Originally Published: 2010-07-18

“The Better Way.” If they lived by their own motto, Toronto Transit Commission authorities would avoid major problems. The organization has in fact all too often found itself at the centre of controversies in the past few months, and after an ‘emergency’ campaign in an attempt to gain back the faith of Torontonians, we’re back at square one. This time, however, it’s not about sexual indiscretion, or employees who catch a few winks on the box office chair, or thoughtless drivers who park a bus to grab a snack as dozens of riders impatiently wait. This time at the centre of the storm is the TTC expropriation to clear space for the construction of a second exit on the Bloor-Danforth line’s Greenwood subway station.
To better understand the situation, imagine an Italian newlywed couple – Grazia and Domenico Calia – who came to Canada after the war, and after years of sacrifice finally purchase a home on 247 Strathmore Blvd. It was 51 years ago, and there wasn’t even a subway line in the area – which arrived about seven years later. They lived in that house for over half a century –she was a homemaker and he worked for the TTC. They have five children and eight grandchildren.
Then, last June 17, a letter changed everything.
“When I read it, I though there was some mistake,” said Bruna Amabile – the
couple’s daughter who lives at 243 Strathmore Blvd told Corriere Canadese/Tandem. “It wasn’t possible that they wanted to expropriate my parents’ home.”
Only at a meeting days later attended by over 200 community residents did the information begin to leak out: the TTC Second Exit Plan is a project that calls for second exits to be built at 14 subway stations for safety reasons, at a cost of $8 million per station. It is a project dated from 2002 that no Greenwood station area resident had heard about until last month – even the information listed on the TTC Internet site magically disappeared days ago – that calls for total expropriation of two properties as well as 10 others that will be partially expropriated or affected by the construction. One of the homes to be expropriated belongs to the Calias who are almost 80 years old, require daily nursing visits, and receive assistance from daughter Bruna Amabile who fortunately lives two doors away.

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