Equity Under Construction: Deconstructing Eglinton Crosstown Project’s Impact on Little Jamaica

Transit equity — the fair distribution of transportation benefits and burdens — is a relatively recent framework through which transit planners seek to improve conditions for disadvantaged communities (Karner et al., 2020). In its 2016 equity report, Metrolinx — Ontario’s provincially owned transportation agency — employed transit equity to justify expanding transit infrastructure into low-income and underserved areas. Their stated aim is to enhance accessibility and reduce travel times for Toronto’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods, thereby improving access to employment, essential services and regional mobility (Hertel et al., 2016).

However, this focus on distributional outcomes overlooks another critical dimension of transit equity: the burdens imposed on communities during transit-infrastructure construction. The case of the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (LRT) and its impact on Little Jamaica, a neighbourhood home to racialised, equity-deserving communities (Blackman & Lintern, 2022), reveals how Metrolinx has, in fact, exacerbated transit inequities. By failing to adequately mitigate and compensate for prolonged construction, sidewalk closures, excessive noise and the resulting gentrification and displacement, Metrolinx has led a marginalised community to disproportionately bear the negative externalities of infrastructure construction, while excluding that very community from the long-term benefits it was meant to receive. Therefore, this paper argues that Metrolinx’s access-focused approach to transit equity fails to account for the burdens of infrastructure construction, resulting in outcomes that run counter to its stated equity goals.

Background of Little Jamaica

Little Jamaica, also known as Eglinton West, is an ethnic enclave situated northwest of Toronto’s city centre, and doubles as a commercial corridor and a residential zone home to Caribbean and African immigrants (City of Toronto, 2021). In the 1960s, an influx of Jamaicans arrived under the West Indian Domestic Scheme, forming the first wave of Black immigrants in the area (Davis, 2022). Today, Little Jamaica has the highest concentration of Black and Caribbean-owned businesses in the City of Toronto (Black Business and Professional Association, n.d.). Yet, the neighbourhood remains socioeconomically vulnerable: in 2016, the average household income was $72,936, well below the city average of $102,721 (Pitter et al., 2023a, p. 27).

Moreover, transportation access in Little Jamaica presents further challenges. About 60% of residents commute to work by car, while 35% rely on public transit (Doyle et al., 2020a, p. 18). However, both modes of transportation face challenges. Drivers face persistent congestion due to the neighbourhood’s proximity to Allen Road, with many vehicles funnelling onto the highway via the Eglinton-Allen on-ramp (City of Toronto, 2025; Doyle et al., 2020b, p. 68). For public transit users, the main mode of public transit is buses; yet the two major bus routes that serve the area both face severe crowding during morning hours (Pitter et al., 2023b, p. 42). Consequently, in some parts of the corridor, up to 25% of commuters spend over an hour getting to work (Doyle et al., 2020a, p. 19). These factors contribute to Little Jamaica’s status as a vulnerable community that is underserved by transit.

Metrolinx’s Equity Framework

As previously mentioned, since 2016, Metrolinx has identified “equity” — the fair and responsive delivery of transit services to meet the needs of vulnerable groups, including low-income and racialised populations — as a core objective of its Big Move Regional Transportation Plan (Hertel et al., 2016, p. 9). Within this framework, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is positioned as a project that advances their equity goals. First announced in 2007, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT spans 19 kilometres across Eglinton Avenue, including Little Jamaica, and is intended to link underserved neighbourhoods to the broader regional network (Nickle, 2021). Metrolinx claims the LRT will be 60% faster than existing bus services (Metrolinx, 2017), bringing rapid transit to areas where median household incomes are up to 43% below the city average (Spurr, 2018).

However, Metrolinx’s approach to transit equity remains narrowly focused. In its equity report, Metrolinx identifies three main areas in transit equity: transit network planning, service frequency and quality, and fare structure (Hertel et al., 2016, p. 4). However, scholars argue that a more comprehensive framework for transit equity is needed. While access to opportunities is a widely accepted benefit of transportation systems, researchers also emphasise that transit equity must account for the negative externalities of infrastructure development, including environmental harms like air pollution, noise, vibration and transit-induced displacement, which disproportionately impact low-income and racialised communities (Karner et al., 2020, p. 441).

Metrolinx’s failure to incorporate these additional factors into its equity framework has resulted in significant inequities in the Eglinton Crosstown project, particularly in Little Jamaica. This oversight has led to three major adverse outcomes:

• Disproportionate negative externalities on communities
• Prolonged construction delays
• Transit-induced gentrification

To fully grasp the extent of these impacts, I will examine how they have affected two stakeholder groups: residents and businesses.

External Burdens

While every construction project inevitably causes disruptions such as noise, vibrations and sidewalk closures, these impacts were especially severe for businesses and residents located near Eglinton Crosstown construction sites.

