Hundreds of people who packed a Bathurst St. synogogue may have gotten what they wanted regarding a controversial planned traffic closure, but overall frustration about LRT construction in the neighbourhood spilled out.
"Frankly, shame on all of you," said one resident during the question and answer period. "We had to pull your pants down in public in order to get you here."
Despite concerns for weeks about traffic congestion, public safety, signage, planning and communication, Metrolinx had maintained the plan to close a block of Bathurst St. - from Eglinton to Wembley Road - to accelerate work on the Forest Hill LRT station.
But hours before the meeting at the Beth Tzedec congregation Tuesday night, Metrolinx and Crosslinx, the consortium building the LRT network - announced they were scrapping the deal.
Watch: “Shame on all of you.”
— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) January 17, 2019
Some of the sights and sounds from tonight’s meeting about LRT construction at Bathurst and Eglinton. Residents had complained about a proposed closure that would last seven months, which Metrolinx shelved. However, people were still upset. pic.twitter.com/DaXDOd6Igm
Among the residents previous complaints were they were already dealing with side streets getting filled with detoured cars and drivers ignoring traffic signs.
Some have reported cars driving up on sidewalks, pedestrian collisions and residents being unable to get out of their own driveways for up to 20 minutes.
Metrolinx spokesperson Jamie Robinson said despite the reasoning that it would save three months of construction time, the benefits didn't outweight the costs.
"We listened and we learned," he said.
But one of the residents who had been pushing the closure to not happen the most, Lindsay Detsky, said this part of the process could've been avoided.
"Everyone wanted the same thing and if Metrolinx would've spoken to the community originally, they wouldn't have been in this situation," she said. "I have never seen our neighbourhood come together so much as they did."
Robinson was the target of much of the crowd's frustration, with one speaker saying his public engagement has been a failure.
"Clearly that is a failure and the answer that you gave out how you planned on engaging was terrible, zero out of 10," he said.
Adding to the community's concerns was that Crosslinx didn't even have the proper permit to do the closure, but announced it was happening anyway.
"Metrolinx didn't handle this well," said Ward 12 Cllr. Josh Matlow, who still credited the organization for pulling the plug on the idea.
But resident Steven Pearlstein said his frustration goes beyond just the ill-conceived closure and more towards the overall planning around the area.
"How could any rational person make the decision or even consider to close the intersection for seven months, when they were only saving three months worth of construction?" he said. "And those people are still in charge of this project.
As for the future, Robinson said with the closure pushed aside, it means the area will continue to see alternating lane closures until the project is completed in Sept. 2021.
He stressed that he understood the concerns from residents and that he recognized every decision made has impacts.
"It's a balance that we're trying to strike to get the project done and get out of people's way as quickly as possible," he said.