Editorial: Adam Vaughan goes ape for Frankentowers

Reverence for architect seemingly trumps the utter change that would devastate the Entertainment District

By Frank Touby –

Hi-rise dystopia envisioned in the novel A Clockwork Orange was symbolized by these towers used in the filming

The understatement of the year just ended comes from the lips of Ward 20 Coun. Adam Vaughan who says that among developers, “there is an appetite for 90-storey buildings.” Of course!

There is an appetite among developers for 120-storey buildings awash in 1-bedroom units to sell as entire floors to foreign investors trying to get their money safely into Canada and rented out to all comers. Duh?

(Does A Clockwork Orange ring a bell?)

Glowing with reverence for the “renowned architect” Frank Gehry who bedazzled and mystified all in designing the strange, stilted Art Gallery of Ontario building, Vaughan seems ready to hand over one of our city’s most revered historic districts to David Mirvish’s financial endgame.

Bringing thousands of new residents to the Entertainment District on King Street West where there are no schools, barely any parks, grocery stores or other needed amenities is just another octave in the handover of Downtown to moneyed interests. Among other atrocities, it would demolish two theatre venues and wipe out the famous independent-restaurant strip on the south of King west of John St.

Like so much of Downtown, it would become a residential mishmash of underserviced renters in a franchise-hell that looks like almost any airport in the world.

At the round-table Vaughan conducted with a disenfranchised city planning staff, some discretely grumbling, most of the participants didn’t live in the area. That’s natural because it’s the >Entertainment District. They were there that night representing both city residents and city visitors because they care a lot about what could happen to King Street West. They like it for what it is.

And that’s how it should remain…how it must remain, if Downtown is to retain any of wonderful features that make it different from a shopping mall in Etobicoke or some airport.Otherwise, welcome to Beirut Airport for a Tim’s and a Big Mac. You could be anywhere.