Noise and Vibrations

Toronto’s noise bylaws typically restrict nighttime construction, but a 2010 City Council motion allowed Metrolinx to carry out overnight work on the Eglinton Crosstown project. This exemption has had consequences for nearby communities. In November 2016 alone, Metrolinx received 160 complaints related to noise and vibration. Local businesses have suffered as well. The chair of the Eglinton Way Business Improvement Area (BIA) — designated districts where local businesses collaborate to improve and promote their area — noted multiple reports of property damage caused by prolonged noise and vibrations, with some businesses forced to suspend operations entirely (Mannsbach, 2016).

A key factor that worsened the noise and vibration impacts of the Eglinton Crosstown project was Metrolinx’s heavy reliance on the cut-and-cover construction method. This approach entails excavating a trench, constructing the tunnel inside it and then refilling the trench. Of the 15 stations constructed along the line, 11 used this approach (Metrolinx, 2017). While more cost-effective than bored tunnelling, cut-and-cover causes far greater surface disruption (Potter, 2024). As one Queen Street West BIA member observed when comparing the Ontario Line to Eglinton, “the key difference is because the Eglinton line was cut-and-cover, so by nature that’s already going to be very disruptive” (Fleguel, 2023). These intensified surface-level disturbances disproportionately impacted low-income and racialised communities along Little Jamaica, exacerbating transit inequities compared to projects that used less intrusive methods.

Sidewalk Closures and Reduced Visibility

Another major challenge for businesses in Little Jamaica was the loss of foot traffic due to sidewalk closures and obstructed storefronts. Many businesses relied heavily on walk-in customers for survival (Baker et al., 2020, p. 19; Bessonov, 2020). However, construction hoarding and debris blocked visibility and created an uninviting pedestrian environment along Eglinton Avenue, making it difficult for businesses to attract customers and sustain operations and thus leading to widespread closures (Baker et al., 2020, p. 19).

Metrolinx did attempt to mitigate the impact by partnering with local BIAs to launch Experience Eglinton — a campaign aimed at encouraging continued shopping along the corridor during LRT construction (CBC News, 2019). The initiative included digital marketing, improved wayfinding and signages (Metrolinx, 2019). However, Baker et al. (2020, p. 19) dismissed these measures as “token gestures of assistance” that failed to address the fundamental issues of limited access and reduced foot traffic to Black-owned businesses. Notably, Experience Eglinton was only launched in 2019, long after construction had begun in Little Jamaica in 2014 (Alamenciak, 2014). This delayed response significantly weakened its effectiveness; by the time the campaign was introduced, York-Eglinton BIA reported that 40 to 45 percent of businesses between had already closed or relocated (McLean, 2019).

Prolonged Delays and Uncertainty

In addition to external burdens, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT has faced severe delays, prompting city councillor Mike Colle to call it the “biggest boondoggle in Canadian construction history” (CBC News, 2022b). Initially slated to open in 2021, the project was officially delayed in 2020 and 2022 due to Metrolinx’s poor management of its private contractor (CBC News, 2020, 2022a; Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 2020). In May 2023, Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster pushed the opening to 2024 (Ranger & Westoll, 2023), but by December, he reversed course, saying no new date would be announced (Harvey, 2023b). Internal documents later revealed that the provincial government had directed Metrolinx to withhold timeline updates from the public (Harvey, 2023a; Spurr, 2024).

Prolonged Transit Delays

As delays to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT continue to mount, construction significantly increased travel times for residents of Little Jamaica. Both roadway and sidewalk lane reductions along Eglinton Avenue have been reported (Pitter et al., 2023b, p. 42), and even Metrolinx has acknowledged that Crosstown LRT construction “can produce long delays [for buses], particularly along Eglinton Avenue West” (Hertel et al., 2016, p. 30). Accounts from businesses further confirm that traffic congestion in the area remains severe, with prolonged disruptions threatening the survival of local businesses (Dubsky, 2023). What was initially framed as a short-term inconvenience has evolved into a prolonged restriction on transportation access for a vulnerable community.

Information Uncertainty for Businesses

Unsurprisingly, the absence of a credible timeline has severely eroded public confidence in the Eglinton Crosstown project; a 2024 poll found that only 7% of respondents believed the line would open that year (Valentin, 2024). Due to Metrolinx’s poor communication and planning, many BIAs were unable to align their initiatives with the anticipated launch of the LRT (CBC News, 2022c). For individual business owners who rely on accurate timelines to make critical operational decisions, the lack of transparency has been especially harmful. McDonald, chair of York-Eglinton BIA since 2023, noted that the delays on Eglinton “cause constant uncertainty for businesses” (Gray-Donald, 2025). Anecdotally, a local business had mistakenly scheduled staff interviews under the assumption that the LRT would already be operational (CBC News, 2022c).

