After 30 years in Little Jamaica, Jason McDonald, owner of Casual Salon, walks down the middle of Eglinton Ave. West as if it belongs to him.
Cars slow. Drivers wait. He gestures toward storefronts, some still alive with chatter and sizzling sidewalk barbecues, others papered over and empty. He recounts who used to work where, which family ran which shop, how long the “For Lease” signs have been hanging in the windows. He calls out to passing pedestrians by name, asks about their children, their health, their businesses.
From the sidewalk, a man shouts toward him, laughing: “They promised us heaven. They gave us a rat infestation.”
For many business owners in Little Jamaica, that sentiment captures a decade and a half of upheaval tied to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT — a project they say hollowed out one of Toronto’s most vibrant cultural corridors long before the first train ever ran.
Stretching roughly 900 metres between Dufferin St. and Marlee Ave., Little Jamaica was once a bustling hub for newcomers to Toronto, particularly Caribbean families. But after 15 years of construction marked by road closures, flooding, vermin infestations and constant disruptions, more than 300 independent businesses have closed — half of them since 2022 — leaving the neighbourhood on “life support,” according to McDonald, who also serves as chair of the Little Jamaica BIA.
In a 2022 report, the city of Toronto’s economic and community development committee noted that nearly 50 of the 85 Black-owned and operated businesses in Little Jamaica had shut down, with more at risk of closing their doors.
“What we had to endure was inhumane,” McDonald said. “It was like dealing with an entity that didn’t care about livelihoods.”
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT broke ground in 2011, backed by Metrolinx, former Toronto mayor Rob Ford and former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty. By the time it opened this month — more than a decade and a half later — it was six years overdue and carried a multibillion-dollar price tag.
A Star investigation revealed Metrolinx was warned the project would be delayed and disruptive — choking out businesses and congesting roads.
Metrolinx spokesperson Lyndsay Miller said the transit organization is thankful to local businesses for their patience during construction.
“We worked with local businesses in Little Jamaica to provide supports through annual promotions and marketing to encourage people to ‘Shop Local,’ procured goods and services from local businesses, installed ‘Open for Business’ and way-finding signage, and formed a construction liaison committee in the area,” Miller said.
For the business owners clustered around Oakwood Station who say their livelihoods were threatened, the delays were more than a political embarrassment or fiscal controversy.
“Going forward, this will be a case study on how not to do an infrastructural project within a cultural district community,” McDonald said. “These guys were making policies behind closed doors, and then we — the civilians, the nondecision makers — had to live it.”
Owners say they felt sidelined from major decisions and powerless as sidewalk access to their storefronts narrowed, parking disappeared and customers stopped coming. Many argue that the prolonged construction accelerated gentrification, inviting corporate property buyers and pricing out long-standing family businesses that were struggling to survive.
Communities along Finch Ave. West voiced similar concerns that the neighbourhoods along the 10-kilometre Finch West LRT line had been dampened by years of disruptive construction and feared the line’s opening in early December would push out longtime businesses. McDonald’s proposed solution is for government agencies like Metrolinx to compensate the people who were affected.
“I’m not saying we don’t need infrastructural improvement, but we’re going to have to be working till we’re in our 70s, 80s, because of this whole fiasco,” he said, explaining the unforeseen business troubles pushed back his retirement.
Up until the first train ran on Feb. 8, McDonald doubted the LRT would actually open. For years, he felt like he was being asked to put his faith in a line that had consistently made his life harder, and that he had no tangible proof would save his neighbourhood.
“Little Jamaica is in a state of emergency. Culture, identity, financial stability, jobs — everything has been taken away. And that is all due to this project.”
Henry Steele knows that loss intimately. He had a barbershop in Little Jamaica for more than 15 years but closed up shop for good two years ago amid mounting costs. His storefront has sat empty ever since.
“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. It destroyed my life,” Steele said, gesturing to his old shop. “I’m crying inside, and I’m not the only one.”
Across the street, barber Michael “Ruffcut” Nelson shut down his own 18-year-old business just months before the LRT opened. He now shares space with another displaced barber in the salon of a third. Though he hopes increased foot traffic might help them rebuild, he believes the damage has already been done.
“After Metrolinx came, they destroyed all the businesses. We lost a lot of parking and there was a lot of traffic. Customers kept getting tickets, and after a while, they just got frustrated and stopped coming,” Nelson said.
“We fought a good fight, but sometimes you still don’t turn out to be the winner.”
Not every storefront has gone dark though, and the cautiously optimistic owners who survived the LRT construction want riders to know they could be on the cusp of a long-promised revival.
Mohammed Mazharali took over his father’s electronics shop, Cellular World, two years ago as in-person sales dwindled. The family once considered Eglinton Ave. prime commercial real estate but as construction dragged on and neighbours disappeared, walk-in traffic nearly evaporated. To stay afloat, Mazharali pivoted to selling phones and electronics through Facebook Marketplace.
“We planned to close, but I wanted to keep trying to make it work. I told my father 2026 might be a good year, so we should wait and watch,” he said. “I hope I’m right.”
Nick Alampi and his sister inherited the clothing store Andrew’s Formals more than 20 years ago. Their father, Anthony Alampi, opened it in 1969 and the family moved in upstairs. After growing up on Eglinton West, Alampi served as chair of the York-Eglinton BIA until 2024, which allowed him to sit in on meetings with Metrolinx.
“I was always ahead of trying to point out the concerns I had with how this disruption was going to occur. But we weren’t allowed at the table for the major decision-making, and that was upsetting,” he said.
“The city and the province need to realize that as much as we’re having these developments, we the taxpayers, the business owners, should not have to pay for the actions of the so-called managers that built the LRT. They should not get away with some of the errors they’ve made,” Alampi said, alluding to the years of delays.
McDonald and Alampi have ideas on how Metrolinx can give back to the community, such as compensating business owners by matching what they spent on advertisements or installing free digital posters inside stations that encourage riders to try out local spots.
Through one of its programs, Metrolinx has provided $1.38 million of support to Eglinton-facing BIAs through three city of Toronto grants, Miller said.
“As much as we’ve had hardships because of the LRT, we’re hoping to see people that are gonna take it to venture out into a new community and explore it,” Alampi said. “A community is only as good as its membership. We live best by supporting small.”
