Developers must be kept in check

Re The radical re-imagining of Yonge St., Sept. 25

Yet one more plan to intensify our city. How many times over the last 20 years has the Toronto Star lauded yet one more deal between city councillors and developers to destroy yet another part of the city?

Unlike every European capital, as well as most American cities, Toronto refuses to preserve the sanity of the past. Instead of rebuilding two-storey model buildings for which Yonge St. is so well known, we now have a plan for 45-storey buildings up and down Yonge St.

Have not any of our city fathers and mothers visited London, Paris, Berlin, Prague or Madrid? If they have, do they notice the preservation of four-storey limits in the downtown areas? Were they not surprised that in 2014 Chicago had about 30 highrises under development, while Toronto had 130?

We have ruined our waterfront and now they want to ruin midtown. A vertical city is only livable for young, single people. A flood of highrise condos serve local and international investors, not families and seniors.

I came to Toronto in 1969. There was a movement at that time to stop the further highrise development in Cabbagetown. By 1971, Toronto council had passed a four-storey bylaw to limit the size of new downtown buildings.

As a city we became known for the preservation of our neighbours and our quaintness. I loved that city because it was a people city.

Then in mid-1970s developers convinced a new mayor and council that high density would be good for the city. Each new condo development was followed by applications for even bigger and more dense condos. The challenge seems to be how to get the most units per acre. And now we are talking about even bigger buildings.

As a result of all of these new buildings, we have a city of wind tunnels, where it is most difficult to walk except on the days with most pleasant weather. These memorials to capitalism are ugly and uninviting.

I thought by now we would have a new generation of city councillors, as well as journalists, with a different view. It just ain’t so. Stephen Handler, Mississauga