Toronto Star

What can be said of a city that fears growing up? In Toronto's case, mere mention of the word highrise is enough to turn grown men and women into frightened children. Anywhere, they say, but please, not in my neighbourhood. Not where it might block the view from my kitchen window, or cast a shadow on my backyard. Yet despite Toronto's fear of heights, the city keeps reaching higher and higher. And strangely, even though residents scream whenever a tall building is proposed, once they're up, they're filled to capacity. City bureaucrats and politicians have been singularly inept at quelling these fears, so perhaps it wasn't surprising that several hundred local planners, architects and development industry types showed up at a one-day conference last week devoted to tall buildings.