Economic theory supports these lived realities as well. Ghosal and Ye (2019) found that uncertainty significantly reduces business activity, particularly among small firms. It does so by limiting access to credit and prompting businesses to delay investment to avoid irreversible losses. In Little Jamaica, where most businesses are small and independently owned, the prolonged uncertainty surrounding the LRT poses a serious threat to their survival.

Transit-Induced Gentrification

A further long-term consequence of the Eglinton Crosstown project is the risk of transit-induced gentrification and displacement. Gentrification refers to the influx of higher-income residents into historically low- or middle-income neighbourhoods, while displacement involves the often involuntary departure of existing residents and businesses. As Zuk et al. (2018) observe, researchers consistently identify a strong correlation between public investment in rail transit and rising rates of gentrification and, to a lesser extent, displacement. Improved transit access tends to drive up property values and rents, attracting wealthier residents while pricing out incumbent, lower-income communities.

Unfortunately, this is precisely what has unfolded in Little Jamaica. A report prepared for the Canadian Human Rights Commission found that Eglinton West has seen a sharp rise in activity from financialised landlords since Metrolinx first announced the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in 2007. Prior to the announcement, such landlords accounted for just 20% of all units sold; by 2021, that figure had risen to 60% (Lewis, 2022, p. 32). As a result, from 2011 to 2021, average home prices in the area have increased by 66%, while average household income has grown by only 10%. This mismatch highlights a growing affordability gap, despite affordable housing being identified as a top priority by the community (CP Planning, 2021, pp. 14, 15).

Rising rents have also forced many Black-owned businesses in Little Jamaica to shut down. A survey of Black business owners reported steady rent increases by landlords (CP Planning, 2021). As Gordon (2018) notes, long-standing community grocery stores that served the Black community such as People’s Choice and Fischer’s were forced to close due to escalating rents. The loss of such essential businesses not only weakens the cultural and economic foundation of the neighbourhood, but also accelerates displacement by making it increasingly unaffordable for Black, low-income residents to stay.

The impact of gentrification and displacement on the Little Jamaica community has been profound. Between 2006 and 2016, the neighbourhood’s overall population declined by 5%, while the Black population declined by 13%, a rate three times higher (CP Planning, 2021, p. 15). The toll on businesses has been equally severe. By 2020, approximately 140 businesses in the area had closed (Bessonov, 2020). Most strikingly, of the 110 Black-owned businesses operating in 2016, only 45 remained by 2021 (Draaisma, 2021).

In sum, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT has generated a host of negative externalities that have compounded pre-existing vulnerabilities in Little Jamaica. These burdens, coupled with gentrification-driven displacement, have severely undermined the neighbourhood’s cultural and economic foundations, particularly for its Black residents and businesses. Ironically, despite Metrolinx’s stated goal of advancing transit equity for low-income and racialised communities, its poor handling of the project has instead accelerated the erasure of the community it was meant to support.

Counterarguments and Responses

Nevertheless, some representatives from Metrolinx, as well as the provincial and municipal governments, may raise counterarguments to the concerns raised:

• A certain degree of noise, disruption, and inconvenience is inherent to all major infrastructure projects. If such externalities are experienced across various neighbourhoods, then claims of transit inequity in Little Jamaica are overstated.
• Both levels of government have taken steps to mitigate harm, including financial support for affected businesses and investments to slow gentrification in Little Jamaica. From this perspective, the community has been adequately compensated for the temporary costs associated with construction.

In the following sections, I will respond to each counterargument.

“Disruptions Are a Normal Cost of Infrastructure”

It is widely acknowledged that transit construction generates noise and vibrations due to the use of heavy machinery (Metrolinx, n.d.). Across Toronto, residents face and generally accept a certain level of disruption as a necessary trade-off for long-term transit improvements (Smee, 2024). If such externalities are common to infrastructure projects across the city, then the argument that Little Jamaica has been uniquely disadvantaged warrants closer scrutiny.

However, in practice, Metrolinx has demonstrated differential treatment across its transit construction projects. A useful point of comparison is the Ontario Line, a rapid transit corridor running through downtown Toronto into the city’s east end. In Pape and Riverdale, construction for the Ontario Line project had only begun in 2023, yet a range of mitigation measures had already been introduced at this early stage. In addition to existing noise barriers, Metrolinx has installed new noise walls and noise blankets to reduce the impacts of piling, microtunneling shaft construction and utility relocation works (Metrolinx, 2024, 2025a, 2025b). Temporary interventions, such as solid wood hoarding, have also been used to suppress construction-related noise and dust during the installation of these barriers (Metrolinx, 2025c).

