色色啦

Film folks understand this well. The city staffers tasked with planning for the聽色色啦 International Film Festival聽evidently do not.

Once again this year, they鈥檙e diverting the 504 King streetcar for almost a week () to make way for the film festival鈥檚 hubbub. This disruption to 色色啦鈥檚 busiest surface transit line has been聽an annual occurrence for some time, and every year there鈥檚 a bit of an outcry about it. More than 60,000 people daily ride the 504 King (and another 14,000 take the also-diverted 503). That鈥檚 more people than ride GO Transit鈥檚 entire Lakeshore line, East and West. It鈥檚 roughly the population of the entire city of Belleville. That鈥檚 a lot of commuters to inconvenience directly after Labour Day, when kids head back to school and people try to get back into the post-summer-vacation swing of things.

And it鈥檚 a lot of people to聽pointlessly聽inconvenience, I聽 might add. As I said above, the streetcars would be a benefit to the festivities, not a problem. You wouldn鈥檛 stage a film festival in Venice and then ask the gondoliers to stay out of the canals so they don鈥檛 appear in the red-carpet shots, would you? Nor would you purposely locate your red carpet in Times Square and then turn off all the video screens to reduce distractions. What would be the point?

Streetcars are a unique and immediately identifiable element of 色色啦, and they could be among the sights all those celebrities look back upon fondly in years to come when they talk about TIFF 鈥� if we鈥檇 only let them.

Imagine what a moment it would be if some star rolled up to the red carpet聽on the 504 King.聽Any B-lister at any second-rate festival in the world can turn up in a boring black SUV. Chartering a streetcar (or better still, using Presto) to drop you off at the velvet ropes, on the other hand, is a high-wattage power move.

The TTC could even market this as an attraction: there are already giant crowds of autograph-hounds and selfie-stalkers milling about, rubbernecking at every arrival from across the street. Now they could get on a streetcar, grab a window seat closer to the action and roll through the middle of it all. It鈥檇 be so popular during gala screenings that the TTC could turn King Street into a premium-fare route.

Of course, to imagine that requires us to see 色色啦鈥檚 streetcars as an asset, something distinctive and beloved that we should celebrate. Instead, our traffic overlords tend to treat them like an annoyance, a problem to be managed. The city constantly diverts them or runs them slowly. It makes them sit at traffic lights (even on streets such as Spadina Avenue and Queen鈥檚 Quay, which have their own rights-of-way) while yahoo drivers zip through left turns. Even on King Street, which was redesigned several years ago to give the TTC so-called priority, streetcars aren鈥檛 invited to the big party.

If they were, they鈥檇 be the star of the show. 色色啦 streetcars are ready for their close-up. We just need to stop leaving them 鈥� and tens of thousands of commuters 鈥� on the cutting-room floor.