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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

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  1. Carleton Village has Old Weston Road between St. Clair West and Davenport, which looks like something out of an impoverished American city. No abandoned houses, but most are in a noticeable state of decay. Some have plywood in lieu of windows, yet are still inhabited. For some reason, St. Clair has numerous vacant lots around Old Weston Road.

    Why is it in this state? My guess is that the Highway 400 project to the Gardiner, which would have passed St. Clair somewhere around Old Weston Road, sucked the economic vitality out of the area. No one would invest until after the highway was built since a lot of the neighbourhood’s buildings would have to be demolished. It remained a possibility up the 1980s. Since then, no revitalization efforts were ever undertaken. So Old Weston Road looks grim, and St. Clair has many vacant lots in spite of having the ROW streetcar.