Toronto Underground Online

The Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot begins today, June 19, just in time for Pride Month in the Village. Starting at 4pm, the street will remain closed from Alexander to Wellesley East until August 21.

Church Street’s closure will only affect north-south traffic, as all east-west corridors will remain open. This includes Alexander, Maitland, and Wellesley streets.

Inspired by the closure of Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal, the city is hoping the Church Street closure will help promote foot traffic to local businesses.

While all of June is Pride Month in Toronto, the bulk of the festivities begin on Monday, with the culmination of the celebration on the weekend of June 27 and 28. The Pride Parade makes its way down Yonge Street, but most of the festival, including the street fair, takes place on Church Street.

Part of the city’s focus on creating a more walkable (and safer) downtown core, studies will be done to gauge the effectiveness of the Church Street pedestrianization. The goal, according to Toronto Centre Projects and Councillor Chris Moise, is to close Church seasonally.

For more information on how the closure will affects things like garbage collection and parking, visit torontocentreprojects.ca