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Originally Posted by someone123
Funny.. I was in Toronto recently remarking that it's such a quaint building now, but was a big deal back then. There was a debate about whether or not there would be large-scale highrise construction in the future or the 70's office towers would be the pinnacle. We didn't get bigger and bigger office towers but the condo boom happened.
There was also a sense around the 90's and 2000's from a lot of people that the shift toward the suburbs was permanent. But it turns out that was wrong and I'm not sure it has as much appeal for younger generations. The suburbs are also rough on seniors who lose their ability to drive; the seniors these days are the post-WW2 baby boom generation who associated freedom with vehicle ownership.
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Affordability died in Toronto. That's the change. The golden age of the suburban employment growth may be over but, most of what got built in the 1990s and early 2000s has become permanent. There's not a significant reversal or death. There's balance now and indistinguishable development. Proof that building higher and denser is capped at producing better urbanity. That cap being unfortunately higher in Ontario (Canada) with things like transit being tied to return on investment than improving quality of life.
Seniors go where their communities get built and where they get built is a corporate maximizing value decision. The pull of universities on younger people housing can't be dismissed whether it's downtown Toronto with UofT, Toronto Metropolitan University, etc. or York with North York Centre and now Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.