A little piece of my neighbourhood died today. To be fair, the killing blow was struck years ago and this stretch of Pape Avenue has lingered on life support since then. The decision to finally build the Ontario Line subway spelled the end for this row of shops and businesses and all the little apartments above them.
Today, the last of those units was being emptied out. Some to locations new. Some into oblivion.
Over the next few weeks or months, Pape Village will watch as these structures, ones they came to know so well, are demolished and replaced with excavation. Over the next few years, the constant din of construction will replace the earth beneath these streets in a new subway station. Of course, it will happen at a glacial pace, one that turns the currently projected completion date of 2031 in yet another joke for Torontonians to bandy about long after they’ve gotten used to the traffic detours and disruptions to daily routine that all this mess has caused.
But, someday, years and years from now, throngs of daily commuters will be able to ride from Exhibition Place all the way to what was once the Ontario Science Centre. The Science Centre will, of course, not be there anymore, likely replaced by a concrete forest of condominiums long before the subway actually opens for business.
And I, likely, won’t be alive to experience the new subway station that will have replaced my favourite laundromat, pharmacy and convenience store. This will all take so much time off the clock, so many pages off the calendar, that I won’t be here to see what condo they build on top of that new subway station, either.
I only hope they manage to include a Rabba in one of those buildings. This neighbourhood could use a Rabba.
