Heartbroken locals say goodbye to beloved shops

Pape Village businesses told they must close for Ontario Line station

- MAHDIS HABIBINIA

Cathy Li embraces her favourite customer, five-year-old Nylah, on one of her laundromat's final days before closing so Metrolinx can build the Ontario Line's Cosburn Station.

Nylah Downey sprinted inside the laundromat in Pape Village this week to give its owner Cathy Li a big bear hug.

Li, tears welling in her eyes, returned the five-year-old’s embrace as Nylah’s mom, Brooke, stood by waiting to also say goodbye.

Li’s store is one of dozens of longstanding businesses along a 200metre stretch on Pape Avenue near Cosburn Avenue being forced to close or — if they can afford it — relocate, to make way for the construction of Cosburn Station on the new 15.6-kilometre Ontario Line, which is scheduled to finish construction by 2031.

Once it’s completed, the Ontario Line is expected to carry hundreds of thousands of riders daily across the city from Exhibition Place to Science Centre. The tradeoff is the upending of local neighbourhoods to build a multibillion-dollar transit project.

Residents of Pape Village, a quiet neighbourhood of local shops largely bordered by single-family homes, townhouses and lowrise buildings, face several years of construction turmoil — what other areas throughout the city are already experiencing.

They visited their local stores this week to say goodbye and get one last meal, manicure, haircut or dress alteration as movers wheeled out washing machines, fridges, chairs and other remnants of the businesses now gutted inside.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s dumb and it’s unnecessary. So many communities are being destroyed,” said Brooke Downey, 45, who has lived in the area for 17 years. Despite knowing this was coming, she said the “heartbreak” dawned on her this week as she watched the stores she visits weekly boarded up.