The Local: The Finch West Issue - Metcalf Foundation

The Local: The Finch West Issue

2023

The northwest corner of Toronto is undergoing a massive transformation with the arrival of the Finch West LRT.

The Finch West Issue by The Local takes a deep dive into a neighbourhood on the eve of transformation — from a wide-angle look at the region’s sorry transit history to an intimate ride-along on the 36 bus, from an examination of the pandemic’s legacy in northwest Toronto to a profile of a forgotten workers’ housing co-op in Rexdale.

Our Inclusive Local Economies program has long prioritized increasing access to quality jobs, protecting precarious workers, and strengthening local neighbourhood economies. Metcalf funded The Finch West Issue with United Way Greater Toronto to learn from a community where a high concentration of Toronto’s working poor live and explore the critical ways infrastructure projects like the Finch West LRT impact their lives.

All stories in the issue were produced independently by The Local.

Photo: Tai Huynh / The Local

Welcome to Finch West

Nicholas Hune-Brown

The LRT doesn’t open until next year at the earliest, but it’s already transforming Toronto’s northwest.

Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Local

The Slow Fight for Rapid Transit on Finch West

Inori Roy

After more than fifty years of talk, northwest Toronto is finally getting an LRT. But as the new line brings higher rents, changing businesses, and on-going construction, residents are demanding a say in how their community will change.

Photo: Chloë Ellingson / The Local

The Crisis After the Crisis

Simon Lewsen

During lockdowns, politicians, journalists, and policy makers suddenly started paying attention to communities along the Finch West corridor. Then they stopped. A panoramic look at Toronto’s northwest after the COVID emergency.

Photo: Yader Guzman / The Local

At Jane and Finch, a Fight for Community Space

Mobólúwajídìde D. Joseph

Metrolinx is building a maintenance shed in the middle of their community. These residents are fighting to make sure they get something in return.

Photo: Yader Guzman / The Local

The Finch West Issue Everybody’s Got to Eat

Furqan Mohamed

Decadent chicken sandwiches, steaming bowls of pho ga, classic jerk chicken, and pillowy pupusas worth the commute — eating our way across Jane and Finch.

Photo: Chloë Ellingson / The Local

Growing Up on the 36 Finch West

Daysha Loppie

It takes me two hours on transit to visit my mom in Rexdale. Can a transit line begin to connect a neighbourhood that sometimes feels a world apart?

Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Local

“Canada’s Worst Obstacle Course”

Richard Trapunski

Metrolinx has promised Toronto a more interconnected tomorrow. As it rips up some of the city’s busiest streets, is it paying enough attention to the safety and wellbeing of Torontonians today?

Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Local

The Apartments the Union Built

Kunal Chaudhary

In the 1980s, aircraft workers in Malton were struggling to find housing—so they built their own. What can this obscure Rexdale housing co-op teach us today?

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