What certain people are losing sight of again and again - or misrepresenting - is that St. Clair was not a "let's build an LRT" project. The entire street was falling apart and needed to be rebuilt, the road and the sidewalks included, not just the tracks. The city decided that this was a good opportunity to restore the ROW that had existed prior to the 30s. A lot of extra work was thrown in along the way that had nothing to do with the streetcars, leading to the delays and spiralling costs. How much more did putting the tracks in a separate ROW cost than it would have to rebuild the street without the separation? Not much. Peanuts.
Yes, the implementation of the plan was a mess, but it's a mess about the administration of renewal projects, not a mess about Transit City. To keep saying otherwise is to keep telling lies in order to support a certain viewpoint about LRT or the TTC.