A graffiti mural project nearly completed in Toronto’s west end is offering up some grit and soul to bleary-eyed train commuters and a neighbourhood once teeming with artists and now filled with tidy townhouses and condos.

“The Reclamation Project” has, for the past several weeks, been taking form on a once vandalized concrete sound barrier near Queen W. and Dufferin Sts. in West Queen West, along a rail corridor used by the Milton, Kitchener and Barrie GO train lines.

The 300-metre-long, 6-metre-high wall, between the tracks and Joe Shuster Way, was recently targeted by Toronto’s anti-graffiti bylaw enforcement and threatened with a mundane destiny: repeated whitewashing to cover up uninvited tagging.

Property developer Urbancorp, which built the wall, tried to dissuade graffiti by planting ivy — with little success. So it opted to go the way of, “If you can’t beat them, why not join them?” explains vice president David Mandell.

That’s where José-Gabriel and Bill Emerson, both 25, come in. The local artists, who as artists go by just their first and middle names, had put together downtown murals before. One is in an alleyway near Keele subway station.

They began making calls, bringing together 65 of the best artists from across the country, each responsible for painting a section. Some came from as far away as Halifax, Regina and Winnipeg. Most are locals, who took time off from jobs or painted in their free time.

To create what’s believed to be the largest graffiti production wall in Canada, each artist was given as many cans of paint as needed and had creative licence to paint as they saw fit. So long as that wasn’t offensive or distasteful, the project got a thumbs-up from Metrolinx and the city.

One section is a portrait of George Chuvalo, a heavyweight boxer from the Junction who once fought Muhammad Ali. On others: a giant raccoon by graffiti artist Kizmet and an homage to the horror movie The Shining.

Every section is adorned with one letter that spells out “Parkdale,” “West Queen West,” “Liberty Village,” and “Toronto,” giving the compilation of individual pieces a community project vibe.

Money for supplies came largely from Urbancorp, with artists giving up their time for a stipend of about $100. All told, the project has cost about $100,000, says Mandell.

“It’s important that there are more walls like this in the city,” says José-Gabriel. He adds that in Toronto, as new developments have moved in, old walls that bore some of the city’s best street art have been demolished or cleaned.

Liberty Village, with its gritty factories and warehouses, was once a mecca for artists, and the mural is a tribute to those roots.

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Some critics in the graffiti community worried that great work already there would be destroyed. Some of that work, says Bill Emerson, has been incorporated into the new wall.

The alternative would have been that it got painted over. This project, he adds, “gives artists a chance to get something on the wall that will last.”