bastion for posh shopping, Bloor-Yorkville teems with ladies who lunch, moneyed shoppers, househusbands, and hordes of well-to-do consumers. The epicenter of Toronto's up-market retail world, the area boasts myriad haute couture boutiques, jewelry retailers, and shops catering to moneyed consumers. Now, it also brims with construction paraphernalia and attendant contention.

The Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area (BIA) has commenced work on a $25 million project which aims to beautify Bloor Street between Church Street and Avenue Road. Unveiled two years ago, the plan entails widening streets, introducing artwork, installing new lighting, and adding copious plant life in order to cultivate a more meander-friendly thoroughfare. The initiative will get about 80% of its funding from local area businesses and will be completed next year, following a brief Holiday Season break from mid-November until the New Year. However, the already underway project has lately hit a snag.

"The epicenter of Toronto's up-market retail world, the area boasts myriad haute couture boutiques, jewelry retailers, and shops catering to moneyed consumers."

Spearheaded by ad hoc community group, Concerned About Bloor (CAB), a movement to delay, halt, and possibly reassess the project has begun. Many area retailers - from the high profile (notably William Ashley) to the mom and pop - have brought up concerns that construction will greatly injure their businesses as a result of heavy duty equipment and other manufacturing equipment scaring off potential patrons.

CAB, via lawyer Clayton Ruby, has initiated an action calling for the project to be stopped in order to allow for a new environmental assessment which, it says, the city was remiss in doing originally. Furthermore, the group cites poor planning as potentially detrimental and hopes for a reconsideration that would see changes such as nighttime-only work.