Many people just don't have the basic financial sense here, always arguing for maintaining some two or three story buildings in Toronto's best locations. Downtown prime locations, especially within 5 minutes walk to subway stations, should be predominantly highrise, for the sheer fact that it provides both density and convenience.
These people should ask themselves, if you own a land like this, do you just want a three story old house selling men's clothes while the land of the same size just across the street is making 100 times of the revenue? Is it about money? Yes. of course it is about money. People don't care as long as it is not their own money, and just keep talking things like "why not keep it so that we can still have this cute little house on the city's most important intersection?" I mean, have they ever gone inside that store at all? I highly doubt that.
Besides, doesn't Toronto have like thousands of two/three story buildings practically everywhere, both in and outside downtown? If a city is not allowed to grow vertically, then it either stops growing or grows horizontally.
Major intersections along Yonge st will all get a lot taller, just like Bay and University, whether we like it or not. One can't honestly expect all subways nodes on Yonge are occupied by 10 meters houses, no matter how charming they are or how much history they have. That's how a city gets denser. Stop lingering on the comfy small town-like Toronto, it is gone.
However, I don't like the idea of another condo. Why not a 70 story office tower with 6 stories of retail space on the bottom? I am surprised that Toronto doesn't have a lot of large retail/office tower combo. It is very popular elsewhere. So far only Eaton Centre is like that as far as I know. I don't mean a few starbucks/pizzaria, or what is underground, but something big. Aura will likely be another one I guess.
The complete separation of the "financial district" and the shopping and entertainment district is stupid. All districts should be mixed use, that's how a city becomes vibrant. Try to go to the financial district on a Saturday morning, it is like a ghost town. Only cars pass by.
many of these buildings will not be able to withstand another 20-30 years of abuse and neglect....either the municipal government sets up a program fund to help the landlords with fixing and updating these so called historical structures, or the developers will move in like hawks and offer the property owners wads of cash for these deteriorating properties that they dont really have much interest in.