Toronto Star

Who wouldn't love to live on Charles St. between Bay St. and Queen's Park? Located on the north edge of the University of Toronto's downtown campus, one block south of Bloor St., it's in the heart of the city. At the same time, it's ever so slightly removed from the core, more institutional than commercial, retail or even residential, though that's starting to change. Needless to say, these changes come at a heavy cost, perhaps too heavy. There's a row of 19th-century houses on the north side of Charles just west of St. Thomas St. that will soon be torn down to make way for yet another condominium tower, to be called the St. Thomas. Given the outcry unleashed by the recent burning of a row of buildings on Queen St. W., you'd think that there'd be hell to pay for the deliberate destruction of five houses, all of them beautiful redbrick structures, for something as ordinary, as predictable, even mundane, as another condo. Besides, there are already condo towers to the north and east. Some are good, some bad, but all tall.