Dear Toronto

Toronto, you are one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, proudly referred to as ?Canadian Mosaic.? However, despite all the optimism, you have also become one of the least affordable cities in the world, with 1 in 7 residents struggling for housing. You have divided yourself into downtown, midtown, uptown, and the periphery, based on wealth, social class, and ethnicity. Your housing market is overly exploited, and now we all know that neo-liberal market economy will only continue to maintain a society that marginalizes the weak and the poor.

?Middle Ground?

?The street is a room of agreement.? ? Louis Kahn
There is a land, a ground, that can be saved from the disease of the real estate speculation: your streets, the lands which, owned and managed by the government, belong to everyone. For you, Toronto, Yonge Street is such an example. Once regarded as the longest street in the world, its straight line is the ?spine? of the city, where finance, culture, entertainment, public transit, development, and opportunity are concentrated. Reclaiming Yonge Street signifies ? and catalyzes ? reclaiming the city back to all its citizens. It allows the government to break through the loop of the marketplace and to participate more proactively in taking care of its people.
Yonge City

My proposal for you is to build over Yonge Street a long, midrise (~6-story) mega space-frame, whose upper half (3-story) is to be occupied by commercial and residential...