Signs give a better view

[attach]7853[/attach]The corner of Yonge and Eglinton has become a little less of an eyesore, as Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction continues.

New billboards were put up by Metrolinx in mid-April on the southwest corner, covering the abandoned TTC bus barns from public view at street level.

Metrolinx is the provincial transit body overseeing the Crosstown project, a 19-km LRT line with 25 stops running from Weston Road east to Kennedy subway station. Construction began in 2011 and is expected to be complete by 2020.

The Metrolinx boards were something Ward 22 councillor Josh Matlow had been pushing for since he was elected in 2010.

“One of the first things I asked for when I was elected was to meet with the TTC and to speak with them about how they’d left the bus barns site a derelict eyesore for far too many years,” he said. “I told them I didn’t think they were being a good neighbour and we needed to do something about it.”

Matlow suggested a short term and longterm plan for the site, resulting in Metrolinx posting billboards advertising and giving information about the Crosstown project, while also blocking the bus barns site from view.

The longterm plan, however, is to make a public space out of the bus barns once the Crosstown is complete.

“If you go to New York, Paris, London, Rome and around the world, great cities have remarkable public spaces at their major junctions,” Matlow said. “Yonge and Eglinton is not only already one of the most important junctions in the city, but it is now going to be one of the most frequented transit hubs in Toronto as well.”