Promised a chance to twinkle on the world stage, the centre of this City of Neighbourhoods became a ghost town, an armed camp and a fiery anarchists’ playground.

As smoke clears from a G20 weekend that saw unprecedented mayhem continue Sunday, with tense protests and mass arrests a day after police cars were torched and shop windows smashed, it’s hard to find a Torontonian who says hosting the G20 was worth it.

“Next time have it on an aircraft carrier,” said Omar Habib, a 28-year-old actor who lives north of the Front St. G20 site. Hoping on Saturday merely to stroll to his waiter job, he kept running into lines of shield-thumping riot police trying to repel black-clad anarchists.

“Why would you bring this terror to downtown?”

Even before tear gas started to waft, the run-up to the meeting of world leaders made people who frequent the core “a prisoner in their own city,” he added. “I felt like a rat in a cage.”

While G8 leaders and their entourages witnessed the rugged beauty of Muskoka, and Ottawa spent millions on legacy projects in communities not on the itinerary, G20 leaders spied the guarded core of a spasming downtown. For its trouble, Toronto gets to keep a new police radio system.

Adam Vaughan, the city councillor who represents the residents and businesses most affected, voiced concerns about Ottawa’s plans for the massive event soon after it was announced in December that Huntsville couldn’t handle both the G8 and G20 meetings.

On Sunday, he accused the Stephen Harper government of a “cascade of failures” that antagonized and scared his constituents, shut many merchants down and set the stage for battles that barred some residents from their homes while trapping others inside.

The Toronto summit had to be planned in a few short months instead of the normal two years, Vaughan said.

The federal government rejected appeals from Mayor David Miller to hold the meeting at the more isolated, easily guarded Exhibition Place.

Ottawa said the Metro Toronto Convention Centre was more appropriate for such a prestigious gathering. Most observers think it wanted the leaders near the financial district to highlight Canada’s economic stability.

At first, Ottawa seemed to suggest all G20 business losses would be covered, then denied it would pay compensation for damages caused by rioting, then hinted the door might be open but it didn’t want to encourage destructive protesters.

The federal government showed no willingness to co-operate with city officials, instead dictating terms, Vaughan said, while focusing the massive multi-force police presence on the perimeter of the G20 site and the safety of the VIPs within.

“The emphasis has been on protecting the fence . . . while not as much attention was paid to protecting the people of this city,” he said.

On Saturday night, Police Chief Bill Blair admitted his officers lost control of parts of downtown because they had to protect the perimeter while hooligans rampaged to the north, using Black Bloc tactics to try to lure police from the fence.

On Sunday, no reliable estimates were available of either the damage caused or business lost due to the various disruptions.

Janice Solomon, executive director of the merchants’ group for the Entertainment District, said some of her hotel members undoubtedly got a bump in business but, for many smaller outfits, the G20 was a nightmare.

Her business improvement area encouraged them to try to stay open and promote special offers, but the police presence and warnings to stay out of the core cut trade by 60 to 90 per cent last week and the “rogue anarchists” took care of the rest.

“I would have to say this was a complete disappointment,” said Solomon, who found herself barred by police from entering her perimeter-zone condo building for several hours Saturday night.

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Rosario Marchese, the area’s MPP, said world leaders never got to experience the real Toronto and “I don’t believe Toronto got one thing out of this.”

On Saturday afternoon, as TV stations played and replayed images of anarchists torching a police car at the iconic intersection of King and Bay Sts., the mayor noted he had spent the week trumpeting Toronto’s story to international journalists — a financially stable, diverse and vibrant city.

“Does today send signals about Toronto that I wish weren’t sent?” Miller said. “Yes, absolutely, but the underlying facts about are city are still there.”

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