Is Toronto’s condo boom causing too much density? [View all]

from the Toronto Star:



Is Toronto’s condo boom causing too much density?
Urban density is recognized by planners as the best way to combat sprawl. But is Toronto’s downtown condo boom too much density?

By: Antonia Zerbisias Feature Writer, Published on Fri Mar 22 2013


[font size="1"]GALIT RODAN / For the TORONTO STAR
Toronto's condo boom is supposed to stop urban sprawl, but a growing population is also taxing roads and transit.[/font]


Predrag Kalinic only partly jokes when he says that every time he gets stuck on the Gardiner Expressway, he sees condo dwellers “just three metres away, eating, drinking and making love” in their suites.

“I don’t know what those people were thinking buying those condos,” the independent cabbie says, adding that tourists laugh when they peer into their glass cubbies.

As downtown city blocks become more densely packed, so too have Toronto streets. Which is why the 25-year veteran road warrior, like many taxi drivers in the GTA, doesn’t like otherwise lucrative airport fares to or from Concord CityPlace, that warren of 15-and-counting condo towers bounded by Lakeshore-Spadina-Front-Bathurst.

Flat rate is $53, whether it takes 45 minutes or, more likely, 90 minutes, just because it takes so long to get in and out of the downtown during peak times. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/22/is_torontos_condo_boom_causing_too_much_density.html