Massive sinkhole swallows part of Dundas Street ahead of the holidays
Massive sinkhole swallows part of Dundas Street ahead of the holidays
A massive sinkhole has swallowed a portion of Dundas Street West and with it, local businesses’ hopes of the return to a regular holiday season.
“My sales are down. They’ve been down 40 per cent already since last weekend,” Melissa Ball, owner of Chosen Vintage, told CTV News Toronto.
The Dundas Street sidewalks between Brock and Sheridan avenues are open, but police cars, metal fences and orange pylons are barricading the street, deterring customers from visiting. Ball said 80 to 90 per cent of her business relies on those walk-ins.
“I haven’t had a normal holiday season since 2019,” Robin Levett, owner of Three Fates, another vintage shop on the strip, said. “I think all of us were feeling really optimistic.”
But on Nov. 24, the hope of recouping what was lost began to dwindle as a brittle sewer main collapsed on Dundas Street, revealing a large void – 20 by 20 inches wide and 3 to 4 feet deep – under the streetcar tracks.
William Shea, Toronto Water’s director of distribution and collection, said soil leaked into the damaged sewer, creating a void, and it was the thick Toronto Transit Commission tracks that prevented it from developing into a sinkhole.
Twenty-four-seven emergency work began. “Initially, repairs were expected to take about a week,” Shea said.
However, the next phase of repair is expected to take about two to three weeks, Shea said – encompassing the entirety of the holiday shopping season.
Repair work underway on Dundas Street between Brock and Sheridan Avenues (CTV News Toronto/ Phil Tsekouras). “I want to make it clear that every business owner on the block is aware of the fact that this is an emergency situation and has to happen now,” Rebekah Hakkenberg, owner of Daughter Shop, said.
“That doesn't change the fact that the timing of this couldn't be worse, and that this is having a devastating impact on many (if not all) of us.”
Anah Shabbar, spokesperson for the Little Portugal Toronto Business Improvement Area, said the impact of the construction spans further than just the intersection of Sheridan to Brock avenues. With the streetcar diverting service between Ossington and Lansdowne avenues, she said blocks of businesses are hurting.
“A lot of businesses make 40 per cent or more of their income during the holidays,” she said.
While Shabbar has been working with the community to brainstorm how to draw people to the street – whether that’s a winter concert or holiday market – she said the bottom line is businesses need financial assistance.
“At the end of the day, the [businesses] are all saying we need some kind of money, we need help with finances. They were hoping this would be a recoup year after the pandemic.”
The City says it is “currently exploring” additional support for businesses in Little Portugal while repairs are being made.
“We aren't just depending on the holiday season to help get us through January and February, which is always the slowest period in retail, we are depending on it to help make up for a very slow year, while we're still also trying to make up for what we lost during the first two years of the pandemic,” Hakkenberg said.
Beyonce stands alone on her Grammy throne: With her fourth win Sunday night, she has become the most decorated artist in the show's history surpassing the 26-year-old record once held by the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti.
Groups that advocate for seafarers are expressing concern for 11 sailors who are spending a harsh Quebec winter aboard three tugboats that have been detained for months in the port of Trois-Rivières.
Singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. became a first-time Grammy Award winner at the pre-broadcast ceremony where fellow Canadians Michael Buble and Drake also picked up trophies.
Charles Kimbrough, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who played a straight-laced news anchor opposite Candice Bergen on “Murphy Brown,” died Jan. 11 in Culver City, California. He was 86.
Canadian researchers are drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of 'a pathological pursuit of muscularity' among Canadian boys and young men, with a new study that found one in four were at risk of developing what's known as muscle dysmorphia.
A Montreal woman is passing along her father's extensive collection of over 31,000 Expos baseball cards. April Whitzman's father, Steve Whitzman, collected the cards from 1969 to 2016. A huge Expos fan, he's got every player covered.
Canada has sent one of its military planes to Haiti to help the country cope with escalating violence. A joint statement today from National Defence Minister Anita Anand and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada has deployed a CP-140 Aurora aircraft to help 'disrupt the activities of gangs' in Haiti.
An investigation that lasted almost two years has resulted in moose hunting violation convictions for six people and a lodge in Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
Montreal conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin scored two Grammys for his classical works Sunday evening. Nézet-Séguin won best opera recording for "Blanchard: Fire Shut Up In My Bones," and best classical solo vocal album for "Voice Of Nature - The Anthropocene."
Groups that advocate for seafarers are expressing concern for 11 sailors who are spending a harsh Quebec winter aboard three tugboats that have been detained for months in the port of Trois-Rivières.
The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) will announce its candidate for the Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne riding Monday morning, almost three months after former party leader Dominique Anglade announced her resignation.
London Lightning players looked a little different at their game Sunday, turning in their yellow jerseys for purple ones to bring awareness to the issue of male violence against women.
An armed robbery at Conestoga Mall, a hearing on a 2018 Kitchener house explosion, and a school cancelling Valentine's Day round out the most ready stories of the week.
Greater Sudbury Police Service say it has charged a man and a woman with multiple offences following the investigation into an online ad selling a cellular phone.
Canadian researchers are drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of 'a pathological pursuit of muscularity' among Canadian boys and young men, with a new study that found one in four were at risk of developing what's known as muscle dysmorphia.
A teen is in hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries following an incident in the Greater Sudbury community of Coniston Saturday evening.
The debate on elected officials pledging allegiance to King Charles III will shift to a small town south of Ottawa this week, as Prescott town council discusses a motion on whether to abolish the requirement for newly elected members.
Windsor police say a vehicle convoy marking the one-year anniversary of the Ambassador Bridge blockade is expected to arrive in the city Sunday afternoon.
After one of the coldest days in years for most of the Maritimes, temperatures were up significantly Sunday. Now, after the big chill came the big thaw -- and a flood of calls for local plumbers.
Cold weather alerts that blanketed eastern Canada for the past two days have largely lifted, but some Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers remain without power due to outages caused by the frigid temperatures and high winds.
New Brunswick RCMP has requested the Nova Scotia Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) conduct an inquiry after a man died during a police response Saturday.
Tucked away on a residential street in Langley, there's a blue cabinet filled with VHS tapes and DVDs bearing the once-familiar logo of Blockbuster video.
The City of Vancouver will be providing $2.8 million in funding to the local health authority to bolster the city’s mental health services, officials announced Sunday.
Repair work underway on Dundas Street between Brock and Sheridan Avenues (CTV News Toronto/ Phil Tsekouras). “I want to make it clear that every business owner on the block is aware of the fact that this is an emergency situation and has to happen now,” Rebekah Hakkenberg, owner of Daughter Shop, said.
