{"id":3061,"date":"2008-04-26T18:14:24","date_gmt":"2008-04-26T23:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2008\/04\/26\/the-ttc-strike-in-the-suburbs\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:52:58","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:52:58","slug":"the-ttc-strike-in-the-suburbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/26\/the-ttc-strike-in-the-suburbs\/","title":{"rendered":"TTC STRIKE: In the &#8216;burbs (and where are the pickets?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2015\/2443434823_d4e1245c63.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/>I took a walk today to see what things were like at what should be TTC strike hotspots &#8211; the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 headquarters, and the Wilson Complex, the largest depot in the system with both a major bus garage and the main subway yards for the Yonge-University-Spadina subway. I found both to be strangely devoid of any activity, but at least the walk itself was interesting.<\/p>\n<p>I walked along Wilson roughly from Keele Street to Wilson Station. I noticed more pedestrians than usual walking along the streets, but in general, at the intersections, there were fewer feet on the street, as so much pedestrian activity in this part of Toronto are people walking to or from bus stops or transferring between them. Many of the pedestrians were carrying bags or carts of groceries from the plazas in the area. But the roadway itself, which closely parallels Highway 401, wasn&#8217;t any busier than normal, apart from more taxis. In fact, without the buses, things were noticeably quiet.<\/p>\n<p>Walking along Wilson, one is able to notice the interesting variety of retailers along this stretch of low-rise rental apartments and two-story strip plazas that are easily missed speeding by in a car or even on the bus. There&#8217;s an eclectic mix of restaurants, hairstylists, grocery stores and social clubs catering to the local Italian, Latin American and Vietnamese communities.<!--more--><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/7119320@N05\/2443405285\/sizes\/o\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3245\/2443405285_a783c55198.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/7119320@N05\/2443405697\/sizes\/o\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3220\/2443405697_28a9d2dce1.jpg\" height=\"363\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=wilson+avenue+and+northgate+drive,+toronto&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=49.444078,59.414063&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=43.730453,-79.468242&amp;spn=0.005551,0.007253&amp;t=h&amp;z=17\"><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=wilson+avenue+and+northgate+drive,+toronto&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=49.444078,59.414063&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=43.730453,-79.468242&amp;spn=0.005551,0.007253&amp;t=h&amp;z=17\">At Garrett Boulevard<\/a>, I spotted an older lady standing by the bus stop waiting. She was grateful for me telling her that the buses weren&#8217;t running, and was a bit shocked about it. She then started to walk down in the other direction with patient resignation. Even at 2PM, some people still had no idea that the TTC was on strike. The best on-street notice was actually the Toronto Sun boxes, located at many TTC stops (but not the one the lady was waiting at).<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3160\/2443402923_551f46fe1e.jpg\" height=\"500\" width=\"375\" \/>The ATU Local 113 headquarters are on this stretch of Wilson. It is usually full of cars (I guess ATU staffers don&#8217;t ride the TTC) during the week. It was all quiet there at 2PM, no cars in the driveway. I would have thought it&#8217;d be all hands on deck for the union staffers, even on a Saturday. Not even a police car to protect against &#8220;angry and irrational&#8221; customers.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2294\/2444232966_8fd3c769ed.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/>At the Wilson Complex, things were even stranger. Both the  garage and yard complex and the sprawling station were completely deserted, but the sounds of buses going in and out of the garage and into the station from the busy 29, 96 and 165 routes usually make this a busy and noisy place. Normally, one associates strikes with images of picketers, flames in barrels, barricades, and angry messages, but there was none of that. The entrance to the property was wide open. Are TTC workers not even willing to picket?<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/7119320@N05\/2444231624\/sizes\/o\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2207\/2444231624_0d957b54aa.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a>The Wilson Station complex is a maze of parking lots, ramps, platforms and walkways, all tied into the Allen Road expressway. Only a few skateborders were making use of the wide-open property. I think the station is rather ugly and inhosptiable, but I have a soft spot for the round passenger pick-up building.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2366\/2443403803_aa8bda7fea.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/7119320@N05\/2444231406\/sizes\/o\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3008\/2444231406_21e3f7ce9c.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/7119320@N05\/2444231518\/sizes\/o\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2037\/2444231518_144cb5934e.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a>And of course, no notice on any of the doors of the strike or station closure.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2034\/2444231942_a865668d54.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/>The parking lot (the one pictured is only one of three at this station) was barren. I also noted the sad state of the bike posts at Wilson. The TTC really needs to do more to encourage biking to its stations. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2180\/2444232382_a9e42ab759.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/>Finally,  across from Wilson Station is the kind of development that shouldn&#8217;t be anywhere near a subway station. The SmartCentres Downsview Complex features a Home Depot, Costco and other big-box retailers, in a way that is pedestrian hostile. While it is hard to put urban uses in the approach to the Downsview runway (used by Bombardier), it&#8217;s hardly friendly to walk-up or subway users. Only the LCBO attempts with an entrance that faces the sidewalk.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2295\/2444232616_171c109d55.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2153\/2444232744_12bf24cb31.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I took a walk today to see what things were like at what should be TTC strike hotspots &#8211; the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 headquarters, and the Wilson Complex, the largest depot in the system with both a major bus garage and the main subway yards for the Yonge-University-Spadina subway. I found both to<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/26\/the-ttc-strike-in-the-suburbs\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;TTC STRIKE: In the &#8216;burbs (and where are the pickets?)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8,20,6],"tags":[8828,880,5799,3200,4755,41,8826,1084,19,1642,889,3150,8825,7115,8827,7519],"class_list":["post-3061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-streetscape","category-transit","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-allen-road-expressway","tag-bombardier","tag-costco","tag-home-depot","tag-police-car","tag-psychogeography","tag-smartcentres-downsview-complex","tag-the-toronto-sun","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-sun","tag-ttc","tag-wilson","tag-wilson-complex","tag-wilson-station","tag-wilson-station-complex","tag-yonge-university-spadina-subway"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TTC STRIKE: In the &#039;burbs (and where are the pickets?) - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/26\/the-ttc-strike-in-the-suburbs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TTC STRIKE: In the &#039;burbs (and where are the pickets?) - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I took a walk today to see what things were like at what should be TTC strike hotspots &#8211; the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 headquarters, and the Wilson Complex, the largest depot in the system with both a major bus garage and the main subway yards for the Yonge-University-Spadina subway. 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