[geoff's two cents]

My primary concern is that having new construction along these lines will reinforce Main St. as the quasi-freeway thoroughfare it currently is, instead of planning new construction around what most sane people agree will be an eventual lane reduction and transition to two-way traffic.

At the very least, I hope council has the common sense to wait until the B-line LRT route is nailed down before giving it the go-ahead. Should the line end up on Main, construction like this would be a real waste of prime spinoff potential. For goodness sake, isn't there an LRT stop planned for Queen?

As for looking better than the plaza across the street, I agree, but with the caveat that this is new construction the neighbourhood would be stuck with for the next 50 years, whereas the plaza could obviously be redeveloped in the event that Main is converted to two-way and/or LRT.