Toronto city council approved a one year pilot project banning cars on a stretch of King Street in the heart of the city.
With more than 65,000 riders a day, the project is an attempt to move them faster.
Three months into the experience, local resaturateurs are in an uproar saying their losing business as the route has become a “ghost town”.
Al Carbone, owner of the Kit Kat Italian Bar & Grill, wants the project scrapped and is waging a social media campaign to that end.
Kit Kat owner Al Carbone flips the bird next to an ice sculpture of a raised middle finger outside his King Street restaurant. (Samantha Lui/CBC)
People will know his establishment as the one with the icy finger out front.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), however, has said ridership on the streetcar route is up nearly 25 per cent.
And while the speed of streetcars along the stretch is not that much faster yet, it is already an improvement.
Formerly pedestrians could walk the distance faster than commuters packed onto the streetcars.
We’ll look into the progress on both sides of the issue next month.
In the meantime, the blockbuster Canadian play, ‘Come From Away’, is open now at one of the theatres along King Street, so perhaps the restaurants are doing a little better these days and nights.
(With files from CBC)
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