Show Me the Moneyy!

If you dare to drive through the streets of downtown Toronto, nearly every intersection, every corner will embrace you with heavy duty construction. And not just any construction, the images on the sidewalk billboards will tell you that they are building the highest condo in the history of downtown. So much so, that they did not even leave a church parking lot which will soon ruin the convenience of many Sunday visitors, and also a bit of greenery. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Queens Park has been sold for a billion dollar project to build the biggest brightest condos ever! Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of condos. I have lived in them for three years straight now and I think they are convenient, well maintained (though very over priced). But just like smoking becomes an addiction, so does living in downtown, and then you just can’t leave and are willing to pay the price for it. My concern is that Toronto already has crammed streets, crazy cab drivers, no parking spaces and no greenery. What is least needed is amplification of this tragedy by building more condominiums, so that if you ever try to look up and breath a gush of fresh air, all you get is pollution to kill you and wind tunnels that would blow an underweight person away.
These days due to lack of space buildings have either a small, or no drive way. People actually block traffic to go into their garage which sometimes opens on the main road! In some buildings, in order to leave, regardless of an emergency, a death, a deadline you have to take a right, rome around three blocks and find your way back to wherever you wanted to go. So the price you pay for already living in an overpriced building is that you cannot take a “left” when you get out or pay a fine. It helps traffic yes, it wastes your gas yes. But hey your building has a gym you don’t need membership for so yayi!
Some of these buildings are hilarious. My agent showed me an apartment recently where the building was under construction but people were already living in it. There was no concierge, or security. In fact the security desk hadn’t been made, but a clear white paint outlined where they would sit. Without exaggeration, I entered the apartment and to my right was a wall, and to my left was the kitchen. A further walk ahead to my right was the living room and to my left was the master bedroom. Between the door and the living room there is literally a walk way I couldn’t stretch open my hands in. What upset me the most was that the kitchen, which is the most frequently, visited area in the house (after the toilet) was shoved in a corner like they forgot to make it till the very end. This is just a glimpse of how small the apartments are being built currently. Their design is a square box which apparently they needed “foreign architects” for.
Regardless of my criticism, these condominiums are being bought. But mostly by foreign investors, or immigrants who escaped with their load of gold while their country was on the brink of collapse. But for those of you who worked hard and bought yourself an apartment downtown good for you, but there aren’t many of your kind. To want luxury is one thing, to afford it is another, and to provide it at the cost of traffic, pollution, and greenery is simply unfair. Save that money if you can, buy a house far away, where you can shop at a huge Loblaw’s, or Price Chopper with your kid in the shopping cart, and where you can have a barbeque in your backyard and mingle with your neighbour. And where your kid walks through safe streets, and has a childhood and your dog lives like a pet animal rather than quadruped, hairy roommate who needs to be walked every two hours.