No-stopping changes frustrate Queen East businesses

Andre Bermon –

Businesses say they were caught off guard by the city’s recent extension of no-stopping laws on Queen Street East. Effective as early as May 9, signs along Queen from River to Church Streets banned stopping from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Sun­day.

However, business backlash prompted city staff to back ped­dle and reinstate paid parking on Queen East from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., every day.

The new parking rules are in­tended to facilitate transit and traffic flow away from a major watermain replacement and streetcar track renewal project at King Street East and Church Street. According to the city, the infrastructure work will contin­ue until late August.

Business owners who spoke to the bridge a ll s aid t hey r e­ceived no advance notice of the changes. The TTC issued a flyer on May 8, just a day before the new rules took effect, but only a few owners claimed they had received it.

They said the new no-stop­ping rule has hurt business on Queen East by restricting load­ing and delivery times and lim­iting parking for customers and employees.

Retail shop proprietor Lee B. Johnson said he learned about the new no stopping zone after receiving a $135 ticket outside his shop near Queen and Sher­bourne Streets. Johnson says he didn’t receive the TTC flyer or any prior consultation, calling the experience of discovering the new rules by a traffic fine “shameless.”

Further east, Samuel Mandro­zos, who runs a U-Haul deal­ership near Parliament Street, uses the curb lane extensively to park his trucks. He was beside himself at the change.

“If [the city] was going to crush my business, at least tell me about it so I can make alter­native plans,” said Mandrozos. He suggested additional exemp­tions, such as reduced no-stop­ping hours on weekends, to help alleviate pressure on local busi­nesses.

“Why seven days a week?” said Mandrozos. “Weekend traffic in this area is pretty much dead.”

In a report to Community Council on February 20, trans­portation services listed “transit priority measures” to support streetcar services during infra­structure improvements at King and Church.

One proposal was to lim­it curb lane parking on Queen East. The report said parking adjacent to a streetcar lane re­sults in “more general traffic” and is worsened by parking ve­hicles blocking streetcars.

The staff report said the in­creased streetcar service from seven to 25 streetcars per hour per direction under the previous no-stopping rules – 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. westbound and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. eastbound, Monday to Fri­day – would not suffice.

Therefore, it suggested remov­ing on-street parking and im­plementing no-stopping zones “will result in an improvement to both transit and general traf­fic, as there is no longer any im­pact associated with parked or parking vehicles.”

The report said local area councillors and business im­provement areas (BIAs) were consulted in the weeks before community council met on Feb­ruary 20. According to a city spokesperson, Ward 13 Toronto Centre Councillor Chris Moise was contacted on January 22 to discuss traffic plans during the King/Church intersection con­struction.

Several residents’ associations were contacted on February 5, including the Corktown Res­idents and Business Associa­tion (CRBA), which represents Queen East from Parliament to River Street.

Both the report and the city spokesperson did not mention reaching out to individual busi­nesses.

In an emailed statement to the bridge, Councillor Moise said in response to complaints from business owners, “I have reached out to staff at Trans­portation Services and the TTC, and they have agreed to rein­state parking between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. along Queen Street East for the duration of the wa­termain and track replacement at King Street East and Church Street…

“I am also asking that steps be taken to try and ensure this, and future work is properly commu­nicated to impacted businesses well before construction be­gins.”

Moise added, “I hope that bringing back three hours of parking will provide some need­ed relief to business owners and will help minimize that disrup­tion.”