Mid-size condos

A mixed use mid-size condo in China

Toronto's planners believe that high-rise condos should be built in centres that are serviced by subway and streetcar lines and that mid-size condos, consisting of three to eleven floors of residential units built on top of ground-floor retail shops, should line the major streets that are serviced by bus and LRT routes.

The goal is to build density and to win the War on the Car. If people can live above the place where they work, shop in the stores that line their street and have an efficient public transit system running outside their front door, then they will not need—or want—a car for their daily transportation needs.

Less cars means more riders for public transit and a healthier environment.

Municipal planners want to create masses of urban villages within the city so that people do not have to travel far from home to tend to all their daily wants and needs. People will ride to work on their bicycle, take a bus or ride an LRT. Then, on the way home, they will stop at the local hairstylist, pick up fresh fruit from the grocer and a loaf of fresh bread from the neighbourhood bakery.

Sounds like what people who live in Bloor West, Ossington, Avenue Road and in the older neighbourhoods enjoy now.

This is an attempt to re-invent the good old days with higher densities.

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