mobilizing for April 8. If you have an opinion, get to that meeting," Hawley urged.