The Eglinton LRT is already changing the face of their neighbourhood. So it was only fitting that residents’ own faces — many of them long-standing members of the Eglinton West community — be part of the street’s transformation.
That’s why visitors who venture into Keelesdale Park near the Chris Tonks Arena will see that the fence around the Crosstown construction site has been embellished with large-scale images of the neighbours and the nearby street.
One streetscape is so large, the photo so crisp, you might be tempted to walk right up the nearby hill it depicts.
The outdoor exhibit is called the Intergenerational Fence Project. It’s the result of a collaboration between the photo club at the St. Clair West Seniors Services Centre (actually located on Eglinton just east of Black Creek Dr.) and some university students.
As well as making the seniors proud, the project represents the kind of public participation in the Crosstown construction that is being encouraged by transit officials.
Through a community office near Dufferin St., transit officials are working to build communication links to inform and ease the inevitable discomfort Eglinton area residents face as the country’s largest infrastructure project takes shape over the coming eight years.
Three years ago when GO set out to expand its Georgetown line, pile driving that shook residents living in ɫɫ’s Junction led to an outbreak of bad publicity about the unwillingness of transit officials to communicate and consider the neighbours.
The Keelesdale site is where the giant tunnel boring machines will be launched in the fall to dig east underground toward Laird Ave., where the LRT will surface and run on the road to Kennedy station.
Even though they lament the loss of some trees and plants in the area, and the noise and dust of construction, the St. Clair seniors are excited about the Crosstown, said Sonya Young, a freelance marketing expert who runs the photo club for the centre.
The exhibit is a tribute to Ruel Singleton, one of the group’s most experienced photographers, who died recently.
“It was his idea to keep coming down here and documenting the construction,” said Young.
Singleton’s enthusiasm has infected Gladys Azucena, 65, who has spent months training her lenses on the scene near Black Creek. Her photos show pilons peaking through a smattering of snow and ghostly construction machines lit at night by street lights and a flash.
“I’m crazy for pictures,” she says. Ironically Azucena used to live behind the nearby Kodak building until she downsized to another place near Weston Rd. and Eglinton.
She talks about the Crosstown like it’s her baby. Most of the seniors say they walk around the neighbourhood but they’re excited about the transit improvement.
Rudolph Dover, 77, whose hand is one of two entwined in one of the exhibit’s photos, welcomes the Crosstown.
“Being that I don’t drive, I much prefer the subway. It’s going to be the norm in years to come,” he said.
Merlin Bartin, 69, has lived in the area 35 years. Her only complaint is that the Crosstown has been too long in coming.
“My regret,” she said, “is some of us won’t live to see the completion.”
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