Quick history lesson for Steveve...
Between the late 50's and early 70's thousands of buildings in the core were demolished to make surface parking lots... I know, I know Steveve this sounds counter-productive but if you know what was going on at the time... to the people of that era, it made sense.
In North America in the 1950's the automobile was beginning to rule the world. People were no longer trapped to live in inner city housing. Finally working couples could own a home of their own. Previously home owning was for the rich and anyone else rented either a row house or apartment.
Now they were free to own their own home, but they had to purchase farther away and so "The suburbs" were invented. Huge housing developments with detached homes and two car driveways, Strip malls and elementary schools etc... However, they all still worked downtown. [The "Corporate Drives" with head offices located in the 905 was still a few years away (1970's - 1980's)].) and they had to get downtown somehow... (The Yonge Subway system was not ready until 1954 and the Bloor line not until 1966)... So they drove their cars. All these cars needed somewhere to park and entrepreneurs soon realized running a parking lot was a lucrative business. So, hundreds of Victorian, Edwardian and even Georgian (Both Georges V ands VI) were demolished to park all these cars.
Owning and operating a surface parking lot was way more profitable than trying to maintain an aging building. So we lost a lot of old buildings. Some lots have been vacant for going on 40 years because of the suburban boom and the car.
