Toronto‘s Little Jamaica, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant doubling down on the fight to survive.Heavy congestion and construction from the Eglinton Crosstown light-rail transit (LRT) project has kept customers away from the west-end neighbourhood for almost nine years.
It has wiped out many of the Black businesses that line this stretch from Allen Road to Keele Street––and with them, Black history and Afro-Caribbean culture.Then COVID-19 hit in March, and delivered the second half of the one-two economic punch dealt to this historic community.