Toronto Star

Trouble is, everybody wants their slice of the dream; the upscale house, the luxury car. And everything's getting bigger. Apparently hybrids were a blip. SUVs are once again selling in high gear and personal trucks are Detroit's new glamour rides. Size is everything. The "middle class" homes rising by the thousands in Toronto's burgeoning suburbs are big, too, even by Forest Hill standards. They boast cathedral ceilings, cavernous kitchens, hardwood floors throughout, and often sport massive winding staircases that lead to half a dozen bedrooms, (most with en suite bathrooms) – and all at half the price of a comparable space downtown. They're not much to look at architecturally speaking, but they are selling like hotcakes. Downtown may be downsizing into condos, but 905 is super-sizing into Dallas style manors. And more and more families are moving there. On a grey, overcast afternoon a few weeks ago I drove up Bathurst Street to Aurora and was amazed at how, in little over a year, the suburban frontier of "monster" homes has been pushed right to the brink of the Oak Ridges moraine. I saw angular, particleboard silhouettes on distant hills that once sported thick woodlots, I saw armies of earthmovers and row after row of empty homes sprouting out of the contoured mud. There were no stores, no schools, no malls, no theatres, no restaurants, just mile after dreary mile of new homes. And I can think of nothing that can stop this advance.