University Avenue and Front Street: a ghost town (Heather Morrison)

By Heather Morrison, G20 citizen blogger

The streets of downtown Toronto felt like a ghost town today. In my nine years living in this city, I have never witnessed University Avenue and Front Street to be so dead. The odd tourist and soccer fan wandered the streets, while police teams guarded the fence enclosing the billion-dollar G20 security zone.

One officer I spoke with said they were tasked with ensuring no one damaged or spray-painted the fence over the weekend. Come Monday, when full security measures will be rolled out, normal citizens won't be able to come anywhere close to the fence or the zone without good reason to do so, he guessed.

I met Orly Nahmias, a laughter yoga instructor from Montreal, inside the zone. She marvelled at the prospect of such a large security zone, and said that she had come to see for herself how her hard-earned tax dollars were being spent. "When people ask me why I pay such high taxes, I can show them these pictures." She will leave Monday, just in time to avoid the full-fledged summit.

Curious onlooker Orly Nahmias. (Heather Morrison)

Have you taken a trip to see the security zone yet? Do you feel like it was a good use of your tax dollars?

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