Toronto the Good? If only.....

^This is Toronto circa 1980














^This is Toronto in 2010

What is wrong with this picture? well first of all when you look at the Toronto of 1980 you are looking at the quintessential Toronto skyline. Skydome was not yet build, the CN Tower looms over First Canadian Place and the Royal York Hotel is still a major feature of the cityscape. and for those who aren't as familiar with the intricacies of the Toronto skyline I'll put it in laymen's terms, the skyline of 1980 is not obscured by horrendous over-development and atrocious postmodern style residential high rises!

Toronto of 2010 is home to "Condo Canyon" a labyrinthine web of obscenity that obscures the "old, quintessential" Toronto skyline with a seemingly impenetrable fortress of concrete and plate glass, of sleek housing for the upper social orders (Donald Trumps wet dream, Karl Marx's worst nightmare). one can argue this represents not only the dearth of culture but the depravity of Capitalism as a whole, but that's a another can of philosophical worms to be opened at a later time. Toronto is a city in which development supersedes population growth, which means that many of the Condos in the Canyon are not filled to capacity, to the point that developers resort to advertising new condos such as "the mercer" or "the ocean view" (which coincidentally views a lake)on CP24. It makes me wonder, is Toronto's bourgeoisie really this ubiquitous or is this some kind of sick joke?

This is a textbook example of postmodern urbanism. And I'm sure it has Jane Jacobs rolling in her grave. what is postmodern urbanism? well, Condo Canyon is postmodern urbanism, haphazard development based on the whims/at the behest of the wealthy with no regards to functionality and/or community. Contrast this to Modernism, which brought us the marvels of the 1964 New York worlds fair and progressive innovations such as the ridiculously efficient Montreal Metro system (which still runs its original trains of 1966 vintage) and the failures of slum clearance via bulldozer, residential tower blocks and high rise public housing. In other words Modernism was urbanism for all, whereas postmodernism is urbanism for the elite.

Toronto has successfully become a postmodern city. A city that destroys historic buildings to erect condos. David Miller should be very proud of himself indeed. and Torontonians wonder why the rest of Canada hates their city.....