Mile End residents and business owners are up in arms over a project to protect cyclists which may have forgotten to take circulation of emergency vehicles into consideration.
A thick concrete median has been installed down the left side of Clark Street between Fairmount and Laurier, separating a two-way bike lane from vehicle traffic, but the space leftover seems too narrow to area residents to accommodate adequate parking and circulation of large vehicles like ambulances and firetrucks.
“I saw a firetruck go down there the other day and it had to back out,” said Paul Scheffer, who works at the restaurant Wilensky’s on the corner of Fairmount and Clark St.
Now, local business owners are worried that the city will be forced to reduce parking to one lane on that section of Clark St.
“I won’t allow it,” said Nat Scalia, owner of Café Gracia Millé. “We need those parking spaces. We want the bike lane as well, but I need those parking spaces for my business and I have the numbers to prove it.”
Scalia said that he is already losing hundreds of dollars per day due to limited parking in the area as a result of the construction project, which is already over a month behind schedule.
Work on the project stopped last week, just as crews seemed ready to pave and reopen the road. Now crews and locals are left waiting and wondering what will come next.
Both Scheffer and Scalia expressed frustration over the lack of communication from the city.
CJAD 800 has reached out to the city and has yet to receive comment.