Moreover, Metrolinx has been notably more proactive in deploying mitigation measures to support local businesses affected by the Ontario Line project. The agency publicly committed to developing business support strategies based on “lessons learned from the Eglinton Crosstown LRT” (Toigo, 2023, p. 8) and has since worked directly with BIAs and their contractors to implement additional wayfinding tools aimed at maintaining customer foot traffic (Metrolinx, 2025d).

This contrast is particularly striking when viewed in light of the socio-economic differences between the two neighbourhoods. Donolo (2022) provides a detailed account of the historical gentrification of Riverdale and surrounding areas, and data from the City of Toronto shows that in 2016, the average household income in South Riverdale was 15% higher than the citywide average (City of Toronto, 2016), indicating a relatively affluent demographic. The prioritisation of mitigation efforts and transit investments in less vulnerable areas, while allowing prolonged harms to persist in places like Little Jamaica, fundamentally undermines the principles of transit equity.

“Sufficient Compensation and Anti-Gentrification Efforts”

On the other hand, some Torontonian officials may argue that I have not fully acknowledged the efforts made by government bodies to support the residents and businesses of Little Jamaica. Following the 2020 delay, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation pledged $3 million in support for businesses affected by the ongoing construction (Draaisma, 2020b). This was followed by an additional $1 million in grant funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency in 2021 (Draaisma, 2021). These financial commitments are often cited as evidence that appropriate compensation efforts have been undertaken.

At the same time, the City of Toronto has taken steps to slow gentrification and displacement in Little Jamaica. It designated the neighbourhood as Toronto’s first official Cultural District and commissioned planning consultants to co-develop a Cultural District Plan with local stakeholders (City of Toronto, 2021). The plan includes community-led cultural mapping, identification of heritage assets and temporary placemaking initiatives aimed at strengthening the area’s cultural identity and visibility (Pitter et al., 2023b). In addition, the City committed to embedding equity and anti-displacement strategies into its planning framework by investing $113,000 to support housing outcomes in Little Jamaica and $114,990 for community-led initiatives addressing gentrification and housing insecurity for Black communities across Toronto (City of Toronto, 2023, p. 14).

Yet, local BIAs have argued that these financial supports were insufficient, noting that no additional compensation has been offered since (Draaisma & Cheese, 2025). When businesses request for further compensation with subsequent delays, Metrolinx commented that “they don’t have [funds for compensation]” for affected businesses (Draaisma, 2020a). Of the $3 million pledged by the Ontario government in 2020, only $1.38 million was disbursed directly to BIAs, while the remaining was allocated to cleaning services, window-washing and minimal promotional efforts (City of Toronto, 2022, p. 5). Furthermore, the allocation of that $1.38 million occurred without meaningful consultation with business owners regarding how the funds should be used (Glover, 2022). Given the prolonged and severe nature of the disruption, this level of support has fallen far short of what would be needed to help businesses meaningfully weather the construction period.

Additionally, the Cultural District label offers Little Jamaica no binding housing or zoning safeguards (Sabeta, 2024). Residents and councillors repeatedly urged the City to designate the strip as a Heritage Conservation District, which would have empowered Council under the Ontario Heritage Act to control alterations and prevent demolition of culturally significant buildings. However, no such status was granted (Bozikovic, 2021; Danica, 2021). Officials defended the refusal by claiming “the built form of the Eglinton strip didn’t seem to warrant heritage protection”, a rationale that contrasts sharply with the City’s decision the same year to protect more than 50 commercial buildings in the relatively affluent Leslieville (Bozikovic, 2021). The disparity extends to housing policy, as Little Jamaica was excluded from Toronto’s mandatory inclusionary zoning program, designed to secure affordable units in new condo projects (Beattie, 2021). Taken together, these choices suggest the City’s anti-displacement efforts are more symbolic than substantive, offering little real protection against gentrification.

Conclusion

The construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT has fallen far short of Metrolinx’s equity goals. Sidewalk closures and hoarding have reduced storefront visibility and foot traffic, severely impacting local businesses. Prolonged delays, poor communication and unreliable timelines have increased travel times and created uncertainty for both residents and business owners. Beyond these immediate burdens, the project has driven long-term structural change through transit-induced gentrification. In wealthier areas like Riverdale, stronger mitigation efforts such as noise barriers were implemented early, while Little Jamaica received minimal support. Despite symbolic gestures like the Cultural District designation, the City failed to provide enforceable protections through heritage or affordable housing policies, and compensation initiatives have been limited, poorly targeted and lacked meaningful consultation. Together, these outcomes expose a fundamental failure to embed equity into transit infrastructure delivery, leaving Little Jamaica to bear the disproportionate harms of a project that was meant to serve it.

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