Cherry Street is a north-south arterial roadway in the eastern downtown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is situated in a former industrial area, that is now the site of redevelopment. It connects Eastern Avenue south to Lake Shore Boulevard, then to the Toronto Port Lands district, and terminates at Lake Ontario at Cherry Beach.
Description
Its northern terminus is at Eastern Avenue. A co-linear street, named Sumach St., continues north. It crosses Front St. and Mill St. proceeding south to the railway viaduct and Lake Shore Boulevard. The road has a dedicated right-of-way for streetcars beginning at King Street East and Sumach, which continues south on Cherry, to its terminus known as Distillery Loop beside the railway viaduct. The loop is opposite the Distillery District on the west side of Cherry. On the eastern side of the street is the redevelopment site, first built for the 2015 Pan American Games athletes' village, now being turned into a residential apartments district known as the Canary District.
The road proceeds south of Lake Shore Boulevard into the Port Lands district where it intersects with Commissioners Street and Unwin Ave. After crossing Unwin, it continues another 200 metres (220 yd) south to Cherry Beach, where it ends in a roundabout.
During the 2015 Pan American Games and Parapan American Games thousands of athletes were housed in a temporary athlete's village just east of the intersection of Cherry and Front streets.[4] Temporary pavilions were built on a large vacant lot on the southwest corner of Cherry and Front which served as the athletes' dining area, as well as a temporary bus marshalling yard for the fleet of rented buses which carried athletes to their venues.
The apartments that housed the athletes were made available only partially complete. Since the athletes dined at central cafeterias, completing the apartments' kitchens was postponed. That way the rooms intended to serve as kitchens could be used as an additional bedroom. Other fittings, like hardwood floors that could be damaged by the spikes on sports shoes, were installed after the games were over.
The intersection of Cherry and Front streets, the gateway to the athletes' village, is being described as the future gateway to the Canary District, 200 acres of former light industrial land being redeveloped into a residential area.[5]
Streetcar route
In 2012, the Toronto Transit Commission started to construct the first segment of a new streetcar line beside Cherry Street, from King Street 700 metres (770 yd) south to just north of Lake Shore Boulevard.[6][7]
This initial segment was projected to cost CA$90 million. Original plans called for the line to extend further south into redeveloped portlands.
That extension pushed the budget for the line to CA$300 million.[citation needed]
In early plans, athletes would have ridden a streetcar to Union Station to make connections to the games' scattered venues. However, the streetcar's opening was delayed until after the games were over.[8][9]
The TTC began service on Cherry Street in 2016. The route, named the 514 Cherry, ran from the Cherry Loop, along King, to the Dufferin Gate Loop, adjacent to Exhibition Place. This route was discontinued in 2018, replaced by a re-routing of the 504 King streetcar. The route of the 504A begins in the west at Dundas West Station, travels south along Dundas Street, Roncesvalles Avenue, then east on King Street to Cherry Street. In the east, the 504B begins at Broadview Station, travels south along Broadview, west on Queen Street and King Street and terminates at the Dufferin loop by Exhibition Place.
Future development
Lower Cherry Street, south of Lake Shore Boulevard, will be re-aligned west, as part of the development of the Villiers Island.[10] Developers plan a dense knot of high-rise and mid-rise development on lower Cherry, as part of the development.[11][12] It will pass under the Gardiner Expressway and cross the Keating Channel over two new bridges, one for vehicles, and the other for streetcars.
References
^"Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
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Justin Skinner (October 1, 2014). "Pan Am Athletes' Village nearly complete in Canary District". Inside Toronto. Archived from the original on October 3, 2014. The village will be located in the Canary District in the West Don Lands, near Front and Cherry streets. The buildings that comprise the Athletes' Village will be converted to 810 units of market housing and 253 units of affordable housing once the Games are done, and the site will also be home to housing for students at George Brown College and the Cooper Koo Family YMCA.
^"Canary district"(PDF). www.lastminutecondodeals.ca. Archived(PDF) from the original on October 3, 2014. The iconic intersection of Front Street and Cherry Street is not just the doorway to the Canary District, but also a window to a storied past. Here, timeless history lives in harmony with 21st century infrastructure, a master-planned vision of past, present and future.
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Tess Kalinowski (December 11, 2007). "Transit-first street plan hailed". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 19, 2012. Unlike Toronto's other streetcar routes, which traditionally run in mixed traffic and board passengers from platforms in the middle of the road, the Cherry St. plan calls for putting all the transit on the east side of the street, running in two directions, with a tree-lined platform separating it from other traffic."Two figures incorrect in Cherry St. transit plan". Toronto Star. December 12, 2007. Retrieved July 19, 2012. The transitway envisioned for this section is 700 metres.
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Tess Kalinowski (October 1, 2014). "TTC won't run streetcars on Cherry until at least 2016". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 3, 2014. Retrieved August 25, 2017. The Cherry streetcar service was never intended to begin until after the Pan Am Games next summer, during which the street will be a closed security zone, said Councillor Pam McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale).
^"Relief could be coming to King streetcar in June". CBC News. March 16, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016. A report made public Wednesday recommends that the new route begin service on June 19. It would operate between the Distillery Loop in the east and the Dufferin Gates loop in the west via Cherry, King and Dufferin streets.
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Morgan Bailey (February 28, 2020). "Catching Up With Work in Toronto's Port Lands". Urban Toronto. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved March 18, 2020. Cherry Street will be realigned to the west of its current path and connected via a new bridge over the Keating Channel. A minor diversion will be created at the intersection of Cherry and Polson Streets starting in Spring 2020, ending in Winter 2021.
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Devon Johnson (April 3, 2013). "3C Lakeshore Waterfront Project To Transform Lower Don Lands". Urban Toronto. Retrieved February 22, 2017. The 3C site, positioned between Cherry Street and Lake Shore Boulevard East, is the largest contiguous tract of land on Toronto's East Bayfront. The project is designed to be a mixed-use urban development adding 2.4 million square feet of residential, commercial, office, retail, and parking space to the waterfront.
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Stefan Novakovic (February 21, 2017). "New Proposals Envision Cherry Street as High-Rise Corridor". Urban Toronto. Retrieved February 22, 2017. Untangling the complex meeting of roadways beneath the Gardiner Expressway, Cherry Street is set to be re-aligned, allowing it to serve as a more effective streetcar corridor.
