Toronto Star

It's one thing to hope, quite another to expect. For years — make that decades — Torontonians have been hoping for action on the waterfront, but few really expected anything to happen. That's all changed, and finally the revitalization of the city's long-neglected docklands is about to begin. Detailed plans have been drawn up and a Waterfront Design Review Panel has been appointed. The members were announced last week and they are top-notch. Now's the time to start thinking about expectations. Panel chair Bruce Kuwabara, one of Toronto's most respected architects, has already made it clear he's looking for future development to be the best it can be. Indeed, the very fact that the panel was set up in the first place is a sure sign that it won't be business as usual on the waterfront. Given this city's lamentable history with development, this is terribly important. If what takes place is a continuation of what has gone before, we can write off the waterfront now and save our energy for better things.