Toronto Star

There has been much talk in recent months of Toronto's strategies for a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Not yet part of the discussion, however, is the opportunity inherent in Toronto's extensive stock of hundreds of bulky concrete residential "slab" (i.e. big) highrise apartment houses. Spread evenly throughout the region from Sherbourne St. to Don Mills, Bathurst St. and Steeles Ave. to Bramalea is an enormous stock of large high-rise apartment buildings, providing housing for hundreds of thousands. Typically viewed as "mistakes" from the 1960s and '70s, and largely excluded from urban debates, they may in fact represent one of our greatest opportunities for creating a sustainable region.